I stand corrected.

Shame it couldn`t get out.

 

Do you realise the devastating effects the Chav has to a well established brand such as Burberry?

Burberry - been devalued beyond belief by Chav culture. A lot of Chavs do wear real Burb but as we know a load more is fake. Either way this has a negative effect on the brand and the target market move on to find something undiscovered by the mass public. This is just one example, I have more..

Lacoste fell to the same fate back in the late 80's after a ton of fakes (plus Le Shark/Le Cockend etc) were made and the label became attractive to early Chav man. More recently Stone Island has been ruined as a label - during the 90's this label was desirable and hard to find plus when you did it would cost you a lot to wear, then the soccer hooligan got into it and ruined the brand forever. Stone Island were known for the patch on the left arm, it stood out from the rest and signalled to everyone that this was a quality garment, now it just stands for hooligan and marks you as part of their pack. Stone Island hardly use the arm patch anymore as they try to distance themselves from the yob culture, I don't think they succeed.

Then we have sneakers - Reebok used to be an expensive and desirable brand making some classic sneakers during the last few decades. Reebok Pumps and Torsion were awesome as were the various original colour ways of the Reebok Classic. All black, all white or even white with grey were the originals and they still look good but unfortunately the chav got hold of these too. You can tell a Chav wearing these as the trainers will be falling apart, an absolute disgrace that exposes you a no money pauper with holes in your sneaks! Chav! I'd still like to be able to wear these but when I look at them now I see the rest of the Chav uniform, nasty tracky tucked into the socks, random T-shirt and a cheap as chips gold chain over the top, finished off with a dirty tilted cap and a pair of ruined and abused Reebok Classics. This brand was also ruined by nasty retro editions being released by Reebok, making them with Jelly soles and in nasty colours ensured they sold well for a limited period, just to the wrong crowd. This equates to increased sales for a time but then ultimately kills the brand.

One brand to make a success of the mass market is Calvin Klein. At one point they were seen as an a desirable aftershave/perfume company, then they expanded into clothing before becoming cheaper to appeal to the mass market. No longer as prestigious but still selling well and respected by both ends of the market. Armani have also done well by marketing a whole range of their clothes towards the youth, they still have the high fashion Collections and Giorgio Armani range but they now also market Armani Jeans and Exchange as new lines which helps to keep their main brand image strong.

Evisu is also worth a mention at this point - I got my first pair in 98 and they were super rare, I got them in Japan and loved them to bits. They were dark blue raw denim with hand painted green Evisu E's on the pockets. Now this brand is fully Chav to the core. They went overboard and became far from exclusive and again this lead to damaging them in a big way. Now anyone I see wearing Evisu sticks out as a Chav.

Its the problem with modern culture, as soon as anything becomes popular it will be deemed Chav and the trend setters will have to move on whilst the Chavs spend another couple of years wearing/doing what the 'elite' did before them. An elite person or trend setter will make a move and do something different, a good example would be the Shoreditch elite wearing the hoxton fin in the late 90's early 00's. They decided to grow a semi mullet and sometimes even highlight their hair to make this nasty 'do' stand out even more. When this all started they would be laughed at by most of the masses, then slowly the penny drops and more people adopt the style around London, this eventually spreads to the suburbs and onto the mass market. This style is now ancient to the originators whilst the rest of the Chav public are still wearing the style which is literally years out of date!

The subject of the Chav is vast and ever changing so you'd really need to study the situation in far greater depth before being able to determine who is or isn't a Chav.

 

i think one of the critical points of this post is that chavness is particularly defined by labels and being ostentatious. any brand that sells on its label will become chav. burbery suffered because it started selling osentatious products such as a whole garments made of its trademark check. the stone island label again is an example of this. Having Hackett emblazoned across your chest is chavness. Evisu again is a case in point. Personally, i think armani is borderline and wouldn't buy it myself.

What chavs want is to look like they have money. chavness is the white version of bling. subtlety is the opposite of chavness

 

Agreed - Armani can be considered borderline. A city trader in a well cut Armani suit whispers 'money' and 'style' whilst a scummy chav in the pub with a green Armani Polo from Dubai screams 'I NEED MONEY' and 'I WANT STYLE!'

My personal style is - spend a lot of money to look like scum I wear a lot of expensive brands but to be honest I look like your average street urchin which is how I like it, its ironic. I'll be wearing a pair of Nike Air Max 180's from Japan, pair of Fake London jeans and a Recon/Subware T-shirt from New York plus a CP hoody. To the untrained eye I look like I'm wearing

 

I'm a little upset at seeing all the Maharishi copies around at the moment, can spot them a mile off, though fortunately it only seems to be womens shops that are ripping them off.

At least Prada have remained intact.

 

I only wear one brand whilst out fishing.... my Kookai panties....

I love a nice tight G.

 

i know that i'll never be accused of being a chav whilst wearing marks and spencer's finest.