The ‘hooligan model’ makeovers

A pint of Stella and a Stone Island jacket might conjure images of a cap-wearing football fan asking a rival if he ‘wants some’.

A young man puffing out his chest, sporting a Stone Island jacket, wearing a Burberry cap and clutching a can of Stella or a bottle of Buckfast (depending on which side of the border you sit) have become synonymous with ‘the football hooligan starter pack’.

Those brands in question likely never set out intending to be so universally tied with this subsection of British society.

Now, they are going further and actively trying to rid themselves of associations with antisocial behaviour by promoting new strategies – to varying degrees of success.

From A-list celebrities to high society at exclusive functions and luxury cocktails, here is how brands are distancing themselves from the lads and hooligans.

Adored by stars like rapper Dave and the Gallagher brothers, Stone Island has become synonymous with football terrace culture and every weekend thousands of teenage boys can be seen emulating Danny Dyer in ‘getting the badge in’.

However, it’s also loved by Sir Keir Starmer, with the Labour leader and rabid Arsenal fan often seen sporting a £150 polo shirt from the brand.

And despite its somewhat tacky overexposure, garments with the signature compass crest continue to fetch a high price in shops and online.

But it could soon be adorning the chests of the well-heeled socialites due to an exciting collaboration with Cassius Taylor – the son of Lady Helen Taylor who was a paid ambassador and muse to Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

The young designer, 27, told the Mail that he had been hired by the label for a ‘rebrand’ adding that he had given ‘their team input on the UK music scene.’

Founded in Ravarino in 1982, Stone Island developed a cult-like following among British football supporters who spotted its clothes on rival fans when their teams were playing against Italian teams.

It’s thought the UK’s obsession with the brand stems from Euro 1992 in Sweden.

Its associations with hooliganism were further cemented on the big screen when its outfits were worn by characters in violent films such as Green Street and The Football Factory.

More recently, it’s become fashionable among American rappers including Jay-Z and Drake after the brand embarked on a 2014 collaboration with notorious label Supreme.

Elsewhere in fashion, the name Burberry may now bring to mind images of expensive coats – boasting recent brand ambassadors including Emma Watson and Cara Delevingne. Two decades ago, however, it was a very different story.

Back in 2002, the design had been dubbed ‘chav check’ after it was embraced by far from A-list stars like actress Danniella Westbrook who famously wore it head-to-toe on an outing with her Burberry-clad daughter, complete with a checked pushchair.

But in 2018, it was the print of choice for street style stars and fashion editors and underwent a resurgence.

Angela Ahrendts, the former chief executive, has been praised for the turn-around and during her time at Burberry, the company value rose from £2 billion to more than £7 billion.

It’s now seen as a traditional, classy British brand worn by those who favour luxury.

Buckfast is another well-recognised British brand looking to give itself something of a makeover.

Overturned tables and bar stools hurtling through pub windows earned it the nicknames ‘Wreck the Hoose Juice’, ‘Commotion Lotion’ and more bluntly ‘What the hell are you looking at?’

Some upstanding members of society claim the 15 per cent fortified wine is a scourge in Glasgow but the monks who brew it in England believe there is a new calling for it.

Based in Devon, the Benedictine monks are now seeing their product advertised as a dinner party option to wash down canapes in an effort to clean up its image.

The Buckfast Royale, the Buckfast Bramble and a simple mix with lemonade are among the cocktails bosses say can be produced using the notorious wine. 

Singer Lewis Capaldi is among the fans of classic Buckfast, with the Glasgow-born star pictured clutching a bottle as he went on stage to accept the ‘Best Song’ award at the Brits. 

Many Scottish fans were also seen enjoying a swig as they descended on Germany for their short-lived Euro 2024 campaign last month. 

Monks have been brewing Buckfast since 1897 and sell roughly six million bottles a year.

Originally the drink was sold for medicinal purposes as a general fixer-upper under the slogan ‘Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood’.

In the 1930s the monks were struggling to obtain a licence under new laws brought in after the First World War.

According to the drink’s website, a travelling wine merchant visited the monks in their abbey and learnt they were selling their final bottles.

Another drink associated with antisocial behaviour in years gone by is Stella Artois – to the extent it even earned the nickname ‘wife beater’ such was its association with domestic abuse.

Stella was initially marketed as a premium, ever-so-stylish French lager – even if it was actually Belgian – aimed at the upmarket drinker.

It soon became widely available in supermarkets and off licences and began to attract the sort of customer who was good for sales but certainly didn’t fit the profile for a high quality product.

The lager was even singled out by a judge in a Brighton court, who linked it with binge-drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence when sentencing a man who had attacked his ex-girlfriend’s partner after downing Stella Artois. 

Sales inevitably began to plummet and it urgently needed a change – so created a range of beers under the softer umbrella Artois brand.

Its new advertising campaign strove to position it as part of the ‘Famille Artois’ – a family of three beers sold alongside each other under the Artois umbrella. 

The drink is now branded as a premium lager in pubs and is often served in a distinctive, luxurious chalice rather than a standard pint glass.

Stella’s unfortunate association with violence also goes hand in hand in the eyes of some with the white vest.

Once also nicknamed the ‘wife beater’, it last year underwent a social media rebrand, as Gen-Z TikTok users instead started calling it the ‘wife pleaser’. 

It followed the item having a resurgence in male fashion that year, with a growing number of fashion videos appearing on TikTok teaching men how to style up the garment. 

But a debate sparked in the New York Times in 2018 by Moises Velasquez-Manoff in argued it was high time the nickname was retired.

He argued that, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, there was something uncomfortable about continuing to use the phrase ‘wife beater’ to describe the shirt.

The origin of the nickname for the white vest is unclear, although many believe it can be traced back to the character of Stanley in Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire.

The character, who wears the white vest, is a violent man who hits his wife Stella and rape his sister-in-law.

Velasquez-Manoff argued in his piece that we don’t term our pants ‘child molesters’, and in fact don’t have such aggressive names for any other items of clothing in our wardrobes, so he couldn’t understand why ‘wife beater’ had stuck.

He further argued that using a nickname rooted in violence to describe the garment could perpetuate stereotypes that working-class men are more likely to commit violence.