Scorcha! Skins, Suedes and Style from the Streets 1967-1973

Paul 'Smiler' Anderson, Mark Baxter & Suggs

Hardcover | 20.32 x 2.79 x 26.67 cm | 304 pp

Omnibus Press | 2021 | 9781785584930

Levis, Ben Sherman, Crombie. Reggae, rocksteady, soul. The look and sound of Suedeheads – instantly recognisable in the sixties and early seventies – had a long-lasting impact on British style.

Scorcha!: Skins, Suedes and Style from the Streets 1967–73 delves into the roots, rise and fall of the Suedeheads and their close companions the Skinheads. Covering topics from fashion and football to the influence of black music and culture, the book draws on first-hand accounts from the original skin-suede generation and later adopters, such as Paul Weller and Norman Jay MBE.

Featuring a foreword by Suggs and jam-packed with iconic images, this is the definitive visual history of the Suedehead way of life. 

'This brilliantly realised volume outlines the facts, fashions and foibles [of the suedehead group]. The layout of the book is superb and the time spent meticulously researching the music, media and memories of those involved superlative, as is the standard of production making this if not the Bible for the period, then at least, in deference to the scooter owners within, the Haynes manual' Shindig!

'I thought it was a great cultural movement, the music, the look, they're things that have shaped who I am...' Paul Weller

'The skin-suede era was the most rigorously smart and pedantically correct in the history of working class street style.' Robert Elms