Hackney fashion: a rude re-awakening

Rude: a message to you. Photograph: Hill and Aubrey

This spring, London College of Fashion (LCF) students are revealing their reworking of the rude boy suit for the 21st century. The foundation degree in tailoring course, run from LCF’s Mare Street site, invited the students to research the sartorial, racial and cultural statements of Jamaican fashion.

On 16 March, the students presented their designs to bespoke tailors Charlie Allen and Adam Shener of Adam of London, and Steve Salter, author of the Style Salvage blog. The triumvirate of fashion experts sat on the judging panel at the salon show, which featured a live set by Jerry Dammers, founder of The Specials.

The project was undertaken in partnership with the University of Westminster, the Creative Caribbean Network and event curators Union Black.

Union Black, collaborating with the London College of Fashion on this project, was founded by Tony Charalambous and Jacqueline Springer and specialises in the exploration of black music’s relationship with fashion and culture. Springer remarked that although the periods are distinct, there are parallels between post-war Britain and today. “At times of financial disillusionment and decay,’ she said, “making sure that you don’t look poor is a badge of honour”.

To mark the celebrations for Jamaica 2012, the 50th anniversary of  the country’s independence, the course tasked the students investigating the social and political history connected with the original incarnation of the rude boy suit. The students looked at how ska, rocksteady and reggae influenced the way young men and women throughout the UK dressed, socialised and related to authority.

“Clothes tell you a lot about a person, not just their individuality but their conformity”, Springer said. “Everything you wear says something about you. If you say: ‘I don’t really care about fashion’, that nonchalance is in itself a message.”

In the past, the rude boy subculture expressed a strong message through  its style and dress, drawing attention to status at a time of social and financial inequality, both here and in Jamaica. For ten weeks, the tailoring students immersed themselves in the sound and look the rude boys embraced, and paraded through their uniform of sharp suits, thin ties and hats in the shebeens and house parties.

Springer was pleased by the level of participation in this project, its legitimacy enhanced perhaps by the rude boy suit’s history of reinvention. “Fred Perry and Doc Martin anglicised the rude boy look”, she said, “there are always adaptations”.

Springer points to US singer and songwriter Janelle Monaé as a contemporary, androgynous role model who has re-imagined the rude boy suit. With current embodiments of the style to study and a recent economic recession to endure, Springer said the project was timely. “People like the escapism of glamour to juxtapose periods of financial decay.”

For more information on the Foundation Degree in Tailoring go to the London College of Fashion.