The Impact of the Manchester Music Scene on Youth Fashion 1986 to 1996
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Loose Fit? The Impact of the Manchester Music Scene on Youth Fashion 1986 to 1996 Susan Atkin A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art and Design Manchester Metropolitan University 2016 Abstract This thesis questions the stereotype of the loose fitting silhouette of the Mancunian music scene from 1986 to 1996, exploring the links between the city’s music scene and local youth fashion. It establishes the important contribution of fashion to culture in the music scene and the distinct local “looks” that resulted. The thesis explores the literature of subculture and identity, enriched by the concepts of bricolage and local fashion. The contributory influence of the Manchester music scene is investigated in its public and private sites of creation and consumption. Combining cultural studies, dress history and fashion theory, the research is based on oral evidence in the form of active interviews, supported by analysis of contemporary images. Interviewees were pre-identified for their role in Mancunian fashion and music. These revealed previously unidentified aspects of Mancunian dress, which inform a discussion of the nature and context of local fashion in the period. Salient findings included the eloquence with which men can talk about clothes, and the sources and methods of the quest for authenticity through “looks”. The thesis repositions subculture, in the light of the shift toward more mutable groupings, and affiliations that can change with site. These formed a multi-faceted movement that was able to embrace both mainstream culture and its subversions. The contribution to knowledge centres on: (1) the importance of authenticity in subcultural movements; (2) identification of the several looks co-existing under the banner of Madchester; (3) establishing that these looks were understood differently from inside the movement because experiences shared by participants depended on tacit understandings rather than purely visual judgements; and, (4) the concept of fashion in motion to describe the interrelationship of garment and wearer in movement and its connection with identity. This led to (5) the addition of “attitude” to Brake’s practical aspects of subcultural style. Attitude is the outward expression of the inward state produced by dress upon the body, sometimes visually sensed (as swagger on the Madchester scene) but also encompassing less tangible projections. 1 Acknowledgements My first thanks go to my supervisors, Dr Phillip Sykas and Dr Jane Webb. Both have offered time, advice and encouragement way beyond their role, which together with their individual expertise, intellectual rigour and unique approaches offered well balanced support that helped to shape and evolve this project. I’d also like to thank Dr Melanie Miller, my supervisor until May 2014 when she left the university, for the advice that encouraged my undertaking of this study at doctoral level. I would like to thank my interviewees for the generosity of their time, their recollections and reflections: Phil Saxe, Alison Knight, Ursula Darrigan, Terry Kane, Andy White, Ian Tilton, Lee Daly, Lynn Cunningham and Leo Stanley. Interviewees Bruce Atkinson, AJ Wilkinson and Andy Spinoza extended their generosity through the sharing of their personal collections of photographs and publications. Without my interviewees’ insights, this thesis would not exist in the form it does today. My friends and colleagues have offered invaluable support throughout this time. In particular Joe McCullagh, Head of the Design department at Manchester School of Art who offered both general support on the subject and financial support through the department during the past three years. I would also like to thank Dr Annie Shaw for her empathy and unique philosophical approach to life and learning and Dr Alison Slater for her invaluable proofreading of some of the chapters and sharing of her own experiences when undertaking a PhD. My gratitude goes to Janet Dexter who kindly offered her transcribing skills for one of the interviews, right at the time when I was feeling overwhelmed. Sarah Easom, Eileen Conneely and David Atkin have also offered support with conversations on and around the subject. Ben Slater has proofread transcripts and suffered my reading aloud and preoccupations. He has also offered mental and emotional respite from the demands of this study, in particular in the final months. Finally, my family: my parents, Angela and Brian Atkin have given me unconditional support throughout my education and career. I would also like to acknowledge my brothers David (mentioned above) and Gary and my late grandparents: Florence and Leonard Atkin, and Winifred and Tom Heath. As the third generation to be involved in the city’s fashion and textile industry, my family have bestowed in me a sense of pride in Manchester’s industrial and cultural heritage that has run throughout my career and led to the inception of this project. 2 Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………page 1 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….2 Contents…………………………………………………………………………………3 List of illustrations…………………………………………………………………...8 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..15 1.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...15 1.2. Aims of the Research…………………………………………………………….19 1.3. Chapter Structure…………………………………………………………………21 2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………....25 2.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...25 2.2. Oral Evidence………………………………………………………………………27 2.3. Active Interviewing……………………………………………………………..…27 2.4. Considerations when Interviewing…………………………………………….28 2.5. Interpretation of Interview Evidence…………………………………………..30 2.6. Selection of Interviewees………………………………………………………..31 2.7. The Interview Process……………………………………………………………32 2.8. The Interviewees…………………………………………………………………..33 2.9. Photographic images……………………………………………………………..35 2.10. Music ………………………………………………………………………………36 2.11. Recording and Preservation of the Evidence………………………………37 2.12. Analysis……………………………………………………………………………38 3. Literature Review and Contextual Exposition…………………..……40 3 3.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………...…40 3.2. The Changing Concept of Subcultures……………………….………………41 3.2.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………41 3.2.2. Identity Through Dress……………………………………...…………42 3.2.3. Subculture: the Traditional View and Current Debate……………47 3.2.4. Bricolage: Remixing Consumerism…………………………….……53 3.2.5. Conceptual Framework for the Research………………..…………59 3.3. Local Fashion Scenes and “Looks”……………………………..…………….61 3.3.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………...…61 3.3.2. Local Fashion.……………………………………………………..……62 3.3.3. Manchester Fashion Trends……………………………………….…65 3.3.4. B.A.F: Fashion in Motion………………………………………...……66 3.3.5. “Scallydelia”: Dress of the Working Class Madchester Male…..69 3.3.6. Brand Resistance………………………………………………………72 3.3.7. Research Questions Around Local Fashion………………………74 3.4. Manchester Music Scene 1986 – 1996…………………………………………75 3.4.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………75 3.4.2. Positive Northern Identity………………………………………….…76 3.4.3. Local Music Scenes……………………………………………………81 3.4.4. Subculture Meets Club Culture………………………………………84 3.4.5. Research Questions Around Music, Media and Fashion Interrelationships…………………………………………………….…89 4. Evidence and Findings………………………………………….…………….91 4.1. Fashion in Motion………………………………………………………………....91 4.1.1. An Overview of B.A.F……………………………………………….….91 4.1.2. T-shirts………………………………………………………………...….98 4.1.3. Womenswear…………………………………………………………...100 4.1.4. Sportswear-Inspired Dress…………………………………..………103 4.1.5. Findings………………………………………………………………....106 4 4.2. Northern Dialect………………………………………………………………….108 4.2.1. Local Dialects……………………………………………….………….108 4.2.2. Mancunian Distinctions……………………………………...……….110 4.2.3. Positive Mancunian Localism ………………………………………113 4.2.4. Findings………………………………………………………………....118 4.3. The Working Class Male……………………………………………….……….119 4.3.1. Working Class Identity………………………………………………..119 4.3.2. “Scallydelia” and “Baldricks”………………………….……………121 4.3.3. Working Class Swagger……………………………………..……….129 4.3.4. Male Predominance………………………………………..………….136 4.3.5. Findings………………………………………………………………....140 4.4. Authenticity……………………………………………………………………….142 4.4.1. Authenticity: A Northern Distinction……………………………….142 4.4.2. Referencing 1960s and Psychedelia……………………………….145 4.4.3. Americana…………………………………………………………...….160 4.4.4. Workwear…………………………………………………………….….169 4.4.5. Distinction Between Baggy and the Original Look…………..….171 4.4.6. Findings………………………………………...……………………….177 4.5. Discoursive Distance………………………………………………..………….179 4.5.1. Resistance to Discourse…………………………………….……….179 4.5.2. Resistance to the Media……………………………………………...181 4.5.3. Resistance to Branding………………………………………………184 4.5.4. Findings……………………………………………………………...….187 4.6. Shift in Attitude…………………………………………………………….…….188 4.6.1. A Shift in Attire……………………………………………..………….188 4.6.2. Amalgamations of Style…………………………………………..….196 4.6.3. Shift in Mancunian Attitude: Sub to Club Culture……………….204 4.6.4. Findings………………………………………………………………...213 5 5. Analysis……………………………………………………………………..…….215 5.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….………215 5.2. Response to Aims………………………………………………………….……215 5.3. Bricoleurian Approaches…………………………………………………….…218 5.4. Local Dialects and Attitudes…………………………………………..………221 5.5. Fashion in Motion: Tacit and Visual……………………………………….…225 5.6. The Authenticity of Loose Fit and Search for Origin……………...………229