Suedeheads – The Smarter Cousin of the Skinhead

If the skinhead was the rough, cropped, boots-and-braces end of the late-1960s British youth scene, the suedehead was the same kid a couple of years later, having grown his hair out a little and spent his wages on a sharper wardrobe. Suedehead is not a separate subculture so much as a phase the skinhead scene moved through around 1970 to 1972, but it had a distinct enough look and attitude to earn its own name.

Where the name comes from

The name is the giveaway. A skinhead crop was short to shaved. A suedehead let it grow out just enough that, run a hand over it, it felt like suede. That small change signalled a bigger one: less about looking hard, more about looking expensive.

The look

The suedehead dressed up where the skinhead dressed for a fight. Out went the heavy boots much of the time; in came brogues, loafers, and smart shoes. The Crombie overcoat became a signature, often with a silk handkerchief in the breast pocket. Tonic and mohair suits, Ben Sherman and Brutus button-downs, and a rolled umbrella, sometimes with a sharpened tip, completed the picture.

A lot of the items in our skinhead fashion guide marked as suedehead favourites, the blazers, the Crombie, the brogues, the umbrella, belong to exactly this moment. The two scenes shared a wardrobe; the suedehead simply leaned on its dressier half.

Music and attitude

Musically the suedehead stayed close to the skinhead roots: ska, rocksteady, reggae, and the early Trojan Records sound. The shift was social. As the original skinheads aged out of their teens, the suedehead style let them keep one foot in the scene while looking the part for work, the pub, and the football terraces.

By 1972 or so the look had blurred into wider High Street fashion, which is what tends to happen to any sharp working-class style once the shops catch on. The suedehead did not so much die as get absorbed.

Suedehead today

The name resurfaces whenever the traditional skinhead revival picks up, because the suedehead represents the most polished version of the original aesthetic. If you like the skinhead look but want the smart end of it, the suedehead is the reference point. Start with the fashion guide for the specific garments.