Rain n Bullets

Was surprised to see the news of the return of Gio Goi, it had managed to completely and utterly pass me by.

I have to say I am very intrigued in this one, it could be pretty interesting. The original version of gio goi is one of the brands of my youth...

Now for those that think gio goi are just a cheap High St brand think again.....the brand has existed through various identities, not just that version that everyone immediately thinks of.

I'll be honest, I'm wasn't interested in any part of the brands history other than the original one, so if you're not aware of that chapter it's time to get your history books out before painting your judgements up.

However, we'll likely agree on the 2005 onwards period...which I ain't getting in to or slating. The brand decided to go in a different direction, it wasn't a direction I was looking in, but fair play to them. No one can say they were unaware of the brand can they.

I won't pick into the history too much, the stories of the brothers behind the label are out there on the internet for you to look through for yourself. And from the images below you'll see the brand existed in the public eye.

Pick into some of the fashion faces that were willing to work with the brand and you'll begin to understand why there is a keenness to see the brand return in some guise close to its original look.

Gio Goi arrived in 1988 straight into the Indie, Dance and Acid House scenes and somehow managed to cross over all 3 effortlessly. The style was very much the standard 'designer look' of that time, a mixture of staples relying heavily on the European casual/sportswear style. It's what the young chap about town and the terrace wore while he listened to Electronic on his Walkman.

By '89 it had quickly become fairly big delivering a range that was generally hard to place your hands on as pieces were snapped up as soon as they arrived.

These early ranges included some incredible knitwear styles, the signature Coach jacket, t-shirts featuring full embroidery rather than cheap prints, denim, etc.....

F**CKED UP became the range to try and find.

A pretty standard look of the time, picked straight out on Shaun Ryder's frame was a gio goi coach jacket, some armani denim finished off with your Timberland Euro's or Fila Trailblazers.

In a sea of Chipie, Replay, Retour, By Basi, Destroy, Unlimited, Chevignon, etc the brand stood out as something different. And it was local to these shores.

I hadn't appreciated until recently that the brand wasn't, I hear, that well known outside of the North of England. Even across in Liverpool it wasn't top of the picks.

Up here in chilly Scotland it certainly had a presence, in particular among the indie Kids who knew how to dress well.

Sadly there aren't any product images (that I can find) from back in the day, so we have to rely on some old TOTP performance screen-grabs to see the cream of the Madchester scene sporting the brand. It wasn't unusual to see the likes of Electronic, Happy Mondays, Northside and so on clothed in the brand

Also some eBay grabs showing the old logo, not sure what it was, kinda of an Aztec look to it.

The holy grail of that era were the coach jackets with the font logo as worn by Bernard Sumner, Shaun, etc. above, this was replaced with a circular design displaying the logo.

The knitwear pieces worn by Electronic in their Feel Every Beat video were just impossible to locate, like much of their knitwear output. I think I have to blame Bernard, or more correctly his top, for my lifelong preference for a knitted polo-shirt, I mean would you just look at that beauty!

So what's coming and where will it sit in reference to the other ranges and versions of the brand we've seen, who knows...

A good start is a return to the original Central Station designed logo and font, it looks far smarter IMHO than the 2005 re-launch logo and font. There's just something very cool and original about that initial look.

Some product images have been released across the social platforms, but it's likely too early to work out the new gio goi.

Styles so far look to sit with that European sports style, but we are going by only a handful of images in fairness.

Already some styles are catching my eye and are of interest. The navy trench coat above is certainly on the radar (I want it), as is the sweatshirt with mirror reversed logo. I don't generally go in for a sweatshirt with large branding, but I reckon I'll be a sucker for that.

The website has a holding page up for now with a statement of intent that it will launch in January 2016, so for now we'll need to sit and watch....waiting....patiently...

Fingers crossed for a return to the early glory years....I'm certainly keen to see the output.

Even our man LG sported some.....but not the original.....

We'll remain patient until we see a proper look and can judge the fibre of the output...but the preview images hint at something worth keeping an eye on.

Peace&Love&Mercy, theSub