Read that before, good read and great mindset though !

There will always be some interesting Casual chic about, I've never had any trouble finding any and I still like sporting the style occasionally, or rather do a little bit of mixing and matching. As stated before more than once I probably wouldn't do it when living in the UK, though. Loads of timeless classics within the style whatsoever, just an addition to The Look when carried out well.

Last edited by Alex Roest (2009-09-21 06:54:13)

If you think about it, there was probably just a minor Ivy influence on mod and skinhead fashion in general... I mean, how many shops sold authentic American button down shirts in the UK?

So for most kids a Ben Sherman shirt must have been the non-plus-ultra...

...and outside London, it must have been much more difficult...

OTP/ISR/chetmiles has raised this before: Is it possible that Kevin Rowland's story (in Paul Gorman's The Look) about his gang of "peanuts" wearing authentic Ivy League gear ca. 1968  all bollocks? or is it at least a little exaggerated... I mean he grew up in  Wolverhampton, and he was just 15 years old by 1968...

the "language" of clothes... and youth culture... complicated, difficult subject, and me thinks that most sociologists and other scholars never really get it...


still have to read Roland Barthes' book on sartorial semiotics...

Ahh now... They're are some who would say the desert boot is a part of the skinhead wardrobe. Not the Oi bonehead but the sussed reggae loving skinhead.

... and what about haircuts?

What was more popular among your friends: The "typical" skinhead crop, the same length all over, or a more graded/tapered short-back-and-sides crewcut, like the American GIs and the Astronauts would sport, as described in the "8-4-2" thread...

... and what about music? Reggae? Soul? Did you collect obscure labels, and out of print singles like the Northern Soul scene?


Sorry, I see, these are too many questions at once...


Cheers!

http://www.adamoflondon.com/modernists.html

"The question has been asked as to how the Mod fashion started. Some people will have you believe that it was inspired by a group of students that were into jazz music, who frequented the various jazz clubs around Soho in London, and in turn were influenced by the various overseas jazz musicians that performed at these clubs. Well that’s bullshit. Can someone show me a photograph of these zoot suit wearing jazz musicians dressed in a remotely similar way to us Mods? I don’t think so. The Mod fashion started the same way as all fashion trends start, and still do today. The difference was that the early 60’s was the beginning of the teenage revolution."

He seems to confuse Ivy League style and Zoot suits...


"If you really want to know where the style for the jacket of the Mod suit came from, I’ll tell you. It was already there. I refer you to a British B film, made in 1963 called Murder at the Gallop, starring Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley. Anyway several of the male characters including Fat Boy Robert Morley himself were wearing tweed type Jackets, and guess what style they were? Yes, button three, narrow lapel, side pockets with flaps, the now famous ticket pocket also with a flap, and a longish centre vent. So it was an adaptation of the English and the French tweed riding jacket."


So, this British B film is the evidence?


... all very different from Graham Marsh's recollections...

Rob The Mod:

http://www.gonemovies.com/www/Drama/Drama/AfricanDominee.jpg