Dress

The skinhead style is smart, clean and tough. It is precise uniform 
   which proclaims identity. As early as 1964 one could recognize mods - who 
   resembled skinheads in that they had short, cropped hair, wore Ben Sherman 
   shirts and Levis. These styles can be seen in the pictures of mod rallies 
   at seaside towns. The mods eventually split into two distinct groups. 
   One group, the art college or trendy mods, developed a style of dress that
   became increasingly resplendent, while the other group, the hard mods, 
   or the gang mods, developed into the skinheads. The mods' fanatical eye 
   for detail became an important element in the skinhead style. 
   The young people who developed this style rejected the finery and the
   slightly effeminate characteristics of the art college mods and the 
   hippies for clothes that were more related to their working class 
   background. They needed clothes that would not get torn in a fight, 
   which would stay pressed and neat and which would identify them in crowd. 
   Donkey jackets, army greens, tough working jeans, industrial boots and 
   braces fitted his need. Steel toecapped boots, highly polished, became 
   a badge of identity and useful weapon until they were banned at football
   matches.
   The third source of the skinhead style was the hip young West Indians
   of the inner city areas, such as Lambeth or Brixton. The whites and the
   blacks mixed freely at dance halls and clubs, both indulging a common 
   love of dancing and music. The black youths were known as Rude Boys or 
   Rudies. They could be seen hanging around streets corners in Brixton, 
   dressed in their long black coats, later to become the crombies of the 
   skinheads, with short trousers revealing white soaks and flat, black 
   shoes. They viewed the world through dark wrap-around shades beneath 
   pork-pie hats or stingy brims. Their cool disdainful attitude to 
   strangers and their style and exuberance in the dance hall made them 
   respected and admired by their white contemporaries.
   Although the typical picture of the skinhead is boots and braces, 
   the style changed in the evening when the skinhead went to dance halls 
   and clubs. Skinhead suits were much like those worn by the mods. 
   Whereas daytime clothes were loose and hard wearing, clothes worn in the
   evening were well tailored and expensive. Suits by Dormeuil, a petrol 
   blue and red two-tone suit, or a fine mohair suit were clothes which 
   every skinhead would aspire to, but which few owned. The aim was to out 
   flash everyone at the dance hall and ties and tiepins set off the 
   expensive suits. Silk handkerchiefs secured with studs were worn in the 
   breast pockets of suits and crombies.
   The skinhead style spread through the football clubs, the dance halls 
   and the dance circuits. It was well established before the media got 
   hold of it. The supporters of London clubs such as Tottenham, West Ham 
   and Chelsea, included many skinheads and these soon made their 
   appearance known to rival supporters. This new style had electric effect
   on football matches. Ian Walker recalls seeing 4000 skinheads at a 
   football match in 1968. "They all wore bleached Levis, Dr Martens, a 
   short scarf tied cravat style, cropped hair. They looked like an army and, 
   after the game, went into action like one."
   To provide a more detailed description of skinhead style and to 
   record the changes over the years, such as the bowler hat, the 
   suede-head and the smooth.