I have happy memories of buying 501s for 10p in 1978.  A local boxing club was about to hold a jumble sale and I got to root through a box of old clothes.  Of course, in 1978 10p bought you a champagne supper for two at the Savoy Grill, a taxi home, luxury chocolates and there was still a tip for the flunkey who held your coat.

About turn!  Just succumbed to US-import Levis.

The 501s turned up yesterday, Yuca, after we arrived back from exploring Beeston (nothing doing clothes-wise but ate lunch at a good Turkish place, served by a very pretty woman, her dark hair falling over one eye), then going to Kaya in Radford for yoghurt drink and their delicious cakes. 
They are faded to the point where you have to read 'Made In The USA' under a magnifying glass, but were only around the £40 mark.  Difficult getting much in my size. 
They'll look okay with a Makers shirt, cream cashmere v-neck, loafers - more or less what I've been wearing on and off for quite a while.

Bought my first pair of Levis on the first day of shops opening after Christmas '65,(a few days before I turned 13), Christmas money in hand I headed for Philip Grants in King St. Hammersmith, cost 49/11 if memory serves me, ( £2.50 decimal), my Mum thought they were way too expensive, I bet Uncle Ian remembers Philip Grants , my jeans wearing days are well behind me now, just don't think I could pull it off, I'll fall somewhere between ' trying-to-hard' and the old duffers wearing their bargain washed out jeans, thank goodness for chinos and cords ! Robbie - probably the best jeans I ever owned were a pair of Lee Riders, even had them ' converted' to flairs ( '71), with the denim inserts my Auntie Rose did for me !

Staxfan - yes I remember Philip Grant! We used to go to the branch just off Fulham Broadway, though me and my mate did make the trip to King Street to see the huge pair of display Levis they had hanging above the entrance. Actually, though I made a vow not wear jeans past 30, I still own a few pairs of LVC, but you wouldn't catch me wearing them much after dark - strictly for round the house or washing my car. Which is what they were originally made for I suppose!
I got my first pair just before Xmas 1964, from a place in Wandsworth Bridge Rd. called Alf's, which sold workwear - donkey jackets, Tuf boots etc. I still have a diary entry somewhere which reads "bought Levis", then next day "washed Levis", followed by "wore Levis". And yes, my mum thought I was mad spending 42/6 on jeans!

Last edited by Uncle Ian (2021-11-01 05:08:20)

It could be and also possibly a bit more likely Terry Taylor, who McInnes based the protagonist on in Absolute Begineers. The real deal. Read Baron's Court All Change and look up the photos/life.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-11-01 07:03:27)

He had an incredible life - one of the absolutely original modernists / early Mods - wrote Baron's Court All Change in 1960, published in 1961.  It's like the inside story of AB.  It's essentially his life in thinly disguised novel form that McInnes was fictionalising.  He mixed extensively in Soho, then went to Morocco and was ahead of the hippy trail.  Amazing pictures of him, really early.  In particular one with poet/newage thinker etc Johnny Dolphin. Taylor is in UK style (looking a touch fragile), Dolphin in Ivy style with a 3/2 jacket. 

Incredibly Johnny 'Dolphin' is still alive at 92 - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Allen for his incredible life story

See
https://www.londonfictions.com/terry-taylor-barons-court-all-change.html


It was reissued with a useful forward a few years ago. I got mine in Five Leaves Left bookshop, up the alley in Nottingham off the square. Available in usual sources.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-11-01 07:21:07)

Mushroom was a hangout of mine, but not of Mods.  Too gothy and rocker for that.  The lava lamps, rock crystals, tarot, magick books etc.  I was always off exploring at the edges of things.  Bought dozens of those tapes from there too, always interested in strangeness and new music.

There were a couple of proper art supplies shops you'll remember in Hockley too that were great.  They sold stuff that fashion people didn't pick up on, so I bought loads of pop-art licenced reproduction t-shirts and used to wear those.  It drove my fellow Mods crazy as I wouldn't tell them where I got them, they even followed me.  I would turn up with Marilyn, Pow!, Riley Op Art etc all on s-shirts on a saturday (under white levis, white levi jacket and white shoes.... no wonder I often had to run from trouble).  It was a 'strong look' for a while. I also found a place in Hockley that sold military badges, Russian stuff, so I started doing that too in about '86 well before all that became trendy in the early House scene (that I morphed to when Mod was at its arse end).

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/03/the-day-lenny-bruce-and-i-cut-out-newspaper-pin-ups-at-the-establishment

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-11-01 07:51:35)

At 14/15 bravado carried me through on some clothing choices.  I'd not seen Blow Up then and didn't enjoy it later when I did.  I get it now, but it really was documenting when swinging became something darker.

Uncle Ian - I'd forgotten about that enormous pair of levis hanging outside the shop in Kings St. ! There was a Jack-the-Lad Mod type guy who use to work there, could sell sand to the arabs, remember some poor sap trying a jacket on that was several sizes too large and the JtL was doing his usual trick of holding the jacket at the back to make it look like it fitted in the mirror ! Must have bought levis from there for several years, again Uncle Ian you were ahead of the game ! Cheers,

Yuca, yes.  There on the main street, with tables on a kind of dias.  Very nice food, warm bread and bits and pieces brought to the table whilst studying the menu.  Very much like their version of pizza. 
I did stick my nose into the Oxfam shop but didn't stay long as I was dying for a piss.

AUS: I had the same shirt. From Melandi as I recall. Dreadful. The rest of your recollections sound miles ahead of what I was doing sartorially at that age. Musically I did have a good idea by the age of around 15.