If you had any lingering doubt that 1990s street culture was back, the rise of skatewear into mainstream fashion should put the matter to rest. Because suddenly it’s everywhere. The skateboarders who most fashion editors would have once shooed away from the steps of the Palais de Tokyo have been invited inside to model what hangs in their own wardrobes, albeit reimagined at 10 times the price.

Skate has always had a hard-bitten aesthetic, equal parts protective and anti-authoritarian. Thick twill trousers are robust enough to prevent concrete shredding too much skin, while a hoodie shields the face from cameras when skating where you shouldn’t. And though practicality remains a long way down most designers’ lists of concerns, it is as obsessed with the underground as ever.

What it means for the everyday guy is that some of the most comfortable and hard-wearing threads you can buy also happen to be the most fashionable. What it doesn’t mean is that Tony Hawk is the new Don Draper. You can mix and match key elements of skatewear into smart-casual looks and off-duty uniforms, borrowing stylishly from the trend without jumping around like you’re in the background of a Sum 41 video.

The Rise Of Skatewear

It’s worth stating that while brands have adopted skatewear in part as a way to lend bank balance-draining clothes some much-needed authenticity, the look’s surge is not entirely cynical. In the late 1980s, the boom in VCRs turned a niche sport into a global movement, as kids were suddenly able to share tapes of their favourite skaters.

Those kids have long since hung up their decks. But they are now at the age when increased spending power and nostalgia meet. They work in places where a suit seems out of place, and they want clothes that are stylish but comfortable. They want trousers with a little more room, shirts with a softer handle, even if they’re being tested in a co-working space rather than on a flat bank.