I think I’ve found a Spanish equivalent of a “Chav”. As we all know, the word  “Chav” is mainly a derogatory slang terms in the United Kingdom for a subcultural stereotype fixated on fashions such as imitation gold, poorly made jewellery and fake designer clothing (often Burberry), combined with elements of working class British street fashion, such as trainers, tracksuit bottoms and polo shirts. The term appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005.

The Spanish Chav is not a tracksuited Burberry cap wearing subcultural stereotype but a Spanish woman from the ages 25 and upwards who has a penchant for all things Tous.

 The Spanish Tous Chav likes to be seen with one of the many bags from this Catalan designer and doesn’t pass up an opportunity to show it off. The bags are instantly recognizable and all use the company’s famous “teddy bear” or “osito” logo. Some bags are plagued with these little bear logos while others are quite discreet. It’s like a type of richter scale of teddy bear logos - the more bears you have on your Tous bag the better you are perceived and therefore carries more Tous Chav points.

The other day I was on a bus in Barcelona when I had a little wager with my American, Dutch and Italian friends.We wondered how many Tous bags we would see on our bus journey. We counted in about 30 minutes 5 Tous bags that had either borded or got off the bus!

We had this friendly little sportman’s bet as we are quite frankly sick to death of these little teddies plastered all over the place. I felt as if I were in Guildford or Chatham seeing a sea of fake Burberry caps floating by!

A few years ago it wasn’t so bad as Tous was considered an exclusive brand - quite like Burberry was some years ago. But alas, with the Chinese knocking out Burberry caps like there’s no tomorrow and Tous making their wares available for all and sundry we have reached this stage of saturation. I even think the African immigrants are peddling their Tous bags next to their Prada or Gucci belts now!

I think the only thing that saves Spanish women is they haven’t adopted the wearing of a Tous baseball cap to match the bag yet although I’m sure Tous has something in the pipeline! We shall see.

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