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Again in 1959, Colin MacInnes supplied up the next description of a younger gadabout-town in his novel Absolute Learners: “College-boy smooth crop hair with burned-in side part, neat white Italian round-collared shirt, short Roman jacket, very tailored (two little vents, three buttons), no-turn-up narrow trousers with 17-inch bottoms and absolute maximum, pointed-toe shoes, and a white mac folded by his side.”
Nowhere in Absolute Learners is the phrase “mod” talked about, however MacInnes’ Dean Swift embodies the ethos, from the look (sharp, clear, outward-looking), to the milieu (the jazz golf equipment and occasional outlets of late ‘50s Soho), to the attitude (aspirational, smart, in-the-know). But what’s additionally placing about MacInnes’ anatomisation of Swift’s outfit is that, over half a century on, it nonetheless feels very, effectively, fashionable. Regardless of being some half a century outdated, mod type could be very a lot related at the moment.
What Is Mod Fashion?
Whereas fellow youth subcultures – the teddy boys, the rockers, the punks, the brand new romantics – have both fallen by the wayside, develop into a hardcore cult, or dwindled into costume-party irrelevance, the unique ideas of the mod look are nonetheless enjoying out in males’s style. The sharp tailoring, the knitted polos, the jacquard and paisley accents, the Clarks Desert Boots – these are all nonetheless fashionable items that resonate with the person of at the moment.
There’s the manufacturers nonetheless flying the flag – Ben Sherman and John Smedley (and their descendants, comparable to Liam Gallagher’s Fairly Inexperienced) in addition to the affect of mod-borrowing musical actions like 2-Tone and Britpop.
And let’s not overlook modern clean-cut modfathers comparable to Paul Weller, Martin Freeman and Bradley Wiggins, and youthful bucks like Miles Kane, Jake Bugg, and The Strypes. So why has mod type retained such traction whereas the opposite appears to be like have crashed and burned? It’s all in regards to the garments themselves.
Ben Sherman
“You’ve got to remember that the word ‘mod’ is derived from ‘modernist’, and that the key thing about the look is that, yes, it’s clean-cut and smart, but that it’s open to all kinds of influences, and it constantly evolves,” says the tailor Mark Powell.
We’re speaking in his Soho atelier, only a winklepicker’s throw from Carnaby Road, floor zero of the unique mod detonation within the late fifties and early sixties, and Powell is guiding me by means of his rogue’s gallery of mod-con shoppers: Paul Weller in a double-breasted gray pinstripe swimsuit, based mostly on a ’60s type; Martin Freeman in an Ivy League-inspired short-jacketed, slim-trousered pinstripe swimsuit; Bradley Wiggins in a velvet double-breasted jacket, accepting his Sports activities Persona of the Yr Award. And right here’s Powell himself, wanting equal elements Edwardian gent and East Finish gangster on the set of 1986’s Absolute Learners – the film.
Mark Powell
“Paul, Martin and Bradley are basically following the philosophy of the early mods,” says Powell in his gruff geezer accent. “Males had been all sporting fits again within the late fifties, however the mods tweaked the look by taking inspiration from jazz, the Ivy League, and Italian tailoring. Guys like Miles Davis had been by means of the zoot fits and bebop flamboyance, however then they went the opposite method, and embraced the preppy, conservative Ivy League look – slim fits, knitwear, loafers – and made it look actually modern and slick.
“The Italian factor then got here in with the boxier jackets and slimmer flat-fronted trousers. It was very aspirational – a solution to stand aside out of your mother and father and friends, and to align your self with this new Britain that embraced immigration, that regarded to Europe, with the tailoring and the scooters, and that was beginning to break down class distinctions. However the true mod look was by no means generic; it was all the time altering, all the time evolving.
G.H.Bass
“The jazz thing is a good analogy – you have a solid, sharp baseline, but lots of room to improvise on top of that. I would argue that the flamboyant, late-sixties dandy looks of guys like Terence Stamp, Justin de Villeneuve and Lord Lichfield – the crushed velvet, the white suits, the paisley ruffs – were more in the mod spirit than any number of fishtail parka jackets you might see in Quadrophenia.”
Zara
It was Phil Daniels’ Jimmy within the 1979 movie of The Who’s mod opera who uttered what is perhaps the motion’s mission assertion – “I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I became a mod, see? I mean you gotta be somebody, ain’t ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown” – so it was ironic that the film did a lot to ascertain the enduring cliché of mods as scooter-riding, parka-sporting copycats.
How To Costume Like A Mod
Any overview of mod value its salt must fold in some necessities: the Harrington jacket (the Baracuta G9 golf jacket, re-christened in honour of Rodney Harrington, Ryan O’Neal’s proto-mod character within the sixties US cleaning soap Peyton Place, by John Simons, an early Ivy League adopter who bought the jacket at his legendary mod retailer in London); the Crombie coat (adopted by the ska-loving suedeheads, a part of mod’s prolonged household); the John Smedley knit polo (a still-smart various to a collar and tie, and logo-less, which is essential to the mod aesthetic); and the Ben Sherman button-down (Sherman constructed his enterprise by capitalising on the mods’ love of imported Oxford shirt.
Fred Perry
Sherman produced his personal, scrupulously sourcing US fabric, in hot-button colors like pink and mint inexperienced). “There were only blue-collar or white-collar shirts around at the time, so Ben added the colour, along with stripes, a signature button at the back of the collar, and a back box pleat as his sign-off,” says Mark Williams, inventive director of the Ben Sherman model at the moment.
“It tapped into the original mods’ obsession with detail, one that I think carries on through today. For them it was about getting the latest imported shirt, or shoe, or 7-inch R&B single. Today, it’s still about things like the right cut of suit, working cuff buttons, the way a collar hangs, raised seams, loud linings. For me, as long as you’re reinventing your look whilst paying attention to those sharp and most exacting rules of dressing, then you’re staying true to the mod spirit – even if you wouldn’t necessarily call yourself a mod.”
Farah
However is the mod look nonetheless aspirational even at the moment, when tech titans are likely to have wardrobes stuffed with gray marl hoodies and/or navy turtlenecks, and hedge-fund billionaires uniformly sport cashmere crewnecks? “It’ll be around as long as men are into cut, and fit, and detail,” says Powell. “New generations will always pick up on different aspects of the look and reinvigorate it. That’s why the mod aesthetic has endured – it can’t be pinned down to a scooter and a target roundel.”
“Ask yourself, do I stand out from the crowd in my grey hoodie?” says Williams. “Today, the idea of capturing this iconic look and offering it to a mainstream customer is still about all the things that Absolute Beginners was about: living life on your own terms rather than someone else’s; being wiser; looking sharper; digging deeper; and having a mind of your own. I mean, honestly – who wouldn’t want to buy into that?”
3 Key Mod Appears to be like
Mid-Century Knitwear
The knitted polo may be the very best, and most fashionable method, to reference some mod panache in a up to date look at the moment. When executed with a pointy sample or stripe, it harks again to the early mods of the late Nineteen Fifties who turned to the continent for his or her inspiration – assume Dicke Greenleaf in The Proficient Mr Ripley and also you’re heading in the right direction.
Pair it with some tailor-made swimsuit trousers – with a brief break – penny loafers (the quintessential mod shoe) and a few mild colored socks and also you’ve obtained a flexible outfit prepared for work or play. Costume it up with a blazer; down with a Harrington or bomber.
Off-Obligation Basic
Talking of Harringtons, you want one. Within the light-weight jacket canon it’s up there with the very best – it’s an effortlessly cool piece and, with a tartan lining, is quintessentially mod. Navy or stone can be the apparent decisions, however at the moment you possibly can decide one up in a myriad of colors and materials together with suede or corduroy if you happen to fancy being, effectively, fancy.
You’ll be able to put on just about something with a Harrington, however for high mod factors a button-down Oxford shirt, indigo selvedge denim denims and Clarks Desert boots are the right enhances. Maintain the denims slim, tuck the shirt in and roll the hems of the denim to indicate off these boots, simply watch out with them in winter – suede is delicate and the crepe soles get particularly slippery when moist.
Fashionable Tailoring
Consider traditional mod type and also you’ll probably image tailoring. And but it’s so troublesome to get proper. The everyday mod swimsuit would characteristic a 3 button entrance, with slim lapels and pretty structured, roped shoulders. For a extra fashionable (get it?) replace although, flip to one thing extra calmly structured, with two buttons and ever so barely wider lapels. This can be comfier and can look much less like a dressing up. Though maintain it slim: “To an extent, all tapered, fitted suits are simply a nod to the mod,” says Ben Sherman’s Mark Williams. “And the more contemporary, the more mod.”
For the remainder of the look, flip straight to the sixties. Few footwear end off a swimsuit fairly so effectively as a pair of sharp Chelsea boots in black leather-based – make sure the trousers are hemmed excessive to permit their smooth silhouette to shine. And in terms of shirting, attempt a tab collar. It’s a comparatively troublesome type to choose up as of late however you’ll look all of the sharper for it and the unique mods would admire your savvy sourcing. To finish the look a knitted tie is important – purpose for a darker shade than the swimsuit to show enough distinction between the 2.
