Spot on I think. The originals kind of idolised America for its music, films and fashion It was glamorous and progressive and new. By the 80s the world had changed and there was a much more politicised, embittered working class largely due to Thatcher. Weller's mods, and I was one, absolutely had a knee-jerk distrust of much of what America represented. It was largely a silly point of view which saw the US as an homogenous whole dominated by redneck free-marketeering evangelical Reaganites. To some extent that stereotype was reinforced during Dubbya's term in office and has only recently been challenged by the shocking progressive symbolism of the election of Obama. Getting into Ivy in the mid 80s there was considerable initial effort involved in reimagining America from the perspective of an original modernist. I still find it difficult today and have to admit that I prefer to align myself instinctively with a European sensibilty based on a regulated market, a welfare state, fairly high taxation and an inclusive social mentality. Oh and in general Europeans dress better than Americans. I favour a Euro-Ivy approach.

L.L.

I think there was a rewriting of Mod in the 80's a bit like Trad's attempt to rewrite Ivy today.

Education, education, education...

Not that Mod is my subject.

Updating can and does work when one starts from the very source of things, it's not that complicated really. The Japanese are very good at it....

Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-02-12 03:32:58)

The re-writing of the history on various subjects by the ill or uninformed is one of the banes of the internet......thank goodness we have some of the better informed posting here.

It's always interesting to see how people frame nearly everything in their life in political terms. As an aside there is nothing more rebellious in this day and age in America than being a college age conservative or libertarian, do it while wearing chinos and button downs and you become a pariah in certain academic departments. The days of yore that are chronicled in all these great pictures on the internet have gone the way of the dodo.  There is no real political rebellion left. To participate in the system, you have to get in bed with undesirables no matter what your beliefs. When someone says left wing in this country I think of hippies and punks who watered down a rebellious music with lame political platitudes, rebels who "grew up" to force their views on children through a public education system. When someone says right wing, I think of religious nuts and righteous pitichfork waving anger. All of these people are "the man" as far as I am concerned. I think a lot of people want these clothes to fit in their neat little world view, and they really don't. It gets really messy if you truly want to understand the clothes, Jazz etc. Nothing is that simple. Black Americans (who can be incredibly socially conservative and religious)  turned out to vote for Obama in our last national election and also helped defeat gay marriage proposals in a few states. I think all of us would should be equally wary of trying to frame these things (clothes, music, art) we are so passionate about through are own political prejudices.

Yeah I understand that. My rambling above was not a shot at any specific post it was just a bit of a riff on something I've noticed happening a lot. I have a hard time with some of the analysis of the United States as it comes off as (almost) parody. I am sure I would sound much the same if I tried to speak to the political or cultural landscape of England or Europe. I think what I wanted to convey was that in defeating popular fictions about this stuff we should be careful not to create new ones of our own.

My comments about "the man" were trying to illustrate how the perception can change based on who is defining it. I certainly relate to the attitude though. My standard response to queries about how I am dressed has not changed for ten years: "Just fucking with the squares". It's a liberating view for me even at nearly 30 years old.

Last edited by ScarletStreet (2010-02-12 14:52:06)

Fair enough. Sorry for the thread hijack folks.

^A striking image that captures just about everything the originals fell in love with I reckon ( thanks again to NSB for first posting it up )

Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-02-12 16:26:00)

I really like the loafers in that picture. They seem to come from nowhere and just sum the whole thing up perfectly.

Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-02-13 02:29:07)