‘Without a parka, I'll look like an idiot': Oasis fans' fashion at the reunion tour

The Guardian

7 days ago

In the weeks leading up to their first gig for 16 years, Oasis have been busy when it comes to merch. They opened pop-up shops and announced collabs with Levi's, Adidas and Next. The results are plain to see on the streets of Cardiff the afternoon before the long-awaited gig. If they say you are never more than six feet away from a rat in a city, here you are never more than six inches away from that famous Oasis Helvetica Black Oblique logo.
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It's on bucket hats, football shirts, tracksuit tops, T-shirts and, every so often, someone's face. The fanbase goes across generations and demographics. There are those who were there the first time, and teenagers who grew up on their music. Some have travelled for miles – from Italy, Spain, Portugal and the US. If the crowd is largely white, there's a contingent of fans from east Asia.
Put together, the hordes marauding on the streets of Cardiff before the 74,500-capacity sell-out gig at the Principality stadium are united by their love for the five Mancunians who will take to the stage. As one fan described, it's like going to a football match where everyone supports the same team.
Diversity in the fanbase reveals itself in different ways through what they wear. There are the merch fans, who have bought T-shirts on the day. That's true of Ash Park, Marcus Long and the fortuitously named Joe Gallagher, three friends who have long talked about a potential Oasis reunion.
From left: Ash Parker, Marcus Long and Joe Gallagher in their brand new T-shirts
Gallagher – who paid £600 for his ticket – says he won't wear the T-shirt beyond the gig but he'll frame it instead. 'It's historic,' he says. Long, meanwhile, is contemplating a tattoo – 'it would probably be something like that,' he says, pointing to the logo with the date of the gig on his T-shirt. Helen Durbin, who is wearing a matching T-shirt to her friend Nicky Thomas, says it will likely have the same fate as a lot of music merch – something to wear to bed.
From left: Helen Durbin, Paul Durbin and Nicky Thomas
Helen's husband Paul, meanwhile, is in a different design, with the Gallagher brothers looking moody on the front. 'I prefer this one,' referring to the logo'd one his wife has. '[But] I thought it would be a little bit too sweet [to match].'
Oasis's own look – or that of the Gallaghers, anyway – has remained set for decades. Part football terrace classics, part Mod, part 90s, its simplicity – and roots in familiar tropes of British menswear – is why it's so influential. It has familiar components that are easy to put together: parkas, shirts, anoraks, Adidas track tops, baggy jeans, football shirts and – of course – the bucket hat.
There's a sector of the fanbase that endeavours to bring something of the Gallagher look into their own. 'Cool' is a word mentioned a lot, along with – to quote the band – 'biblical,' as Ricardo Riquier puts it. With his mop of hair and parka from Liam Gallagher's fashion label Pretty Green, Riquier, who travelled from Lisbon, says his style was formed in the 90s.
Ricardo Riquier from Portugual
'I never had another hairstyle since I was 15,' he laughs. 'I'll die with this hair.' The parka was a non-negotiable. 'I didn't know how hot or how cold it was going to be, but I'm like 'I'm taking my parka, otherwise I'll look like an idiot.''
Chris Taylor has travelled from Falkirk. He also loves a parka – he says it is 'the best way to cut about'.
Chris Taylor from Scotland
Today, he signals his long-term fandom with a 'Who the fuck is Liam Gallagher?' T-shirt, from a solo tour around 14 years ago. 'It's vintage, and I keep it in my collector's box,' he says. Taylor appreciates the Gallagher style for its 'arrogance. They do it and others follow.' They certainly do.
Sergio Cid and Jairo Velas have travelled from Madrid, and wear the outfits of those who have followed a band for decades – Cid's first gig was Oasis in 1997, when he was 12. He wears a vintage Manchester City shirt similar to one the Gallaghers were photographed wearing in 1994, a bucket hat and – crucially – a denim jacket fastened with a single button at the neck, as worn by Liam for the Familiar to Millions gig in 2000.
Sergio Cid, left, and Jairo Velas
'He knows more than me about the details,' says Velas (Cid speaks little English). 'That's why we are really disappointed about the hair. Liam has a shaved head. We're like 'No, you need to bring 2002 back.''
Ethan Besant is also keen on the classic style – he's showing that through an outfit which is dominated by Pretty Green, from the logoed polo shirt to the green parka and the badges on the bucket hat. What does he like about Liam's style? 'He's just cool, isn't he?' he says. Besant appreciates the fact that what the singer wears has not differed hugely for years. 'It's all pretty consistent,' he says. 'I guess when you find your style, you stick to it.'
Ethan Besant
With the Oasis tour one of the events of the summer, their look is something of a fashion moment too – TikTok is full of videos of users showcasing their outfits. Sportswear retailer JD says searches for 'oasis fashion' were up 913% in June, while Depop says searches for bucket hats are up 61% since last year and – perhaps improbably in a heatwave – searches for parkas are up 1,850%. This take on Oasis style is very much present in Cardiff too – on those who take their style as a jump-off point to make their own look.
Tamara Sims bought her denim jacket on Vinted for £20 – with copies of 90s Oasis patches covering it. 'You say what patches you want and they make it for you,' she says. Did Sims want a 'look' to come to the concert? 'I wanted a bit of Adidas,' she says, pointing to her socks, 'and I just bought my bucket hat now.' Jae In Yoo, who has travelled from South Korea, wears her zip-up merch track jacket oversized – 'I like it big' – with a long gingham skirt. She'll add a bucket hat when she goes into the gig.
Tamara Sims; and Jae In Yoo
Julia Bussi, seen in the main image, has travelled from Italy with three friends. She cut her tour T-shirt into a crop top ('I prefer,' she says) while her friend Eduardo Pane finishes his look with sunglasses that are 'part Matrix, part young Liam'.
Lucy Barnett and Ellie Thomas both wear T-shirts from Next, tied at the waist, with lace bubble skirts. 'We wanted it to be feminine but comfy at the same time,' says Barnett. Are Oasis cashing in with all these collabs? '100%,' she says.
Lucy Barnett, left, and Ellie Thomas
Football shirts – whether real ones, mostly Man City or Oasis merch styled to look like football shirts – are everywhere. Which makes sense: the fact that the football shirt is now an established part of young people's wardrobe is the ripple effect of Oasis style. An image of the brothers in striped Man City shirts in 1994 is familiar to anyone who looks at Britpop style accounts on Instagram. The connection has even gone full circle – as well as the football shirt in the Adidas collaboration, Man City's fourth kit for 24/25 was designed with Noel Gallagher.
Those wearing them today appreciate the connection between football and music. Brandon Woodman and Jamie Winter have travelled from Edinburgh – with Woodman wearing the busy Scotland away kit from the 1990 World Cup, and Winter in the 90s Man City shirt. 'We like the way they bring football into a rock'n'roll setting,' says Winter.
Brandon Woodman, left, with Jamie White; and Jennie Connely
Or sometimes it's just a look. Jennie Connely wears a football-like shirt, with Supersonic written across it in Oasis's font, from Mama Established, a brand that makes unofficial merch for everyone from Sam Fender to Pedro Pascal. Although she supports Middlesbrough, she 'wouldn't dare' wear a Boro shirt today. 'I wanted to feel comfortable, but I wanted to feel part of this. It's 16 years in the making, but it feels like it's brand new,' she says.
Kent Garrison, who travelled from Dallas, committed to a look – he wore that Man City fourth kit complete with the socks. 'I came with a plan to wear the full kit,' he says. 'I was a little nervous, but I said, 'You know what? This once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm going to support.''
Kent Garrison from Dallas, Texas
Although Garrison is not totally familiar with the Premier League, he appreciates that the Gallaghers were City fans even when the team were finishing close to the relegation places. 'They're not bandwagoners,' he said. 'They've been Man City since the beginning.'
If Garrison and Connely remember the first time – Connelly has seen the band five times – there are plenty of fans that don't. This sector of the crowd, in their teens and early 20s, are perhaps the most creative with the Oasis look. Jeongsee Park and Seohyeon Shin have mixed it with Y3K style – Shin wears reflective contact lenses – and Park's prized piece is a genuine 1994 City shirt ('Very expensive,' she winces) which she wears with an oversized track top from the latest merch.
Seohyeon Shin, left, and Jeongsee Park
The friends say it's only young women who like Oasis in South Korea – they are surprised by how many older people are in Cardiff. Shin is influenced by Liam's all-white outfit from Knebworth in 1997. 'I thought he was an angel,' she says.
Iwan Strong; Charlie Jenkins; and Taylerann Gilder
Iwan Strong, 18, also loves all things 90s – he's inspired by bands but also his dad 'in old-fashioned Adidas'. He plays in a band and says he would dress like 'a mixture of Oasis and Manic Street Preachers' when he plays a gig. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Jenkins, with a blond crop and bright blue braces, likes the Gallaghers' look as 'football hooliganism, masculine, real life. It's loud.'
Taylerann Gilder, 19, wins for her look: an oversized shell suit jacket top bought on Vinted, 90s-style skate jeans and an XXXL Liam T-shirt customised to fit by her mum, with bows along the sides. 'I like to rearrange my clothes – I cut a lot of my T-shirts, cropped and stuff like that,' she says. If she has learned about Oasis and their style from her parents, Gilder says the next generation aren't far behind. 'My nephew, he's seven, he walks around with the sunglasses, the Adidas tracksuits. We all call him little Liam Gallagher.'