Film Noir Buff Style Forum / Your number one style influence -- the Verve

Decline & Fall · 2009-02-25 08:08:29

Of course I jest. I've been digging through the archives for some interesting old articles and found one from those heady, heady days of late-Brit-Pop (please feel free to correct me on my time-lines. Are we talking post-Brit-Pop? later-second-wave Brit-Pop? Pre-Travis? Oh how the mind reels. Anyway onto the article (executive summary: Clarks made stodgy shoes; young upstarts started wearing them; Clarks smelled the green stuff; reissued the great shoes for which we love them).

Younger image puts Clarks back in the black.

By Nigel Cope.
250 words
9 April 1998
The Independent - London
26
English
(c) 1998 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited . All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
distributed or exploited in any way.

C&J CLARK, the family-owned shoe retailer and manufacturer, has reported a return to profit after a year
boosted by new ranges, heavy advertising and publicity coups such as rock bands like Oasis and The Verve
choosing to wear Clarks' desert boots.

However, Roger Pedder, Clarks' chairman, said it was premature to be talking again about a stock market
flotation. "We've had a good year but we'd like another one before we say to the shareholders, `look, if you
want to float it, you can'."

Clarks reported a #35m profit for the year to January compared with a #400,000 loss after exceptional costs
in 1996/7. Like-for-like sales grew by 9.2 per cent in the Clarks and K Retail chains, well ahead of the
industry average.

Mr Pedder said Clarks had benefited from the dismantling of Sears' British Shoe Corporation. Clarks has
increased its market share in men's shoes and marginally in children's shoes while it has maintained its
position in ladies' footwear.

The "Act your shoe size not your age" advertising campaign has helped re-position the company's image in
a younger market, Mr Pedder said.

Operating profits on continuing operations rose 25 per cent to #37.8m on sales 3 per cent up to #743m.

Profits have increased due to the lower cost base in manufacturing and sourcing following a restructuring by
the company in 1996.

Decline & Fall · 2009-02-25 08:09:34

More of the same...

I'M ONLY A PUNTER BUT..

By Edited by MAIRI CLARK.
274 words
10 July 1998
Campaign
56
English
(c) 1998 Haymarket Business Publications Limited . No part of this data may be reproduced without prior
written permission of the owner.

So God has spoken. According to i-D magazine, trainers are officially uncool. 'Work' boots are set to
become the normal fashion for 15 year old kids and Clarks will regain its crown as cobblers to the Queen.

Well that's exactly what it is. Cobblers. When trainers become uncool, Emma Noble will stop turning up to
the opening of a crisp packet.

Scurrilous rumours about the demise of trainers have been circulating for the past couple of years. But one
thing doesn't change. Every couple of months, a Sunday broadsheet gets a super-trendy, on-retainer,
fashion stylist supremo to churn out 1,000 words on which celebrities wear Clarks, which wear Wallabies
and which steadfastly refuse to give up their Incontinence pants old-school trainers.

Consequently, you end up with an article proclaiming Oasis's Liam Gallagher and the Verve's Richard
Ashcroft as the new arbiters of taste when it comes to footwear.

The reason Gallagher and his cronies wear Clarks desert boots has nothing to do with their amazing
grasp on fashion trends of our time but more to do with history. When Oasis and the Verve formed in 1990,
the scene was 'Madchester' - with baggy-trousered, floppy haired, Kangol-capped bands such as the Stone
Roses, the Charlatans, James and the Happy Mondays.

It was the pop pages of the NME that inspired Ashcroft and Gallagher, not Italian Vogue. So the next time
someone suggests that combat trousers will replace flares because All Saints are wearing them, take a look
at the club fashion of five years ago.

Decline & Fall · 2009-02-25 08:10:51

This must have been a real page-filler back in the late '90s. I suspect that Clarks must have put out a press-release that everyone just ran with. Anyway, even more. Enjoy.

Trainers get boot

Paul Crosbie, Consumer Correspondent
262 words
3 July 1998
The Sun
27
English
(c) 1998 News Group Newspapers. All rights reserved

Sensible Clarks shoes oust Nikes for trendy teenagers.

TRENDY teenagers are dumping overpriced trainers in favour of sensible boots made by traditional British
firms like Clarks.

Oasis singer Liam Gallagher started the fashion when he swapped his Reeboks for desert boots.

Fellow rockers The Verve followed by wearing Wallabees. Then American rappers Wu-Tang Clan ditched
trainers for Clarks hiking-style boots.

And top fashion magazine The Face declared: "Smart shoes are the way to walk this year."

Now trainers are being kicked to the back of the wardrobe, and kids are stepping out in chunky Cats and
Timberlands.

The change in fashion is great news for parents sick of being forced to spend up to Pounds 150 on the latest
trainers. Clarks desert boots cost just Pounds 49, and other trendy shoes like Wallabees and Cats are
around Pounds 60 a pair.

But plunging trainer sales spell disaster for sportswear firms. Surgical appliance - which makes half of all trainers sold -
has just announced a Pounds 40million loss, its first in 13 years.

Trainer sales had doubled over the previous five years.

The new trend could also hit top sports stars. Their massive advertising deals - like Brazilian striker
Ronaldo's Pounds 7million a year from Surgical appliance - are now in doubt.

Retail analysts Verdict said trainers became uncool among teenagers when older people started wearing
them.

And John Keery - spokesman for the once "boring" Clarks - said: "There is a definite move to what we callthe brown outdoor leisure style."

Decline & Fall · 2009-02-25 08:17:53

I really enjoy Keery's quote: "There is a definite move to what we call the brown outdoor leisure style." Sounds almost sinister.

Prof Kelp · 2009-02-25 12:36:18

"The change in fashion is great news for parents sick of being forced to spend up to Pounds 150 on the latest
trainers. Clarks desert boots cost just Pounds 49, and other trendy shoes like Wallabees and Cats are
around Pounds 60 a pair. "

/\ £69 nowadays, thats a £20 hike in roughly 10 years...ouch!!!!!!!!!!

Last edited by Prof Kelp (2009-02-25 12:37:41)

Horace · 2010-07-24 02:20:44

Never a huge Clarks fan. Don't know about the quality, but I went to the store in Dooblin a while back. Nice gear.

But I like a few of the colors in Our Kid Gallagher's new line up. While you cats chase the Ivy OG, I'll go for the reinterpretation myself.

Beatnik's ghost · 2010-07-24 11:58:16

Verve - The jazz label surely?

Rip Rig & Panic · 2010-07-24 12:00:53

One fears not, actually.

#1 2009-02-25 08:08:29

Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#2 2009-02-25 08:09:34

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#3 2009-02-25 08:10:51

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#4 2009-02-25 08:17:53

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#5 2009-02-25 12:36:18

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#6 2010-07-24 02:20:44

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#7 2010-07-24 11:58:16

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

#8 2010-07-24 12:00:53

Re: Your number one style influence -- the Verve

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