Here you go….

 

Some people buy clothes so that they can fit in to their surroundings. Other

people do just the opposite, dressing with the intention to stand out. It’s

fair to say then, that the clothes you wear go some way to encapsulating your

outlook on society. No one ever walked out of Burro with a lime green

quilted suit looking to fit in. Which is exactly why people used to shop

there.

 

Fashion being so generic nowadays, there aren’t many labels whose names come

to define a tribe of people. But at the tail end of the 90’s, Burro was one of

the few that did. To be called a Burro Boy was an ambiguous accolade indeed;

the difficult tailoring and the unusual colours were an act of sartorial

boldness to some. Other people just thought you looked a prat. But this was

pre-Beckham metrosexuality, a time when looking normal, keeping straight,

being a geezer like Liam and Damon was the enforced norm - enforced, because a

bloke could get his head kicked in for wearing a pink T-shirt outside of

Covent Garden. How times have changed.

 

Today, men enjoy unprecedented freedom in the type of clothes that can wear.

This is the enduring legacy of labels like Burro, who pissed into the wind of

conformity when it made absolutely no financial sense to do so. Had they not,

we’d still be wearing combats today.

 

Neil Boorman is the author of Bonfire Of The Brands.