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Netflix's gritty crime drama Top Boy has eyes glued to the screens again in 2022. Recently launching season two, the series follows the trials and tribulations of Jamie (played by Michael Ward), his crew of corner hustlers and OGs Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kano), all attempting to take control of the crime trade in London's impoverished council housing estates.
Rebooted with the Midas Touch of artist Drake, Top Boy has also been craning plenty of necks thanks to its stylistic rigour. Heralded as an archetype of the UK ‘roadman’ (street urchins known for their ‘creative’ ways of making a living), the series charts the utilitarian looks and gauzy aesthetic tones that have been adopted en masse globally in recent years, the classic tracksuits, Nike Air Max sneakers, hoodies and The North Face puffer jackets just some of the styles dominating the lens.
Join us as we unpack the king-making wardrobe of Top Boy, the best in the business.
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Top Boy: Summerhouse, Netflix, 2011
Under the Hood: The Roadman Style
Two of the central tenets of the roadman wardrobe is accessibility and affordability. Being able to easily buy your gear from local stores stocking sportswear is fundamental. Worn for equal parts flex and functionality, the humble tracksuit has lost none of its traction as a roadman staple, the more teched-out variations offering plenty of resistance for England’s famously wet weather.
Throughout creator Ronan Bennett’s Top Boy, Nike’s tech fleece gets plenty of airtime, while more upmarket brands like Emporio Armani transition from low-cost to high-end peacocking (for the crew’s upper echelon). Most often appearing in monochrome hues or militant greens, we also see characters branch out into camo fits befitting the territorial clashes seen throughout the series.
Similarly, the hoodie also offers plenty of protection, although perhaps more connected to human psychology than material properties. Described by British artist and actor Kano (who stars as the show’s Sully) as a ‘defence mechanism or chain mail’, the hoodies are most often seen in zip-up variations and fleece, a durable option for endless layering options.
These tracksuits and hoodies are often paired in the show with another linchpin of the roadman uniform: puffer vests. Dominated by the much-loved catalogues of The North Face, it’s the classic 1996 Retro Nuptse Vest that does much of the show’s heavy lifting, a timeless utilitarian piece that still carries ample street credibility today.
Originally manufactured for the mountains, the Nuptse vest and its jacket counterpart found a second home in London’s sleek, rain-soaked streets. The puffer’s loft 700-fill down, water-repellent finish and stowable hood is no doubt a sartorial hallmark of Top Boy and the UK roadmen.
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Packing Heat: Below the Ankles
The roadman sneaker game is not to be overlooked. And there’s really no other place to start than the Nike Air Max Plus – known colloquially as the TN.
A model that enjoyed a steep come-up in England during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the TN became a badge of honour for the roadmen. Functioning as a status symbol (the silhouette was one of the most expensive sneakers on the market), the AM Plus carried a belligerent aesthetic marked by vein-like TPU cages and spray paint fades along the uppers. Resembling the bombed entrails of the London underground, the Air Max Plus was the perfect choice for the roadmen. A famously brazen sneaker, the TN helped book-end the traditionally minimalist tracksuits – often in nondescript greys and blacks to avoid detection on CCTV.
While entry level prices and ease of purchasing often took precedence, with more money came more conspicuous flexing. As declared by Dushane in Top Boy: ’You had a fresh pair of Air Max Plus, you had the money.’
Still, the AM Plus was not the only Air Max the roadmen were repping. The Air Max BW (Big Window) was popularised by Dizzee Rascal’s legendary Boy in da Corner cover art, while the Air Max 90, Air Max 95 and Nike Air Force 1 were also widely adopted.
Throughout Top Boy, we also see models like the Nike Cortez – an iconic 1970s runner known for its connection to L.A. gangs – and the adidas Superstar, a sneaker with its cultural roots in 1980s US hip hop.
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