Costumes

Because of the fact that our video is of the ska genre (particularly two-tone), we have inevitably decided to aim to follow the genre conventions by dressing our actors in costume that is typical of the two-tone and ska punk genre, based upon other texts such as This is England, and similar artists such as Madness. The aim was to create the image of a genuine two-tone ska band and ska fans.

Two-tone costume

For our actor Jack, we have taken the approach of a two-tone ska fan, and dressed him in very much literal two-tone black and white. The classic black suit with white shirt was a very prominent style worn by adamant ska fans, and is very iconographic of the genre. He is also wearing glasses that can be likened to the likes of Suggs fromMadness (although, admittedly less aviator styled!). The classic ska trilby also featuresprominentlyin our video as it too is very iconic of the genre, and is backed up by the fact it is worn by artists of the two-tone ska genre such as members of The Specials. In terms of footwear we opted for a smarter feel which fits into the category of two-tone ska, and for Jack we avoided the military boot look used by other actors that crosses into the sub genre of ska-punk...

Ska-punk costume

Also featured in The Specials’ video performance for their song ‘Too much too young’ are braces that are very prominent within the genre, which is why we unanimously decided to include them in our costume (worn by myself!). An intertextual reference that can be drawn upon from our video with reference to the braces is Shaun Meadows’ This is England where the main character Shaun is wearing them throughout the film. He also wears Dr Martens boots, which are big military style boots, which we also included in our video worn by two of our actors.

We focused very largely on the costume used in both the film This is England and TV series This is England ’86 as we felt them to both be great examples of the particular style of clothing worn by typical ska fans and potential band members. A combination of Dr Martens boots, Fred Perry shirts, jackets and braces helped us to create the ska image we were aiming for. Despite establishing the fact that our band and song are more predominantly of the two-tone ska genre, we felt that using costume from ska-punk/skinhead influences would also be beneficial to the general appearance of acting band members and overall video itself.