In the wake of news that Manchester's Oi Polloi is closing, the M.E.N's Damon Wilkinson tells the story of how the Northern Quarter menswear boutique became an institution.
Some time around 2004 I started noticing lads in town wearing these really smart, very plain white canvas pumps. I looked round all the usual shops, but couldn’t find a pair anywhere.
Eventually I stopped a fella outside the Arndale and asked where he'd got them. "A shop on Tib Street," he said. "They're in a basket by the counter."
READ MORE:
About 10 minutes later I walked into Oi Polloi for the first time. It looked more like a specialist field sports or hiking store than a menswear shop.
There was loads of stuff I recognised, Lee Jeans, Lacoste polos, Ralph Lauren shirts, but there were also lots of things I didn't, such as very expensive cagoules from Scandinavian brands I'd never heard of, fishermen's jumpers, bulbous German orthopaedic shoes and quilted Barbour body warmers.
In the basement there was a barber's chair and the walls were lined with second-hand Adidas trainers. It was cool but a bit odd and somehow that only added to its charm.
I bought two pairs of the pumps I was after straight away – they were no label, military surplus things selling for about a tenner each. And later that month, when I'd been paid, I went back and bought a woven Anderson's belt and a YMC mac, which, it still pains me to write, I left in the pub a few years ago.
Ever since then Oi Polloi, which long since moved to a bigger, better shop on Thomas Street, has been my starting point when it comes to clobber. My wife would probably say it's been a bit of an obsession.
Even so I surprised myself by being genuinely gutted when I found out it was closing. And I wasn't alone. Liam Gallagher summed up the feelings of many men like me in a tweet which read: "noooooooooooooooo... there is no GOD."
Oi Polloi began life in 2002 after founders Steve Sanderson and Nigel Lawson got chatting at a party about Clarks shoes and Lacoste polo shirts. They decided to open a shop together, partly using money Lawson had made from selling a load of deadstock Adidas trainers he'd bought from a hunting shop in rural Denmark.
And that set the tone from the off. Rather than following trends, Oi Polloi seemed to concentrate on selling things Lawson and Sanderson liked.
It meant the shop had its own very definite style, distinctly casual, Northern and Manc. It had the working-class peacock thing of wearing a £300 coat or some rare trainers that nobody else had, but it also felt honest and considered without being contrived.
In an interview a few years ago Sanderson summed up the Oi Polloi ethos as 'a working class identity with a magpie type aesthetic that's synonymous with Manchester'.
"We take influence from here and there and blend it all together into something that's unique to us, unique to this area," he said. "It means stuff to people that are bothered about it, but it doesn’t mean anything to a lot of people. But if you get it, you get it."
In that sense it was part of a long line of independent Manchester shops which, in their own ways, helped shaped how the city dressed. Places like Aspecto, Stolen By Ivor, Hurleys, Geese, LiFE and and Richard Creme.
And in determinedly and unapologetically going its own way, Oi Polloi became one of the most influential menswear stores in the UK. "It's match wear, but with that little extra style," says Nick Rhodes, from Northern Quarter vintage shop Bionic Seven, which opened around the same time as Oi Polloi.
"Nigel's always had an eye for what looks good. It was Scandinavian outdoor wear, brands like Fjällräven that at the time nobody had ever heard of, Breton tops, really nice knitwear, just fantastic denim.
"That kind of thing was already happening with Geese, and Oi Polloi kind of carried on from there."
But, after being bought out by JD Sports during the pandemic, the shop's now closing. What does that say about the changing face of the Northern Quarter, as the big corporate firms begin to edge out the small, independent businesses that made it what it once was?
"Oi Polloi's story is the story of the Northern Quarter in many ways," said Eddy Rhead of the Modernist Society. "You can trace it back to Afflecks, where Nigel used to have a stall.
"When they first opened the shop on Tib Street rents were cheap. It was a place where small businesses could start up and flourish.
"It's a well-trodden path. Small businesses move into an area, make it better, then the money moves in and you can't afford it anymore.
"The reason Oi Polloi did well is because it has character, a certain personality. Mancs can smell b******* and they can see when someone is doing something for the right reasons. And when that happens they tend to support it.
"But it does feel like the end of an era and it could be the beginning of the end for the Northern Quarter for small, independent businesses."
But while it might be the end of the Northern Quarter as we know it, maybe it's not the end for Oi Polloi after all.
In an interview with The Face this week Sanderson described the shop's closure as 'all a part of the journey', while hinting Oi Polloi will continue life as its own label.
"This is the next phase," said Sanderson. "This will be a more distilled, purer stage of Oi Polloi."
READ NEXT:
