The Press on "Hoodies"

India Knight: Let them wear hoodies
Sunday Times 15th May 2005-05-14

Richard Garside, director of the Crime and Society Foundation, said the prime minister’s comments were “more in keeping with an episode of What Not To Wear, rather than a Downing Street press conference . . . I look forward to hearing of the appointment of Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine as special advisers on crime and fashion”.

Amanda Allard, of the children’s charity NCH, said: “People wear hooded tops to be cool, not to be intimidating. If you demonise hooded tops then you feed on people’s fears about young people.”

The Children’s Society said it was important “not to confuse fashion with behaviour”, Children's Society policy director Kathy Evans said: "The Children's Society urges children and young people to use their yearly spending power of £70 million to reverse the ban on so called yob clothing at Bluewater Shopping Centre. "This ban is a case of blatant discrimination based on stereotypes and prejudices that only fuels fear.

"The irony is that the ban is focused on a group who spend most of their money on food, drink, clothes and going out - main revenue sources for shopping centre outlets."


Everybody is scared of hoodies (says India) : other teenagers, men, women — and dogs probably. That’s why hoodies sell. No teenager is so well adjusted that he can’t do with a bit of anti-social backup from his clothing. Banning hoodies, sadly, will only reinforce the idea that they are shorthand for a particular kind of hard, urban cool. It might make wandering around Bluewater more agreeable but it will make hoodies more desirable than ever.

Hoodies ban rejected - Manchester Evening News

David Ottewell MEN reporter
SOME of Greater Manchester's biggest shopping centres will not be banning hooded tops and caps despite a growing crackdown backed by the prime minister.

The Manchester Evening News revealed yesterday that the Trafford Centre had been quietly operating a similar ban since it opened 7 years ago. Director of operations Gordon McKinnon said: "Many people feel intimidated by large groups of people hanging around, especially if they are wearing hoods, so we banned hoods, caps worn low, balaclavas and crash helmets.

Manchester Arndale and Spindles shopping centre in Oldham will not be joining the crusade against "hoodies". An Arndale spokeswoman said: "Our security staff will approach and talk to those acting anti-socially. We like to deal with these things on a personal level, to talk rather than to eject."

Mike Flanagan, centre manager at Spindles shopping centre, said: "I think a blanket ban is too heavy handed. That's why each case is treated on its own merits. (who mentioned blankets ?)

"Some people might just walk around wearing a `hoody' because that's the fashion."

Rob Dyson, manager at Bolton's town centre management company, said: "We are aware of this campaign and while we would have no hesitation in banning hats and hoodies, we do not have a significant problem with guys in hoods at the moment."

Greater Manchester Police said that from May 2004 to May 2005, only 1.2 per cent of robberies involved someone wearing a hooded top.

That is in stark contrast to comments made a year ago by the force's Insp Terry Compton, who claimed that more than half of robberies in south Manchester were carried out by people covering their faces with hoods.

"It's an intimidating look," he said at the time.