There is an Alex Roest essay on the front page here!

I also have further notes on all this for the interested - How Renoma were the French Bilgorri, etc.

Some of my old notes to Alex on the French Cut:

"From 'The Look' you'll get 'Maya' & a good description of the cut and when JS brought it into London initially via the Brewer Street 'Squire' shop.

Chris H. wore it from the Brewer Street & the King's Road 'Squire' shops. He has great family snaps of him and his mates wearing it.

Bomber & Brideshead can fit it into what followed, especially down the Kings Road with the other chain stores who caught on to the look and spread it. 'Take Six', etc.

I'll add the roots of the cut from 'Minet' Paris - 'Ramona' & the proto-flare cut of that place which began with an 'M' (Too lazy to look it up now).

"Minet" has no linear development unlike "Mod" in London so I can give you the French cut through Minet & beyond for a while. Minet was a mix, unlike Mod - The proto French cut co-existed with the Ivy league and Anglophile elements all at the same time. There never was any one look.

Even the name 'Minet' is false in fact. It was coined by the Media in '65 after the cult had already been strongly in existence without a name since at least '62. No real Minet will actually recognise the name Minet.

'Le Drugstore' is a false lead also - The cult was first noticed there in '62 by 'Adam' magazine, but by then Le Drugstore was old news. In fact Le D. became best known for its underground Rent-Boy scene at this time - The real stylists were already long dispersed from what was actually only one of their original hangouts.

French "Minet" is really like post '63 "Mod" in London - By the time the cult had a name the originals had long gone. To talk of Minet is not really to talk of the stylists who originally created the cult with no name.

'Le Locomotion' club up in Montmartre is another false lead - The Minets were upper class or upper middle class kids and many of their families had houses or flats in London (South Kensington especially near the French Institute or along Knightsbridge near the French Embassy - The 'Parkside' flats had many part-time French residents at this time). London was THE place for clubbing as the music was better and also, although English law was more prohibitive, the sex (both kinds even though boys with boys was an prisonable offence until '67 in England and even after then you had to be over 21) was better and even the drugs were better in London too.

Probably this air of freedom in London was just because these posh kids were away from home and felt more relaxed behaving badly over in England. Fewer people could tell on them over in the smoke.

It's a really messy story - Even more so than English Mod - And I love it!

I'll just focus on the French cut aspect of it for you & hit my notes -"

"Horace was talking about Charvet and wondered if back in the day they had tried to make a US style BD when American Ivy Style was so big in Paris.
I asked around and got sneers just for mentioning the name Charvet.

A Carvet shirt is a thing of wonder and beauty no doubt, but it's aeathetics were all wrong for 'Les Minets' (A fake name as you know). Besides Charvet was a stuck-up place that their fathers shopped at. An 'Irrelevance' to them (That's the best I have in terms of a quote, but I can give you date, time, location & who said it to back it up if you'd like). In their world a US import shirt, even if second hand (And many were. Getting this stuff took skill over there), had much greater cachet and Arrow was the shirt of choice for them back then. A machine-made mass-market factory product had the style they wanted. Charvet's bespoke marvels weren't even on their radar. The brand had no value for them even though Charvet shirts cost many, many more times more than a humble Arrow BD. The aesthetics were all wrong with C. and so they were rejected.

And it was ALL about aesthetics. Conventional snobbery was out of the window with these young American-inspired Dandies. They still bought the best, but THEY alone decided what was the best. By their rules RTW could be better than bespoke. Any fool in Paris knew the name Charvet. Only the sussed could talk with knowledge about Arrow.

Back in London, Arrow was also the shirt of choice at Ivy League 'Austins' on Shaftsbury Avenue. All the great names of Jermyn Street were an irrelevance to the Modernists on this style of the channel too.

"Think you know what the best shirt is? Not in the Modern World you don't." Was the game being played in both Ivy style inspired London & Paris back then.

Charvet, Turnbull & Asser... So what? All that old crap is for those with no idea about what's really going on.

In a certain world Arrow was THE shirt. Later, with increased travel, the Brooks shirt would take over.

(Arrow shirts pop up in 'Soul Stylists' too so you could cross refer if you wished).


NB: Even the name "The Drugstore Crowd" is a problem! Adam magazine cottoned on to the French Modernist kids at Le Drugstore in '62 (The name "Les Minets" was coined in '65 - Much, much later in terms of how fast street style moves). But already by '62 Le Drugstore was over for the prime movers & the place was looked down on. It was already famous for its underground rent-boy scene by then. The real French faces were invading London and adding their input to English Modernism/Mod by then.

Who wanted to hang around Paris when the music was better in London?

Chris H must tell you about how French kids used to come up to him in London talking French when he was wearing his John Simons 'Squire Shop' clothes. He looked like a fellow Minet over in London shopping & clubbing to them!"

"http://www.juliensauctions.com/auctions … ot179.html

This is Tedd in'69.

Daniele has access to a pic which will show you Tedd's debt to Renoma in in creating this cut. The pic is roughly '65 I think & in & Chenoune's book again (surprise!). Michel Renoma credited a pattern obtained in London for his trademark cut.
Prior to Renoma's influence Tedd was cutting in a very straight French Anglophile style. So that's another nice universal Modernist touch - Style being influenced from the bottom up."

"The pic you need is of Jaques Dutronc smoking on a street corner. It perfectly shows the Renoma cut as it was then which was to later influence Tedd and 'Maya' in Paris from whom JS bought his French Cut suits for the Squire Shop. The cut became more stylised with the passage of time, but the Dutronc pic shows its genesis.

Odd to think that the French Cut was originally English and later sold back to us as French from what Michel Renoma says!"

"The Daniele Dutronc pic is probably '64. By '66 the Minet cut was as worn by Dutronc at the start of the French Hip thread.

Same basic cut but morphed into a more expansive style."

"The way to think of Renoma is that they were the French version of London's Bilgorri's - Sense?"

Looking forward to more!

A better shot in a different Shetland style:

http://www.shetlandknitwear.com/EverestProductDetail.aspx?productID=f7073de8-ce56-4c38-abad-718e2ca39470&ProdList=357&Fromtabid=40#f7073de8-ce56-4c38-abad-718e2ca39470

^ Them's not Flares.

The Flare was a different animal.

Even the original Sailor's trou. weren't 'Flares'.

Pooter yourself.  I'm an 'istorian.