Research: Burberry

I've started doing some research into different elements of 'chav culture' for our documentary project. The first topic I chose to research was that of Burberry, a clothing label often associated with chavs. This is what I found so far...

Burberry

Burberry was founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, a draper’s apprentice in Basingstoke. He created a durable fabric called gabardine, and opened his own store to sell his clothes.

By 1914, the Burberry raincoat was standard kit for British Army officers and the distinctive check used to line the inside of their garments was registered as trademark in 1924. In the 1960s the check became a fashion statement in its own right.

The Burberry baseball cap was launched in 1997 in a successful attempt to re-brand the company’s ageing image into something cool.

Burberry’s appeal to ‘chav’ fashion sense is a sociological example of prole drift, where an up-market product begins to be consumed en masse by a lower socio-economic group.

At the height of its popularity with the ‘chav’ market, Burberry argued that the brand’s popular association with this new audience was linked to counterfeit versions of the clothing. “It was mostly counterfeit,” said Stacey Cartwright, CEO of Burberry. “Britain accounts for less than 10% of our sales anyway.”

However, this didn’t stop venues in the UK imposing dress-code bans on anybody wearing the label as the image had become increasingly associated with antisocial behaviour.

The company has taken a number of steps to distance itself from the stereotype. In 2004, Burberry ceased production of its own branded baseball cap, and began to scale back the use of its trademarked checkered/tartan design to such an extent that it now only appears on the inner linings and other very low-key positions of their clothing.

Burberry has also taken legal action against high-profile infringements of the brand.

Sources: Wikipedia | Independent

(x-posted to jo coulson's uca blog)

Don’t Call Me Chav The Pitch

This documentary is an investigation of the rise of the CHAVS the 00’s, that is 

continuing into the 21st century. Mass hysteria due to their criminal stereotype, has lead to a form of segregation between us and them, from banning their style of clothing from large shopping centre’s to humiliating references in today’s popular culture, i.e. Vicky Pollard. The labeling of the majority of Britain’s underclass as CHAVs, has become almost a form of social racism and acceptable snobbery. I want to show how these attitudes widens the class divide, in the 21st century, and how we have allowed it, focusing on the story of PHIL COLE. He has been labeled a CHAV, from a very young age, due to the clothes he wears and the music he listens to. Shop owners, nightclub bouncers and restaurants, simply because of the way he looks, refuse him entry. I will tell the story from his point of view, looking at the friends he hangs around with, what they get up to, their style and tastes, as well as the family he was raised in and societies perception of him. I will also use a presenter to help lead the investigation. The presenter will be quirky and go on a journey of self-discovery, where his ideas will be challenged. Think Louis Theroux, meets MY BIG FAT CHAV ESTATE.

 

So we've been commissioned! This next week and a half, Jo and myself will be researching different contributors and visual sequences we could include in our documentary. The following week we will then begin to decide what we are going to use and start drafting our script! Toodle PIps for now!