Motivated by social alienation and working-class solidarity, skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads and working-class clothing such as Dr. Martens and steel toe work boots, braces, high rise and varying length straight-leg jeans, and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain.

[2][3][4] The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a revival or second wave of the skinhead subculture, with increasing interaction between its adherents and the emerging punk movement.

[5] During the early 1980s, political affiliations grew in significance and split the subculture, demarcating the far-right and far-left strands, although many skins described themselves as apolitical.

In Great Britain, the skinhead subculture became associated in the public eye with membership of groups such as the far-right National Front and British Movement.

To this day, the skinhead subculture reflects a broad spectrum of political beliefs, even as many continue to embrace it as a largely apolitical working class movement.

When possible, these working class mods spent their money on suits and other sharp outfits to wear at dancehalls, where they enjoyed soul, ska, and rocksteady music.

[10][11][21][22] Some fashion trends returned to the mod roots, with brogues, loafers, suits, and the slacks-and-sweater look making a comeback.

[24] From 1979 onwards, punk-influenced skinheads with shorter hair, higher boots and less emphasis on traditional styles grew in numbers and grabbed media attention, mostly due to football hooliganism.

In the United States, certain segments of the hardcore punk scene embraced skinhead styles and developed their own version of the subculture.

[26] Bill Osgerby has argued that skinhead culture more broadly grows strength from specific economic circumstances.

"[28] By the 1980s street fights regularly broke out in West Germany between skinheads and members of the anti-fascist, and left wing youth movements.

German neo-nazis, led among others by Michael Kühnen, sought to expand their ranks with new young members from the burgeoning skinhead scene.

Traditional ("hard mod") skinheads sometimes wore suits, often of two-tone 'Tonik' fabric (shiny mohair-like material that changes colour in different light and angles), or in a Prince of Wales or houndstooth check pattern.

Jeans were often blue, with a parallel leg design, hemmed or with clean and thin rolled cuffs (turn-ups), and were sometimes splattered with bleach to resemble camouflage trousers (a style popular among Oi!

Traditionalist skinheads sometimes wore a silk handkerchief in the breast pocket of a Crombie-style overcoat or tonic suit jacket, in some cases fastened with an ornate stud.

Some skinheads wore button badges or sewn-on fabric patches with designs related to affiliations, interests or beliefs.

Also popular were woollen or printed rayon scarves in football club colours, worn knotted at the neck, wrist, or hanging from a belt loop at the waist.

In recent years, other brands of boots, such as Solovair, Tredair Grinders, and Gripfast have become popular among skinheads, partly because most Dr. Martens are no longer made in England.

[21] The skinhead subculture was originally associated with black music genres such as soul, ska, R&B, rocksteady, and early reggae.

[1][12] The link between skinheads and Jamaican music led to the UK popularity of groups such as Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, Laurel Aitken, Symarip and The Pioneers.

[13] In the early 1970s, some reggae songs began to feature themes of black nationalism, which many white skinheads could not relate to.

[31] Around this time, some suedeheads (an offshoot of the skinhead subculture) started listening to British glam rock bands such as Sweet, Slade and Mott the Hoople.

[21][32] The most popular music style for late-1970s skinheads was 2 Tone, a fusion of ska, rocksteady, reggae, pop and punk rock.

bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s include Angelic Upstarts, Blitz, the Business, Last Resort, The Burial, Combat 84 and the 4-Skins.

[42][43][44] American skinheads created a link between their subculture and hardcore punk music, with bands such as Warzone, Agnostic Front, and Cro-Mags.

Black metal pioneer and right-wing extremist Varg Vikernes was known to adopt a skinhead look and wear a belt with the SS insignia while serving time in prison for the arson of several stave churches and the murder of Øystein Aarseth.

[23] By the late 1970s, the mass media, and subsequently the general public, had largely come to view the skinhead subculture as one that promotes racism and neo-Nazism.

[51] The white power and neo-Nazi skinhead subculture eventually spread to North America, Europe and other areas of the world.