Dres or dresiarz (plural dresy or dresiarze ) is a Polish subculture or class of young males who stereotypically live in urban tower blocks or tenement houses. They are usually portrayed as undereducated, unemployed, aggressive, and anti-social. The dresiarz phenomenon was first observed in the 1990s and is sometimes compared to the British chavs, Scottish neds, Australian bogans or Russian gopniks. It would later partially merge with the hooligan subcultures and sometimes attributed to football hooligans. The term refers to tracksuits, which in Polish is dres. Kark (pl. – napes) and blocker (pl. – block-people) are related but not synonymous terms; see below. The term has a pejorative connotation in Polish mass media. Dorota Masłowska's novel White and Red is one of the first books published featuring the dresiarz phenomenon. Dresy have been a theme of (usually critical) songs by Dezerter and Big Cyc. They are also popular negative characters in the comic strip Jeż Jerzy.

Characteristics

The following traits are typically attributed to the dresiarz stereotype:

Related terms