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#26 2009-04-07 07:20:30

Get Smart
Member
Posts: 1106

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#27 2009-04-07 08:48:02

Get Smart
Member
Posts: 1106

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Last edited by Get Smart (2009-04-07 08:51:12)

 

#28 2009-04-07 11:50:55

Gibson Gardens
Ivy Author
Posts: 873

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

My God with one or two exceptions those Mods are bunch of Goddamn freaks and make me despair of the effects of the ageing process on our once beautiful faces. But then I remember - most of these characters were ugly when they ought to have been beautiful. Forgive my harshness, but....really...

Positive role models in this category :

John Simons
John Rushton
Terence Stamp
Chris H
Graham Marsh
Hubert Swaine
Bob Latchford

not a load of geezers in ill-fitting cheap mohair.

 

#29 2009-04-07 12:54:32

heikki k
The Ivyist's Ivyist
Posts: 1442

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

those mod pecs seem to confirm these things imo:

-  the basic casual mod look, even in it's most cliched form a´la fred, levis & dessies, topped off with the good old  harry, combined with a neat, short haircut, beats the suited and booted peacock mod look any day as the latter is no less costume than andyland trads or fogeys. the casual mod look, instead, even in its most cliched form, fits in much more subtly. 

- no mohair suit looks good on a middle-aged man, a slim chap or not (less so with the latter..), however well made it is and however well it may fit. i think they're better left off with young lads in their twenties who, if the suit is well made, will pull the look off.

- possibly a single person out of 10 000 looks good with'that weller hairdo'. no middle aged or older man ever will. actually, it's a hairstyle i've never liked.

having said this, i do have a lot of respect for subtle, slim-silhouetted mod (influenced) look, of which daniele's style (on that pics set + elsewhwere) is a perfect example.

 

#30 2009-04-07 13:50:54

Alex Roest
Member
From: The Hague, The Netherlands
Posts: 2165

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#31 2009-04-07 14:15:45

chetmiles
Member
Posts: 1099

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Simple dressing will work so long as it is done well and there isn't too much around the middle.  I agree with Heikki, too: some type of cotton polo shirt - say, John Smedley or Brooks Golden Fleece, with denims or, better still, well cut chinos, dessies or loafers beats exotic any day, because you can take it anywhere.  For clean living under difficult circumstances the essentials are:

Hair short, neat and clean
Good shave, followed by astringent
Talc and underarm roll-on
Cotton layers
Decent suede or leather

Simplicity

 

#32 2009-04-07 14:47:35

Alex Roest
Member
From: The Hague, The Netherlands
Posts: 2165

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Once in a while you can spot the occasional youth in the street looking every inch the individualist the so-called mod is supposed to be. The thing is you can always tell that particular person is very likely not even familiar with the M word as such and definitely not a scenester in any way which makes him all the more a natural IMO. He dresses casual of course although he may wear a suit to work in which case he's probably not so easy to spot, if you see what I mean....

Last edited by Alex Roest (2009-04-07 14:49:12)

 

#33 2009-04-07 21:01:39

Decline & Fall
Ivyist At Large
Posts: 850

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...


"I like bars just after they open in the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar-that's wonderful."
— Raymond Chandler

 

#34 2009-04-08 01:53:23

Taylor McIntyre
Son of Ivy...
Posts: 342

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#35 2009-04-08 02:35:30

heikki k
The Ivyist's Ivyist
Posts: 1442

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#36 2009-04-08 05:26:22

Prof Kelp
Professor of Ivy
Posts: 1033

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...


http://thetownoutside.tumblr.com

 

#37 2009-04-08 05:33:41

chetmiles
Member
Posts: 1099

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Maybe if they left off the fish-tail with the thirty-odd Secret Affair badges and gave up wearing white socks with black lace-ups they'd stand a better chance.  Anyway, why not casual in the day, suited and booted for the evening?  That's the way it was in certain circles until about '63, I reckon.

 

#38 2009-04-08 05:58:39

heikki k
The Ivyist's Ivyist
Posts: 1442

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#39 2009-04-08 06:03:11

heikki k
The Ivyist's Ivyist
Posts: 1442

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#40 2009-04-08 07:37:55

Prof Kelp
Professor of Ivy
Posts: 1033

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...


http://thetownoutside.tumblr.com

 

#41 2009-04-08 08:24:51

Decline & Fall
Ivyist At Large
Posts: 850

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

My starting point on reviewing the pics is that these guys are serious about their clothes and it shows. I've got nothing but respect for them on that point, and I think they know what they're doing stylistically (actually that should go w/o saying). However, the look itself raises a question--where is it appropriate or even, where does it work?

It's a look that works for some pretty damn particular careers -- running a vintage/mod clothing / record store, being self-employed, working in some capacity for the Stone Roses (if they were still together) and running a night club. It simply doesn't work for 9/10 jobs and the reality is that most of us are working age now, not students sitting around our apartments.

The other thing is that it is a look that references youthfulness in a very bold way. Having a dodgy haircut is fine when you're young. It pisses off your parents, makes you look different, perhaps girls dig it, but it just looks out of touch when you get older, as illustrated in Chris H's great photo-essay (for lack of a better term) on the eternal coolness of Charlie Watts vis-a-vis his other bandmates. This one is a split point for me. On the one hand, I can see how people don't want to "sell out". Being true to the ideas you had when you were 19 is sensible in some way. However, the counter point is of course, who had good ideas when they were a teenager? A lot of values and thoughts on integrity of a teenager generally do not reflect the broader experience of being grown-up. Further, teenagers are generally not taken all seriously. How seriously can you take an adult who still dresses like one?

I also think that if one isn't all that youthful, it may not be the best idea to be throwing out huge references to that point. There's something eternally sad about the grown old hippy who refuses to throw out his tie-dyed t-shirt (actually, there's something eternally sad about hippies full-stop, but I digress).

I'm just not sure that it's a look that sends out the signals I want to send out at this stage in life.

------

Are there any Kids in the Hall (a Canadian show that I doubt made it over the Atlantic, though they did have a movie)  fans out there? This reminds me a skit they did called "He's Hip, He's Cool, He's 45" which satirized local TV producer / station owner / media zvengali Moses Znaimer for trying to be cool despite his obvious "the man" status by smoking grass, having a pony tail, pontificating on zen, and hating "squares" (clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2X1o0FGA0).


"I like bars just after they open in the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar-that's wonderful."
— Raymond Chandler

 

#42 2009-04-08 08:51:03

Get Smart
Member
Posts: 1106

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#43 2009-04-08 09:19:12

Gibson Gardens
Ivy Author
Posts: 873

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Well Daniele is a good-looking man, with a nice haircut, and he is Italian. He has the building blocks to work with. I have seen some of these other characters occasionally crawl in while I am enjoying my daily recharge at Bar Italia and it is just a monster show - creepy and very strange. Atop young flesh the look would be charmingly eccentric, atop ageing skeletons it is disturbing in its juxtaposition of colour and dash with flaccid, pallid flesh. Daniele also wears an original US Ivy jacket, an absolutely splendid example of the genre, and as Johnny Simons told me early on in my clothing education "a natural shoulder gives a man an air of reliabilty, of elegance, of not needing to prove a point". The evolution of the 'cartoon mod' has been one of the strangest of recent clothing phenomeni. Mod was all meant to be about subtlety, an insider's code. The irony is that this still exists in London though absolutely not amongst anyone who still labels himself a 'mod'. Paul Weller has become a terrible man as he has aged (hair, sexual excess, drugs, scumbag friends) and he stands as the perfect figurehead for the deluded, ugly, ill-informed, ignorant contemporary 'mod' scene.

 

#44 2009-04-08 09:54:19

Taylor McIntyre
Son of Ivy...
Posts: 342

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

All I know of Mod I know from a Cat from Kingston-upon-Thames called Graham - A "Russell Street" team member since day one.

I'm an Ivy Head and I stick to that & rip into "Trad" on the Net.

G. could rip into online Mod in just the same way as I do with Trad - If not better.

It all links.

The Net. produces iStyles.

All the best people really aren't here.

Those of us good fellas who bother with all this iCrap are rare.

Cherish us?

wink

 

#45 2009-04-08 09:58:41

Gibson Gardens
Ivy Author
Posts: 873

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Russell - did Graham used to work at Shipley Art Books on Charing Cross Road? If he's the guy I'm thinking of he has a wonderfully austere style - all John Smedleys, desert boots and slightly grown out grey crew cut.

Also been meaning to ask if Steve Kent, Yale University Press graphic designer and learned Ivy-ist posts on here? Hello Steve - are you out there?

GG

 

#46 2009-04-08 10:13:40

Get Smart
Member
Posts: 1106

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#47 2009-04-08 10:54:21

heikki k
The Ivyist's Ivyist
Posts: 1442

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

^some very good points. some of the best people (and best dressers) i happen to know IRL have never subscribed to any internet forums.

 

#48 2009-04-08 11:05:07

Taylor McIntyre
Son of Ivy...
Posts: 342

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

#49 2009-04-09 01:25:18

Taylor McIntyre
Son of Ivy...
Posts: 342

Re: I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

 

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