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#1 2021-11-23 02:26:06
- A Fine Sadness
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The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
I was looking at the images again last evening whilst remembering Kevin Rowland's comments in 'The Look', which I found so fascinating at the time.
Looking again, though, after spending a while contemplating buying that USA-made Abercrombie and Fitch jacket for sale (via bidding) on Ebay, I registered a sense of mild dissatisfaction (long-winded way of putting it I know) with their look. The very conservative, dark suit and hefty shoes look does not strike me as especially 'Ivy' - more the look of what we see in dozens of movies and TV programmes of the Reagan era (loosely). More updated 'Mad Men'? The other look - polo shirts, chinos, loafers etc. - is nicer but they look as though they've dressed up for the shoot rather than that they're wearing the clothes as everyday items.
Fits in with the way Kevin Rowland goes about things, doesn't it? Cosplay for a mood and a moment.
#2 2021-11-23 05:02:57
- Spendthrift
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
My understanding is that he'd previously been a little skin/suedehead? I imagine he was fired up by a new interest in ivy style clothing, without wanting to sail too close to a look he'd had before. Which in itself would have been very close to a look that in the UK had only recently been back 'in' and gone out again.
If he was buying clothes from Brooks etc. in 1985, that's the style and cut that would have been available I guess. At that time a lot of customers would have been warming towards what would become a 'Wall Street' look. In fact a couple of years after DSMD, promotion shots for that film are very similar to shots of Dexy's album cover.
As you say, the other, more casual look is better. It always struck me that it looked too much like a parody of a Sears catalogue shoot for it not to be? Contuary to popular belief, he did have some sense of humour.
Surely cosplay. But he's always done that. An over cooked fantasy version of a look he fancies, whether it be docker, gypsy, ivy league, train driver, 40's spiv, or, ahem, the other one. I don't think he's ever denied it.
What amazes me most about DSMD is the way the media at the time appeared to dismiss it out of hand because they did't like, or didn't 'get' the new image. One that at least has stood the test of time an awful lot better than Kajagoogoo et al
#3 2021-11-23 05:17:09
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
^ Nicely put, yes.
I looked over the A&F jacket (still up for grabs on Ebay) and wondered if I could pull it off. A look at that photograph of DMR convinced me I couldn't: not in that colour (red). I don't know, it's just the way it's put together - and the surroundings. The look, I mean. I think it brings into sharp focus a lot of the discussions that have taken place on here over the years, with 'Ivy League' and 'Preppie' being played off against one another (not to mention 'trad'). Then, I often look at 'Boom Years/Golden Age' clothing and wonder if it was always - even often - that great. Some of it appears cheap (I guess it had to be during the height of 'Ivy' marketing). But at least they often did pleasing labels.
You're probably right about what was available from Brooks, and I seem to remember JFM identifying 1985 as the year they went on the fritz, bringing in darted jackets, fused collars etc. thus paving the way for all the other crap. The shirts my father bought back in 1979 or 80 were absolutely fine, though. JFM may well have been right.
#4 2021-11-23 05:33:55
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
Actually - and I never thought I'd be saying this - the 'French' Weller-Talbot look has slightly more appeal. Perhaps it works better in England, I don't know. Where I live - probably most of you, too - young men are rarely seen out of either grey hooded sweatshirts or skinny jeans. It seems to have been around for years - much like the 'shredded' look on females (not just teenagers). I wonder, do many men now do what my late father did and visit a tailor?
#5 2021-11-23 06:56:54
- Spendthrift
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
The thing with looking at Boom Years ivy, is that often you're looking at an advert. Quite often an illustration rather than a photo. They didn't have to worry about trading standards or customer reviews. The advert didn't have to match the product ("X RAY Glasses - Amaze your friends!") A lot of it would have been cheap ("Dacron improves the cotton shirt"). Where there is a photo (in an advert) the clothing would have been pinched and pinned to within an inch of it's life.
Yes. For me the early Style Council image has loads of appeal. It's a look that's never too dated (before or after TSC) and very much within reach of anyone who cares to emulate it. levis, loafers, polo shirt. Knitwear. It's all available fairly easily. And they did push the idea of looking outside the boundaries of your own country. Sadly I don't see the modern male straying too far from a hoodie and sliders. But that's his problem. Not mine.
#6 2021-11-23 07:06:44
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
X-Ray Glasses! My word, you've touched on something there. I read those comic books (and, later, magazines) to the extent that my limited pocket money would allow. Own your own monkey/ant farm/sea horse. Amaze your friends. Then I noticed kids wearing check shirts and with crew cuts or flat tops. Even at a young age the possession of a check shirt, I think, was seen as very American. There's something in me that now finds excitement in Boom Years clothing labels in the same way I did seeing those lurid ads circa 1969.
#7 2021-11-23 08:23:14
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
'Double glazing salesmen'. That was absurd; even slightly offensive (though I'm not sure who said it). I've dealt with those types (who hasn't?). They often don't wear a tie, let alone something from Brooks Brothers. The look was square - 'grown-up' I think Kevin Rowland himself said. I guess I looked just a little like that, in a navy Brooks suit, at my daughter's first wedding in 2011.
#8 2021-11-23 10:41:20
- Runninggeez
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
I've seen a few other promo shots from DSMD, where Rowland is a little more casual in a Shetland crew neck, OCBD & chino's. Can't see the footwear unfortunately.
#9 2021-11-23 12:10:18
- Lawlib
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
Comic ads have their own book https://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Mysteries-Real-Stuff-Comic/dp/160887026X They address the promise v reality issue head on.
#10 2021-11-23 12:17:35
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
I was a comic-book fiend, a complete addict, before moving onto the Warren magazines before leaving school. One hand washes another - it was all glorious 'Americana' (not a term I was then aware of). Now my grandson wears his little Spiderman costume and it seems some things never die...
#11 2021-12-02 06:37:29
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
Getting back to the original point, was there not something rather more congenial around at the time? I well remember that early Dexy intensity, then the (first?) split as some formed 'The Bureau'. Does anyone remember them? The sound, the look, the attitude: all were exciting - for a relatively short while. The 'American' look I went for early on had nothing to do with hard-looking men outside some bus station in Texas (or wherever Rowland was) and absolutely nothing to do with any British youth cult. The only men I saw wearing check shirts and jeans would have been around Manchester's 'Gay Village' circa 1982. James Dean was always big... I'd been given my first Brooks shirts... Levis by then were a given... But putting it all together, getting any coherence out of it, came later. Meanwhile, of course, Kevin and Helen were dressing like tramps and jigging round to that fucking awful pop song...
#12 2022-05-18 11:17:57
- AFS
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
For the coming weeks? Could do worse (with adjustments perhaps). I rather regret not having bought that A&F jacket that was being auctioned (without success) on Ebay some months ago. Or was it last year, late on?
#13 2022-05-24 10:15:22
- AlveySinger
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Re: The Look Of 'Don't Stand Me Down'
His overall look goes beyond just the album sleeve.
We're talking '85 but we can all recognise elements of Ivy in it nearly 40 years later.
Have a look at this short clip from the TUBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Mr_wgeLik
What a great jacket, the collar roll is perfection.
Next exhibit-best played on mute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntqWGy7mG8
Navy shetland, blue OCBD, herringbone coat, pale grey cable knit, flat front khakis, lapped seamed natural shoulder sports jacket. I would like every item in this video.
Let's put this into context. The most influential tv show of the time was Miami Vice. Men of all ages wore badly tailored cream suits with pastel t shirts and yet here is KR flying the flag for traditional menswear.
I genuinely believe Ivy adapts to prevailing trends.It's not just stuck in an exhibition case.
Last edited by AlveySinger (2022-05-24 10:21:12)