yes that is a great pic.  If you didnt add the "mod" preface, it could be any sort of smartly dressed college boy from that time.  I like that there isnt anything inherently "mod" about the lads, other than looking smart.

interesting they're not wearing buttondown collar shirts as I think it'd be hard pressed to find a mod nowadays that even owns a spread collar

Last edited by Get Smart (2010-08-11 12:59:54)

Thanks for posting! Couldn't make it to the office, and didn't get home yesterday...

I like that picture, and I hadn't seen it, yet...

I am still catching up with all these great threads.  This must be one of the best pics I have seen in the way it conjures up the studied nonchalance that was so important at the time.  I was lucky to have grown up in the South East of England and, as a very young boy been exposed to these wonderful scenes on a regular basis.  My home town of Chelmsford, 30 miles from London was always a ‘Mod town’ and I couldn’t wait for the day when I could begin to emulate the look.

What is so appealing is the way the guys in the pic have elevated casual dressing to an art form.  Their clothes appear neither too fashionable nor too tight.  In fact they look ‘just right’.  Surely Beau Brummell would have given them the thumbs up.

On the point about spread collars my recollection is that until about 1969 I would have had a mix of BDs and spread collars.  It does sometimes seem odd to me that we accept on the one hand that in the 60s it was all about moving on, and yet on the other we try now (present company excepted) to define mod in a rather narrow way!  There is an inconsistency in this approach which this pic helps to expose.

The knitwear is worn here as an older guy might be expected to do today - quite relaxed in its fit and looks pretty good for it.  I bet most of the knitwear would have been from M&S.  All the muted colours too suggest that these guys don't need to SHOUT.  It shows a great maturity of style indeed.

Bugger me if the bloody picture hasn't disappeared.

Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-08-20 07:32:48)

Pic has disappeared from the Original Modernist page so I can't put it up again either...

That date does make it interesting, I think.  I hope your source decides to tell it like it was - and why they had made that particular sartorial decision.  Affordable?  Neat?  Girls liked it?