Bird, is it?  Heavens, my memory!  (No, I've just checked back in the anthology and Smith it is - wasn't CB a disguise for Harlan Ellison?)

I can see that get-up Alex. The Spezials you describe are the sort of trainer/sneaker I still wear every now and then - gum soled, brown on brown suede, Oi Polloi would approve.

Come to think of it my whole outfit is current today, not a vintage item in sight. Wigens cap, 6876 raincoat, Ralphy oxford, generic high street lambswool crew, Incotex chinos, Sanders. But I might wear the Purist tomorrow with some actual 1950s khakis.

Like you said before: Purity not Purism - well put.


You should get yourself some vintage items to balance it off

Last edited by Suitedbooted2000 (2009-03-19 04:17:21)

This all sounds like nonsense from the late, un-lamented www.soccerhooligan.com. There's nothing as depressing in life as British 'youth culture' trying to define itself. Hackneyed and sentimental bullshit.

I read somewhere once about mods going about their business 'discreetly and quietly' - which sounds to me like a fine ideal, if oddly non-'peacock'.  The 'Look' can rarely appear frivolous (unless one is wearing shorts, say - remember that photograph of John and Paul Simons looking a tad embarrassed outside the shop?).  A Harris tweed jacket with a good shoulderline, an OCBD, cords and wingtips are always going to look as if you mean business - but not aggression, hopefully.  You blend in, under certain circumstances.  Chameleon-like?  Some of us are certain to remember our teens, when tribal rites dictated clothing and musical taste and had you looking over your shoulder for the quiff and bootlace tie...  Thank heaven for jazz, say I! and discretion and quietness... 

How many moddy boys have walked through the door at Russell Street only to be confused and confounded?  My first time in I was blinking and adjusting (fairly rapidly)...  The 'conservatism' appealed instantly (more or less) because a loafer swimming in an ocean of cheap trainers is always going to draw a little attention from those who 'used to'.  Of course, they're now mostly in high street tat. 

True story: in a conversation about Ivy League, chummy said 'I'm afraid I know nothing about gardening'. 


Jim, in spite of your Philby/Burgess/McLean/Blunt/Cairncross posing, it's a good job you're out there, flying the flag...


Only remember which flag it is you're supposed to be flying.  (Did you ever get a good look at those cheap shiny suits senior Politburo members were given to wearing?)

Last edited by 1966 (2009-03-19 06:18:17)