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#1 2022-05-04 09:43:27
- AFS
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- Posts: 2740
'Mod' Clothing: In An American Context
This is a phrase I've come across recently, mostly in connection with chaps like Gerry Mulligan. I can't help wondering if it applies, too, to (for instance) Miles Davis and Bill Evans as well as some of the composers who survived into the 1970s. (Johnny Mercer, though, certainly seems to have been wearing Brooks Brothers circa 1973). I assume an American writer means something entirely different to an author like, say, Barnes. So, did the Ivy way of dressing and wearing the hair fade, to be replaced by longer hair, facial hair and the aforesaid 'Mod' clothing? Is this the era of the later 'Mad Men'? Can some brand names be mentioned?
#2 2022-05-04 09:46:05
- AFS
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- Posts: 2740
Re: 'Mod' Clothing: In An American Context
For some reason I'm thinking cravats the way Marty Feldman wore them, shirts in vivid colours, wide lapels.
#3 2022-05-04 11:44:18
- Spendthrift
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- Posts: 659
Re: 'Mod' Clothing: In An American Context
I think in the mid - late sixties, into the seventies, Americans, particularly journalists didn’t quite get, or didn’t care what ‘mod’ was. In the Barnes context. Very loosely, they had Rock ‘n’ Roll, followed by British Invasion, followed by mod. Their mod being more London swinging sixties, The Beatles in ‘Help’, The Monkees and The Byrds when they first hit. Maybe people like Andy Williams switching image to keep up with the times. So yeah, bright colours. Cravats and wide ties and collars. Bell bottoms.
Ironically anything that was new, i.e. not Jazz, Country or Rock’n’Roll stood a good chance of being labelled mod. Curtis Mayfield’s Impressions had an album called The Young Mod’s Forgotten Story’ in ‘69. Which is top notch Soul but neither the music or artwork is particularly mod in the British sense.
I think it was just a buzzword that didn’t particularly catch, but must’ve carried some weight, given the series ‘Mod Squad’ over there that ran into the early seventies.
#4 2022-05-04 11:50:01
- Spendthrift
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- Posts: 659
Re: 'Mod' Clothing: In An American Context
It’s a strange thing. American modern jazz begats British mod, begats swinging sixties, begats American mod.
#5 2022-05-04 16:59:40
- AlveySinger
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- Posts: 903
Re: 'Mod' Clothing: In An American Context
It's worth remembering that the term Mod was overcooked once the media got hold of it.
The term just became another marketing cliche. A lazy shorthand.