Cass Pennant has lived a few lives. Once a notorious figure on the football terraces as part of West Ham’s Inter-City Firm, he went on to become a bestselling author, filmmaker and the subject of his own biopic. Now he’s turned his attention to another lifelong obsession: clothes.
Founded in 2020 with Hamburg-based designer Jens Wagner, Old School FC draws on the football casual culture Pennant experienced first-hand – a world where what you wore on the terraces could matter almost as much as what happened on the pitch.
The label mixes that heritage with contemporary menswear, spanning T-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and outerwear, while the Cass Pennant Collection leans further into his East London and West Ham roots.
Next comes womenswear. On 24 September, Old School FC will unveil its first dedicated women’s collection at the This Is Icon event during London Fashion Week.
We caught up with Pennant to talk terraces, trainers, and dressing like a boss…
Florian Hoffman
Square Mile: Football casual culture had an enormous influence on British menswear. Did you realise at the time that what you were wearing would become so culturally significant?
Cass Pennant: Whenever an undocumented British subculture emerges from the street, the unrecorded beginnings are always of debate and counter-debate, which gathers more interest as time goes on and moves subject matter into social history. In my case, the legacy was first the books, then movies.
At the time it didn’t start with the high-street giants telling the lads what to wear. Instead, it was we who set the trends on the football terraces during the 1970s and 1980s – and the high-street stores caught up in a time when football and fashion mattered more than corporate hospitality and sanitised stadia.
SM: Back then, how important was having the right label – and which brands carried the most kudos?
CP: The beginning of the modern-day football casual was not just about the brand but also how you wore it. You can be wearing all the right brands and still look scruffy. The style was brands like Adidas, Lois, Fila, Sergio Tacchini and Lacoste – they dominated the scene in those early years.
Finding their way onto the terraces in the mid-1980s, which varied from crew to crew, Stone Island and CP jackets were essential, before the likes of Armani, Burberry and Aquascutum, which were also quite popular around this time.
Footwear was taking off too with the Adidas Samba, Trimm Trab, Stan Smiths, Forest Hills and Diadora Borg Elites.
SM: What’s the one item of clothing from your terrace days you wish you’d kept?
CP: Sports shops all over Europe were paid visits and Head bags were filled up and sold on, so when an unusual pair of torpedo-shaped Ellesse all-white soft leather trainers with the trademark half-tennis-ball logo at the back of the heel, size 13, which meant no takers down the pub, so the boys came and knocked on my door with them.
I’ve made films, both written and published books on the casuals culture – and never ever seen another pair like them or ever found out the model name of them. To this day, in the world of ‘Where did you get your trainers from?’, these were the best-fitting and softest leather I ever wore, as well as the most asked-about trainers I ever wore at the time too.
SM: How would you describe your personal style today – and how different is it from the way you dressed on the terraces?
CP: The influence of the casual phenomenon never leaves, though I can recall a similar influence of a strong preference for clothing that’s well-made, something ageless about it, like a Fred Perry polo shirt which we then moved on to a Lacoste one.
Brands like 80s Casual Classics that really understand the casual phenomenon have influenced all my fav brands to retain retro pieces nowadays. or they will bring out a mark II version of a classic. My go-to brands worn today are still Lacoste, Henri-Lloyd and Belstaff. The latter was a brand none of us wore back in the day; I think it was more about bikers’ leathers back then.
SM: You used to have a clothing stall outside Upton Park. Can you tell us about those days?
CP: Couple of things I do remember were the club shop wanting the stall removed the moment they knew of it. Then, when my film ‘CASS’ was released, I had queues that included former players and club staff blocking the road and the old bill moving the queue to the side of the road.
Someone gave me a cutting from the Express newspaper saying, ‘Did the Match of the Day reporter not realise who they were interviewing from the initials ICF on the front of his hat?’ The ICF stood for Inter-City Firm, West Ham’s notorious hooligan following of the 1980s.
SM: Old School FC has been decades in the making in some respects. Why did 2020 finally feel like the right moment to create your own label?
CP: OLD SCHOOL FC as a trademark and business began when we were coming out of that Covid-19 period of 2020 as I had a collaboration between England’s Cass Pennant and the Hawkins & Joseph German designer Jens Wagner along with Casual Couture MD Mirko Beyer. It dated back a few years to 2016, when a clothing shop based in Hamburg originally called Hawkins & Joseph (named after a play on book character skinhead Joe Hawkins) contacted me to create a Cass Pennant collection for them.
I’d long discovered I was internationally known with the football fan community because of my association and links to West Ham. But I was concerned my name could equally work against me if you’re not a West Ham fan so I came up with a second collection and named it Old School Football Clothing, because I felt we all become old school today and adding FC, that can mean Football Clothing, Football Casual, Football Club.
The timing was simply when pre-Covid I was seriously intent on making a career as a film producer, having achieved some success in that field, my first production ‘Casuals: the story of the legendary terrace fashion’ was a Netflix UK release, today it can be found on Amazon Prime.
Then post-Covid, I found the indie film business had come to a standstill, with no word when things would pick up – just like everything else at that time. But what was an online sideline for me – knocking out T-shirts – had gained traction during that dark period and became an online business overnight. So I thought, ‘Why not go for it and see how far I can take it?’
Florian Hoffman
SM: East London and West Ham are obviously central to your story. How do they influence the clothes themselves?
CP: Cass Pennant Collection is the second range within Old School FC, focusing on more claret-theme products that reflect their statement. They aim to create more conversation about the label, meaning you stand out from the crowd.
Themes like Against Modern Football can become an art culture with fans, adding my name on the label tags giving a little more authentication. Tees, sweats and hoodies such as A Way of Life and Cockney Boys or Keep the Faith resonate because it’s clothing for the fans by a fan.
SM: You’ve written books, had your life turned into a film, and now have your own clothing label. What’s been the most rewarding?
CP: All three because I tried for 23 years to get my book even published, then eight years later, my book became a movie. This cemented the fact I am very much a reformed character today. But ever since I had a stall outside West Ham United’s Upton Park ground, I’ve always wanted to create my own clothing range. Old School FC represents that dream – a collection built around identity, individuality and the culture that shaped me.
Florian Hoffman
SM: And the most challenging?
CP: I’ve gained experience in a range of different creative industries, from book writing to the independent publishing industry. And I’ve also worked on a wide variety of British feature films over the years as I want to be known for work behind the camera, I want to crack the film world. For a while, I’ve been working on a big headlining story of the 1970s, then last year I signed a financing deal, cracked open the champagne, then within 24 hours I was spending the next six weeks to get out of the deal. (C’mon Cass, how many times have you punched above your weight?)
But there are only so many times you can dust yourself down and go again. I say this to myself while continuing to build film industry relationships to bring projects that combine emotionally grounded storytelling with commercially accessible worlds and characters.
SM: Your first dedicated womenswear collection is launching during London Fashion Week. Was that something you always intended Old School FC to become?
CP: This Is Icon Creative CIC helps fund opportunities for emerging designers and music artists who may not otherwise have access to a London Fashion Week platform. So when I got a surprise invite this year from CEO Helen Welsh to present the brand in a special runway segment unlike anything they have featured before, I said, ‘Right, Old School FC will unveil its highly anticipated first-ever Ladies Collection using a team of celebs and influencers, marking an exciting new chapter for the brand.’
Suit once for going to court; fave jacket always for going footie
SM: What’s your biggest style crime – either past or present?
CP: Damn question this, because my mates still dine off this one today. So right, it was the late 1970s, and lads were into wearing grey Farah trousers. Those that bit older went for the looser-fit Wexmann strides.
Mine were a black-and-white dogtooth check pattern. I was on the Tube on the way to a gig, we emerged on a crowded platform in a hurry so in my clumsy attempt to catch up I bumped side-on to what I assumed were two gay guys from the way they cut me down with their voice tones using words my pals ahead heard clearly.
The one I bumped says in quite an exclaimed high voice, “Oooh, muscles!” The other chimed in with Ant & Dec timing, “And look at you in your nice chefs’ trousers.”
I didn’t know where to put my face and swiftly caught up with my mates who were now all splitting their sides like a Cadbury’s Smash advert. FFS, chef trousers.
SM: Finally, what do you put on when you really want to look the business?
CP: That boss feeling stems back, I guess, to when you always had a favourite jacket you wanted to wear for going football. Suit once for going to court; fave jacket always for going footie.
Today that look comes from either my dark charcoal Belstaff Milford Peacoat or, my latest pride and joy, this electric blue Boneville Signalman B400 three-quarter-length wool jacket.
You know it’s a smart piece when whenever getting out my Caesium blue pearl Jaguar I-PACE, I’m never quite sure what folk are staring at: the car or my coat. Both have that wow factor.
See more at oldschoolfc.co.uk
