Blazer and chinos, or hoodie and shell suit?

I feel sorry for 21st century teenagers.

Obviously not the violent, predatory scumbag type, like Adam Swellings, from Crewe, who kicked to death father of three Garry Newlove, with a gang of his mates.

But the average teenager gets a pretty rough ride. The vast majority would be appalled that someone like Swellings could kick a man to death and wouldn’t dream of similar violence. Yet to an extent, they are all tarred with the same brush.

You could take a group of the nicest teenagers in the world, drop them in a high street to spend their time picking up litter and planting daisies and they’d still be intimidating to pensioners and other middle aged passers by.

There is nothing to do and nowhere to go for todays teenagers. You can’t play football in the street because of all the cars. Go to a park and police will probably slap a dispersal order on you once the neighbours start moaning. Wander the streets and the adults will soon feel threatened. Hang out around a shop and you’ll be deafened by the high pitched alarms, specifically designed to irritate children and youths – adults can’t hear the noise.

It’s no wonder hooded tops are so fashionable. Who wants to be seen when the liklihood is that Mavis from up the road will be straight on the phone to your parents to grass you up for daring to wander the streets in an aimless fashion.

Individuality seems to have left youth culture to a large extent. When I was growing up in the 1980s, there were many subcultures to choose from. For a while I sported a denim jacket with patches on the back declaring alegience to a variety of heavy metal bands; then I turned trendy with a full-on Rick Astley-style blazer, chinos and moccasins. Other mates were goths. Earlier in the decade there were New Romantics. Okay, so the fashions were terrible – as bad as the music - but at least there was a bit of variety.  The 90s were better with decent music and I found a more comfortable identity as an indie kid.

Maybe I’m missing something, but walk around Stoke-on-Trent in the 21st century and every single teenager you see will be wearing a shell suit. Maybe coupled with a baseball cap and a hoodie. Its amazing there are not more fires from all the synthetic material rubbing together. Certainly the sound of all that rustling can be heard above the traffic for miles around.

But with everything against them, is it any wonder they all want to look anonymous? The whole ‘chav’ fashion seems designed to hide identity. Plus, knowing how hated the look is among middle-England, the look also serves as a two-fingered salute to the Daily Mail readers.

Personally, I think it is a terrible look. But then I expected to be taken seriously in a blazer and moccasins.