New book reveals the unlikely link between Clarks shoes and music.
We have to admit that when Clarks In Jamaica arrived in the Attack office we didn’t quite understand why we’d been sent a copy. Aside from a few Ghostface lyrics and the odd Vybz Kartel track, Clarks shoes don’t have a whole lot to do with music, right?
This 192-page hardback, newly released by One Love Books, proved us totally wrong. Writer and DJ Al Fingers pins his social history of Wallabees and Desert Boots in Jamaican culture on a backdrop of reggae, dub and dancehall. From the first distribution of Clarks to the West Indies in 1911 through to the Portmore Empire‘s obsession with Somerset’s finest, Fingers explains the island’s unlikely obsession with this very British shoemaker.
Clarks In Jamaica coincides with a marketing drive by Clarks Originals, including attempts to align the brand with artists from Riva Starr to Toddla T, but the book shouldn’t be dismissed merely as a piece of marketing-driven propaganda. The link between Jamaican culture and Clarks is as good an example as any of the enduring connection between music and fashion.
Fingers provides a comprehensive account of the popularity of the shoes in Jamaican culture but the glossy, beautifully produced photographs are the real stars of the show, documenting the dominance of Clarks in the Jamaican music scene for the last half a century.
Check out our quick snaps below for some of the highlights of the book, along with – why not? – Vybz Kartel at his best.
Clarks In Jamaica – £30, One Love Books
General Leon & Pompidou, King Jammy’s yard, 1986
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee’s studio, 2011
A selection of Jamaicam tracks which mention Clarks
Jah Stitch, 2011
Sound system alongside Clarks World, downtown Kingston, 2011
Vybz Kartel – ‘Clarkes’ [sic]
Clarks promotional records, 1980