because there arent any in Chinatown.

dont believe ive ever heard of a urinary hospital. was it a urinary mental hospital? because that would be better.

damnit. i was looking forward to telling my friends about english urinary mental hospitals.

I was 14. I saw my beloved Tottenham lift the FA Cup. I had recently moved on from a Rude Boy/ Dexy's Soul rebel look to the new style of  inner London youth circa 1981- The Casual. My favourite items of clothing in 1981 were Lacoste Polo shirts/ Farah trousers/Stan Smith trainers.

Polyveldts, loved them - had a pair about that time too.

Music would be Jean-Michel Jarre. Magnetic Fields was the first tape I ever bought.

Funnily when prompted to think back by the question, one of the things that also struck me was how passionately I was committed to a particular fashion/look but also how quickly my passion was then suplanted by another look.From the start of secondary school I was a rude boy,then a casual but also went to The Mud Club and various Rockabilly and even Jazz clubs all in the space of a few years.I also visited J Simons, to buy a pair of docksides in I think 1980, and loved Flip when a student in the mid 80s.

^ An excellent post indeed.

The best English loafers I found back then were by Saxone - 'Weegians', as Toffeeman reminded me on here.

Van Heusen, Arrow and then Hathaway shirts were my serial obsessions. But I did also wear the odd Ben Sherman & I certainly had more than a few shirts from M&S (etc) converted into BDs.

Trying to convert English clothes to look American was in fact what I did most. My Father had accounts at Austin Reed and Simpsons (I liked Simpsons best) and so we would shop together for clothes and then take them together to his 'alterations woman' in Evelyn Gardens (SW3 or 7, as I recall. Too lazy to check) - A dear old sweetheart who would nip in my fathers' jackets for a more waisted look and attempt various experiments for me... Pulling out shoulder pads, topstitching lapels & pocket flaps, even sewing up side vents & ripping in a centre vent. Really stupid Ask Andy newbie style alterations!

Levis were Orange tags and often taken in for a narrower line.

Socks were Black or White toweling from M&S - And that's how you can tell that I'm telling the truth. Who else would admit to the Black toweling sock?

Music was (in no order) Blue Note, Atlantic, Riverside, Columbia (etc) - Entry level, easy to get stuff back then. Later that vinyl was to become expensive.

Also I'd tape my Uncle George's LPs endlessly on C60s (is that right?) whenever I made it back up to Yorkshire.

Back to clothes  -  I had a Charcoal Grey MTM (but I often call it bespoke, just because of the process of its creation) 'Ivy' suit cut by Colin Wilde on Newburgh Street W1. I sat and talked & Colin sketched. How much was that? £200, £300 in '81? Can't remember.

I had a Trenchcoat from Petticoat Lane street market too. The Grey suit was a Coltrane thing & the Trench was a nod to Dexter Gordon - John Gall has photos of all of this.

My hair was cut by Trumpers on Jermyn Street when in town & in Walters in Oxford when not. I never had my hair cut in Rugby. In fact I tried to spend as little time there as I could... Such a waste of money, that place.

I smoked Rothmans back then too.

Without my soulmate, but non Ivyist, Ratty, I'd have gone coco I think. All alone with my ambitions and burning vision of who I wanted to be... But Ratty was the same in his own, but different, way and so we were a team. Us against the world.

... And I still talk to him every week, even now.

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