The backlash starts here

DJ Chewy is not a man who takes fashion too seriously; his penchant for Spandex, golf wear and shell-suits suggest he doesn’t mind laughing at himself either.

“Appearance is important, but it’s not a matter of life and death," he says. "I like having a laugh with what I wear, so I’m not into designer labels. I love charity shops and markets where you can find some really odd and unpredictable items, like shell suits.”
So why the fixation with shell-suits? “They seem to be nearly extinct in Ireland, but I found one in Australia, I was sent one from Rome, I think, and I got one in Nice in France. I never found a whole one in Dublin.” Has he any theory as to why something that was once so ubiquitous now seems to be endangered species? “Yeah. Parents bought them for their kids, and when they discovered they weren’t really popular they burnt them.”
And what gives with the Spandex? “It’s not so much the fit but the great colours," he says, "like great garish yellows and pinks. In a market in Camden in London I bought a pair like those worn by Hulk Hogan in the ’80s. Me and my mate predicted there’d be a Spandex revolution, but it never happened.”
Does his liking for golf clothes mean he wears spiked shoes in his flat? “My flatmates wouldn’t appreciate that with the floorboards, but for the Electric Picnic I wore a complete golf outfit. A guy in Outkast did it too. Golf is a pretty silly game anyway, and when you see golfers done up properly with their plus-fours, flat caps and check baggy pants and shirts, it’s so hilarious."
Chewy admits to having fashion “form”. “When I went to Irish college about 10 years ago, the lads wore those big YSL single-colour shirts hanging out over jeans," he recalls. “I wore a different colour every day. I met a girl from back then who said they were all really impressed until they discovered on the fifth day that I only had four of them.”
His favourite item is an ’80s cardigan “in pinks and greens, with Greco-Roman statues on the back, one arm in a green leopard-print colour, and the other arm has a yellow flower print on it. It’s a work of art. Nobody will make a cardigan like that ever again. Some day, mine will end up being the subject of some serious studies.”
Chewy's not one for visiting Oxfam with sacks of old clothing. “I hoard everything now," he says. “I used to dump unwanted clothes, but if I’d hung onto them I’d have great stuff to wear now. I had to try on my flatmate’s jeans yesterday because my own are falling apart and I can’t afford to buy new ones.”
DJ Chewy also has a substantial collection of lades’ knitwear from the ’80s, and adds, “My female friends are borrowing them. None of my male friends will wear them, but I do.”

DJ Chewy and the Climaxxx DJs are about to start Take Back Sundays, a late-opening residency every Sunday night in The Pod. See climaxxxblog.blogspot.com