my fave line is "Although Carnaby Street attracts homosexuals....."

damn gays!

I like the almost-winklepickers the fella at top is wearing

So the Wembley lad had eight pairs of shoes and washed his hair every other day. Hardly noteworthy these days is it ?

In context, all consumer durables like tellies, fridges etc. were a big deal in those days. You got a fortnight's holiday every year and very few people went abroad.

British kids often lived in very poor housing - many still do.  The invention of the 'teenager' involved mainly lads cleaning, pressing and polishing shoes and clothing that they often had to work hard for.  This, as far as I know, was uniquely English.  I don't think drink played a big part until later - a Coca-Cola was more the norm - but pills seem to have been part of the scene from early on.  I think it was Pete Meaden who coined that phrase about 'clean living' and even now, though the Ivy look might involve a bit of crumpling, the hair is short and clean, the face razored, the underarm stuff and talc and Extract of Limes applied.  English working class tradition, right, Brideshead?  Right, Kingstonian?  The original skinheads were smart, too.

For my generation, growing up in the 60s, America meant glamour in a way that is now difficult to define, whether it was discovering two tins of warm Pepsi on a shopkeepers shelf or a newsagent with a spinner full of DC and Marvel comics.  Reading 40s editions of 'Life' magazine now is to realise just how far in advance of ours American material culture was - Florida orange juice, no less!  But 'mod' was a mix and a mish-mash: still a nod to Saville Row, an eager curiosity about New York and California, but also about Paris and Rome.  London and other cities had been bombed to blazes: style arose like a phoenix from the ashes and its theme tune was black, black, black: jazz, blues, R&B, the classier soul - Arthur Alexander for instance - and a black GI was probably the coolest dude imaginable... 

We in the Midlands knew nothing of the Soho connection, of course - knowledge from via football and disco attendance; and just observing.  We were as cut off from the capital - unless our parents deigned to take us on a day-trip - as we were from the moon.  That's why a show like 'Budgie' had such an impact:  Adam Faith, the birds, Charlie Endell, Soho.  The cool kids were already discovering Northern Soul and wearing Sta-Prest and blazers - not the baggy trousers, tight jumpers and tashes of circa '74/5. 

Can't help, thinking, though, looking at the article that there might have been a Beatles/Stones influence at work: the beginnings of opportunism: like a dodgy group calling itself 'The Ivy League'. 

Ironic, too, how hippydom managed to get a grip on some early skinheads - or were they taking the piss?  Longer hair probably attracted more teenyboppers, though, so maybe there was method in their madness!

I hope you invested wisely in vintage Spider Man!

Sorry about my late entry into the debate!  Too busy working to buy that 9th pair of shoes!!

Great stuff and will respond further tomorrow.  Chelmsford in the late 60s - ahh, it does stay with you for ever.  I am sitting in Chelmsford as I type this.  I was explaining to a client just now that my wife bought me the Armani cufflinks I am wearing as a present and I then proceded to build an outfit around them.  You never lose it, mate!

cheers from Chelmsford

missed those on MC, saw the first one posted, then must have never gone back to the thread.
whole lot are up here: http://www.modculture.co.uk/gallery2/60s/caxton/