THEY look less like hoodies than “burqas for the boys”. A jacket that conceals the head and face, leaving two “goggle-slots” to see through, is becoming the latest fashion craze to hit the streets.

The intimidating look has been borrowed from Italian couture, where it was created in the 1980s in homage to the protective gear worn by drivers in the Mille Miglia, the endurance race which started in the 1920s.

Police and community groups are concerned that the “goggle jackets” will become the next uniform of Asbo culture.

Brian Paddick, a former senior officer at the Metropolitan police and now a London mayoral candidate, said: “The trouble in society is not just crime but the fear of crime, and this new jacket is enough to give anyone a shiver down their spine.”

The Italian version of the jackets still sells at about £600 in the West End store of CP Company, an Italian couture brand. But this season high street brands like Projekts NYC are selling them for £50. They mostly come in dark colours.

At Arrival, a clothes shop in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, owner Marc Chapman cannot keep up with demand. “I must have sold about 40 jackets in the past fortnight,” he said.

“Even girls are coming in to buy them, although this is a men’s store.”

Chapman, 22, added: “A lot of people who are hoodies are buying this as the new thing.”

Steve Dodd, 18, a student in South Shields, said he bought his jacket to protect his face from the freezing winds off the North Sea and was taken aback by the reaction he gets from strangers.

He said: “After I bought the jacket I went into the Caffe Nero opposite, fully zipped up, and people just laughed.”

Dodd said he had even consulted a lawyer friend on the legal position. “She told me that the police could ask me to take it down but it wasn’t illegal. To me it’s a practical jacket.”

Officials at the Association of Chief Police Officers say there are no laws to forbid anyone from wearing such a jacket during the day or night.

A spokesman added that the only time that police officers could demand to see a person’s face was if they suspected that he had committed, or was about to commit, a crime.

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