I don't think I've got the capability to construct and compose an entire "book", so it might have to be something along the lines of an amalgamation of musings or a memoir.
However I don't know if it's fitting to writing a memoir on how Scousers dress; It seems too much of a romantic term, no?
Anyway, I've not made a huge amount of progress, nor have I done a huge amount of research, just a few detailed-ish scribbles about different Scouse style tribes.
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NB.
I've not included Students, Goths and Emos in the following lists of style tribes because of the following reasons:
i - I think you can tell a none-Scouse student in Liverpool a mile off, and every other Scouse student can be put into a category.
ii - I like Goths, don't get me wrong, I've got a lot of respect for them; they take a lot of shit from people, but I don't think my brain has the strength to go digging into why male Goths grow their hair long and listen to Alice in Chains.
ii.1 Also, I think there is quite a lot documented about the New Romantic Goths from the early 1980s, which is almost a good decade before I was born, so I'm in no place to comment there.
iii I wouldn't write about Emos in the "book"
iii.1 Because you get Emos in every city and their style doesn't tend to differ according to their area code
and
iii.2 Because I haven't really got the time for them.
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I've tried to separate and divide correctly, and so far have come up with the following terms:
Boys
Scals
Old School/Classic Scouse
Indie Kids
Bold Street Heads
Old Money and
New Money
Girls
Wags
Wannabe Wags
ScalliesIndie Chicks
Old Money
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Thinking about it, writing these lists is almost like devising a hierarchy of power, because on the streets of Liverpool, in my eyes, Scals are the ones to be afraid of.
Ergo, in the boys list, they are at the top.
Ergo, in the boys list, they are at the top.
The same goes for the Girls list; Wags are the cream of the crop, and somewhere inside me, deep down, maybe even deepdeepdeep down, I'd love to have certain credentials that Wags possess.
It doesn't mean they are better than the rest, it's just how hierarchies go, innit.
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I know of a few books on Liverpool lads' fashions, mainly taking us back to the late '70s where the fellas used to bring trainees back from Germany on the snide - which in my, (and I am presuming, many other people's) opinion, is where Liverpool's fascination with footwear originally stems from, so it's not like this stuff hasn't been written about before, but I think I'm just exploring the female side of things, even though I think I find menswear a bit more stimulating than womenswear.
The thing is with writing about boys' fashion is that because I am obviously not a boy, I might not be given respect and because a lot of my male friends are proper, like, proper trainer heads, I definitely haven't got the power to write about it so I might have to list in a couple of male ghost writers, or nom-de-plumes to help me out.
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I don't know how much further to take this post.
My head is buzzing with ideas, and I'd love to write a chapter on each tribe, but I just haven't got the time at the moment, and don't know if the Blog is the right platform to put it out there on.
You know what, maybe I will try and do a chapter a week on each tribe.
Fingers crossed, nobody copies off me.
Not that I'm bigging myself up thinking that people will copy off me.
Not that I'm bigging myself up thinking that people will copy off me.
Yegetme.
If anybody has any ideas to put forward to me, hit me up at laurenjanemcbride@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you.
Have a boss weekend.
P.S It is well known that Scouse girls get a lot of bad press about their appearance, so I am going to ask that before I write that chapter, please refrain from slating them, and the rest of this post actually.
