Emulating Bowie: Football, Fashion and ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’

Fashion has long been a key element of football culture. The terraces have always provided a promenade upon which the British working-class male could exhibit his sartorial - as well as sporting - allegiances, be it Teddy Boy, Mod or Skinhead. However, the late 1970s saw the evolution of a fashion that football could claim entirely as its own: the Casual. Befitting for a fashion tied to the strongly partisan game of football, regional and team-based characteristics were apparent. This paper will examine the evolution of the style adopted by what were arguably the very first Casuals, those of Liverpool FC, in the period from 1976-1979, and the role that fandom and emulation played in its construction. As with all Casuals, their look was hybrid and took inspiration from a heterogeneous range of sources; soul boys, punk, European sports casual labels and pop culture. However, as this paper will argue, the most enduring influence upon their style in this period was that of David Bowie and an outfit that he wore in the 1976 Nicolas Roeg film "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and again upon the cover of his 1977 album, “Low”. This outfit will be used as a site for consideration of fandom, emulation and authenticity in popular music, demonstrating and interrogating the narrative flow between music and fashion as well as the transference and creation of cultures. Via representations of this outfit in the work of author Kevin Sampson - an ‘active participant’ in the creation of these new cultures - and a methodological framework that draws upon existing theories of production, consumption and fandom, an analysis of the role that clothing and emulation play in the relationship between a performer and their audience will be developed, advancing the theory that “the biggest and most influential stars are precisely the ones who design their own fans.” (Frith and Horne 1987: 20