PRISONPENN.COM FROM THE INSIDE OUT

By Mark E. Dixon

For decades, the criminal class has influenced the way civilians have dressed, and styled their hair. From the wise guys wearing “matador” slacks in the seventies, to the new generations, opting for the work clothes look, found in all prisons.

As a youngster in the seventies, I found it hard to ignore the fact that anytime I caught a glimpse of a wise guy type, they always had the same style pants and shoes on. It was not until I was well into my twenties, that I found out the fitted waist slacks, nicknamed “matadors,” because there were no belt loops, or any need for a belt, were more than just a collective choice of style. The “matadors” and slip on leather shoes were more like a Mafioso’s work clothes. Reason being, is that once a perpetrator was headed to the system, their shoelaces and belts were removed, to minimize the chances of them hanging themselves.

The idea amongst them was to always be prepared, just in case they got pinched. There would be no belt to turn in, or laces to remove, which allowed them to focus on their real problem, instead of the fact that their pants were falling, and their shoes flopping.

It was during these same years, that one of my neighbors, who was at least five years my senior, reappeared back in the area, with a head full of waves. Not the ones that I commonly saw older brothers wearing, which were brushed back. These waves were practically 360 degrees in their dimensions, as they wrapped around every side of his head.

Alas, now I had a perfect reason to ask my mother if I could cut up a pair of her stockings. Something I always wanted to do, since seeing so man heists on televisions, where the suspect had a pair of panty hose pulled over his face.

I found out that day, how he constantly wet, greased, and brushed his hair, with one half of a brand new scrub brush, and that he used a t-shirt for a stocking cap; something he learned how to do while serving time upstate in the Division for Youth Facilities.

By the time the eighties showed up, we were now discarding our belts and allowing our pants to sag below our waist, while the cuffs rested on a new pair of Adidas Superstars, commonly called “shell toes”, or a pair of suede Puma Clyde’s.

It was not until one of the world’s most famous rap groups “Run DMC” began donning their “shell toes” without any shoelaces, did the trend take-off. Prior to the lace-less sneakers, only the sagging pants displayed a jail look. By now, with your shoelaces back at home on your dresser, whether cognizant or not, a person had the appearance as if they were just released from the Brooklyn House of Detention.

Lace-less sneakers lasted a couple of years, before the influx of Italian designed tennis sneakers like Gucci, Niki, Fila, and Diadora worn with laces none-the-less, arrived on the urban on the urban scene to shelve the “shell toes”.

The sagging pants on the other hand, still maintain a stronghold on the fashion world to this date. The only change is that now the jeans are purchased a few sizes larger, and the use of a belt has returned in full force.

The nineties influence, actually began in the latter part of the previous decade. Being that the crack era, which began in the eighties, was sending busloads of brothers and sisters upstate, there were even more people returning to their communities sporting prison yard styles.

The Timberland boots, which picked up in the late eighties, soon became the boot of choice upstate, when the winter months came around. But, instead of just marginalizing their use to one winter season, people upstate began to wear them year round in prison.

It was these same formally incarcerated brothers, who returned to their various neighborhoods, wearing boots with a pair of shorts on, at the Labor Day Parade in Brooklyn, or up at the Harlem Week festivities. Now, it was not just the construction workers and hikers wearing boots in July, but myself and numerous others took on the trend without a thought of where it originated. Including Timberland, who later on down the line, toward the end of the decade, decided to urbanize some of their commonly worn styles. Boots that usually came in Earth tones for years were all of a sudden being issued in all sorts of colors. Hues like white, light blue, pink and bright red that were sent straight past the conservative air of the Timberland stores, and onto the urban retailers across America.

The east coast Timberland craze was not the only trend delivered from the prison yard. The west coast also had a hand in transforming the styles in America, and abroad.

The corn rolls and box braids, which they were wearing in their prisons, began showing up in movies and music videos across the country; something that inevitably was picked up here on the east coast.

What was a hairstyle that could be associated with the image of a person in jail, was now being accepted by all walks of life. From the nine-to-fivers hailing from our urban centers, to the hip hoppers over in Paris. Now, braids can be seen everywhere from the board room, to the locker rooms of the NFL, NBA, and MLB.

Along with the trends taking place atop the head, came leaving your house with a “doo rag,” designer stocking cap, or skully hat. Whether a person had a Caesar, waves or a head full of braids, everywhere you turned, a form fitting piece of material was covering someone’s head.

In prison, BVD brand nylon shirts became the perfect piece of clothing to redesign into a doo rag or stocking cap, decades before fashion houses began making stylish stocking caps attached to the bands displaying their company’s name. The nylon shirt, was cut and sewn into a form fitting cap, and then the band from a new pair of brief underwear was attached, so that it would not slip off our head. Doo rags, were easier to make out of a BVD shirt because they did not need that much sewing skills, and they did not need to be measured to a specific person’s head.

We simply cut off a thermal or sweatshirt sleeves, and made a hat out of the part that was closest to the shoulder. The excess material at the other end was then removed and a part of it was used to tie the open-end on top of the hat. This was a piece of head gear, usually worn at night over one of the aforementioned doo rags or stocking caps in the winter months to keep the head warm.

When the new millennium prevailed over all the end-of-the-world rhetoric, and the hip hop artist Shyne found his self in a highly publicized trial, another chapter in fashion commenced.

Here, a man was facing serious charges, for the loyalty he had for his boss, and the only thing positive that surfaced from the ordeal was a style of wearing a fitted baseball cap.

Everyday of Shyne’s trial, he was caught on camera with an oversized fitted baseball cap pulled down to his eyebrows to shield his face. It was as simple as that! The criminal class had once again introduced something new to the civilian class. A style of wearing your hat, eventually swept across the world, by the time it was already said and done. A trend, that if you take a look around, you will see in your shopping malls and in the pages of your favorite tabloid magazine.

It was not until the United States faced a few disasters, and half of the decade was in the past, did the plain white t-shirt take front seat to all top wear. A garment that every male and female prisoner had worn more than enough times. Even if it was a state issued undershirt, it still served the purpose as a top layer. We wear them subjectively, because we cannot have the variety of shirts, with designs on the front. Civilians on the contrary, wear them objectively in efforts to minimize their façade. Something, which the former prisoner brought back to the community, so he could blend in under the radar, while possibly still committing more criminal acts.

Being that the t-shirt proved not to be a enough, the trend setters began putting on the full attire of the oppressed.

The individual prison correctional systems have their own colors, when it comes to the attire we are issued. Here in New York, it is green, and in other states, the colors range from blue, khaki, and gray to white. The closest clothing company that produces a facsimile of the prisoner’s garb is the Dickies work clothing brand. The choice of clothing, which has now been picked up on by the fashionistas. Clothing that most formally incarcerated people find repulsive to look at, unless they are so institutionalized that they just cannot get enough of the prison life.

Dickies, being the business people they are, must have picked up on the increase in their sales and discovered that their clothes were being used in a casual sense. Just like Timberland, they began adding a medley of atypical colors for work clothes to their sections in the retail shopping centers. Choices like bright red, Kelly green, yellow, and a slew of other vivid shades for the fashion forward.

One thing is for sure, whether it was me and my head full of waves, you with a pair of boots at a summer festival, or the guy next to you with a size 7 ½ fitted baseball cap covering his eyes, we can all confess to altering our wardrobes, hair, or both at the behest of the trend setters in our urban centers.

It was just the other day, when I was asked by my younger male relative, over the phone, “Do the guys in there wear a small piece of cardboard on the back of their doo rag?” “Of course”, I told him, and explained that they have been doing that as long as I have been incarcerated. The cardboard, is used to protect the hair in the back of the head from breakage. Once the doo rag strings are knotted in the back, the piece of cardboard is placed between the knot and the doo rag.

I had to chuckle, as I decided to include his question in this article. But, for the life of me, I do not know if I agree with it, or not. When I was naïve to what I was wearing, like most people, it was acceptable. But now, there is something to be said about society who chooses to dress like they are in the middle of the Law Library, attempting to find a way out of prison. So think about it, next time you find yourself ready to piggyback on some new way of wearing your clothing. You may not be aware of it, but your choices could possibly get you wrongfully profiled by the police, as a member of the criminal class.