‘For me, Suedehead is perhaps the perfect look of all time’ – Broadcaster, Robert Elms

Now if you think of the fantastic, varied and enduring youth cults that the UK has thrown up over the last 60 years that can be considered to be a big shout by Mr. Elms.

The first thing to ask is, what exactly is a Suedehead? Funnily enough, it is a question I have been wrestling with for a while recently as I continue to research a forthcoming book on the subject.

For a kick off, there is even some dispute on whether or not the name was in use back in the very late 60s, early 70s when they started to appear on the streets, or, if it was only used later, created by the media to pigeonhole a section of youth who once again they didn’t fully understand.

One thing is for certain, and that is ‘they’ appeared directly after the all-encompassing cult of the original skinheads of 1969.

The chronology is all-important here. 1968/1969 was the heyday of the skinhead look that was suddenly all over the place.

I grew up on an estate in Peckham, South East London and burnt into my memory is the sight of three skinheads walking though our usually heavily territorial patch of land and no one bothering them.

They looked tough, but most of all they looked amazing. Clean. Hard and very, very sharp. I can’t lie and give you a blow-by-blow appraisal of what they were wearing, mainly because I was only 7 or 8 at the time, but I distinctly remember the clothes were perfectly pressed and very colourful.

Thinking back now with hindsight (wonderful thing that it is) I’m thinking that perhaps they were suedeheads? I have a vague memory of a furled up umbrella being thrust out, as they strutted – no other word for it – through with us gaping at them. I’m thinking a brolly was probably more at home among suede than the earlier skinhead look.

So, so far this is what I have learned? Speaking to people now in their early 60s, I’m hearing this was a toned down look from the more aggressive, jeans hoisted up on skinny braces and exposed big boots look of a maybe a year earlier.

In some it was a reaction from parents, school or work. But some were getting major agro on the streets dressed as skinheads and wanted a break from that. Simply growing your hair, but still wearing the majority of the look, changed perceptions.

Hair was not so severely short. It was a fuzzy haired ‘Action Man’ length. So still short, very precise and neat.

The clothes gradually became more Wall Street banker than East End football terrace. A crisp button down ‘Career Club’ shirt with longish collar perhaps, featured a perfectly knotted striped college tie under a blue blazer.

Highly creased Sta Prest or similar trousers were below and then a ‘Royal’ brogue or ‘Squire’ loafer sat upon your feet. If a topcoat were needed, it would have come from the House of Crombie.

The main emporium(s) of choice from which to buy these fine garms would include The Ivy Shop in Richmond and The Squire Shop in Brewer Street, Soho.

For those of a female persuasion, it would be a ‘grown out’ Julie Driscoll haircut, with a Fair Isle tank top over a plain button down shirt. Colourful corduroy trousers with a contrasting colour sock slipping into a pair of buckled loafers.

The soundtrack to all this is really interesting. It certainly went more soulful as an alternative to the Ska/Blue Beat sound of skinhead.

Among the tunes that have been mentioned to me so far, include any of the classic early singles by the group The Chairman of the Board  -‘You’ve Got Me Dangling on a String’ ‘Everything is Tuesday’ and ‘Pay the Piper’ along with ‘Band of Gold’ by Freda Payne.

All of those tunes I fondly recall hearing at family house parties when I was 10 or 11. Again, a massive memory jog.

Let me confess now, I’m finding the whole world of the ‘suede’ to be one of pure fascination, and the harder I try and pin it down finally, the further away and more niche it becomes. Just as I like it…

Without a doubt, there is more to discover and learn.

A book on skinheads and suedeheads as yet untitled by Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson and Mark Baxter will be published by Omnibus sometime in 2019.

The Mumper of SE5