DontRunMeOver

Mikey, the main link between chavs is their dress (as Dezzy said). It mostly involves wearing 'casual clothes' produced by footballing brands in various shades of blue with some white thrown in. Chavs generally don't shop in high street fashion stores for their clothes, they buy clothes from sports stores (JJB sports, for example) or buy budget versions of the same from thrift shops. I think they get most of their jewellery from Argos or market stalls, instead of going to actual jeweller shops, although I may be wrong about this.

Unlike many social groups, chavs aren't a self-defining one. You're a chav not by calling yourself one, but by being described as one by other people. Therefore, your personal appearance is the main factor in this description, also the way you walk (people who get called chavs tend to have a more bouncy but awkward way of walking, which involves them swinging their arms about in unbalanced way), the way you talk (chavs tend to shout at each other in the street, particularly chav girls) and the places you hang around (pubs with crappy decor but cheap drinks and football on the TV).

In America, the phrase chav would probably be most akin to 'Trailer Trash', although Chav probably doesn't have as many negative connotations about the persons background, lifestyle or general effectiveness as a human being... its more of a comment on their dress code and demeanour.

Chavvy adults are generally fine, apart from when chavvy mums start yelling at their kids in the supermarket, but chav teenagers can be pretty annoying. I disagree with Dezzy that chavs grow out of it, because chav isn't a subculture in the same way that Goth certainly is and that Emo is to an extent. Chavs don't always grow out of their chaviness, they just grow up and become a less annoying version of chav.

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