The Modernists...

An excerp from Adam Sheners’ forthcoming book
We were the Mods (The Way We Really Were) by Adam Shener

Introduction : Mods.
What are your thoughts when Mods are mentioned?
Some of you, if you’re old enough, might say marauding teenagers on motor scooters causing havoc at various seaside resorts in the south of England on bank holidays during 1963 and 1964; or The Who, Ready Steady Go, Cathy McGowan, the Discotheque in London’s Wardour Street, The Flamingo and The Marquee clubs to name but a few; or blue beat music, well fitted, narrow lapel button three, made to measure Tonik mohair suits, tab collar shirts, cufflinks, Chelsea boots and Hush Puppies! With these thoughts in mind one can reasonably assume that you were around at that time, or you’re well read on the subject. Or are you?
Possibly you’re the latter. Although a few of us did listen to blue beat music, ‘The Who’ as ‘The Who’, did not have their first hit until 1965 which was “My Generation”. In 1964 the year that the Mod movement was at its strongest ‘The Who’ was still called ‘The High Numbers’.
There are those of you that might say, The Jam, Paul Weller, The Hundred Club, Quadrophenia, Northern Soul and Ska music, parkas, desert boots, cheap button three narrow lapel tight fitting two tone imitation Tonik suits. Well, I’m sorry but you’re wrong again. All these factors indicate the Mod revival of the late 70’s, early 80’s - the second generation Mods.
Now if you said, Oasis, The Charlatans, Madness, Blur, Ska and Northern Soul music, scooters, parkas, desert boots, Harrington jackets and badly fitting cheap replica button three 60’s style Mod suits worn with all three buttons done up, and button down check shirts and dodgy sunglasses, then it’s obvious that you’re referring to the Mod revival of the 90’s. The third generation Mods, or if you like the total bastardisation of a classic style. And for the record, no self respecting 60’s Mod would even contemplate having all three buttons done up on his suit jacket. The correct way is just the middle button done up.
Then there’s even some of you that might think cropped hair, check button down collar shirts, braces, half mast jeans, Harrington jackets and Doctor Marten boots, two tone imitation Tonik button three tight fitting cheap suits, with narrow bottom trousers worn too short! Well that’s not Mods at all! Sorry to disillusion you, but all that relates to skinheads.
Confusing isn’t it?! Let’s be honest about this. The real true Mod era only lasted a very short time. It started in early 1963 and ended in late 1964. This is the only era that I’m interested in. I’m not for one moment saying that there was no Mods around after 1964, only that Mods like us weren’t. Nor do I profess to be an expert on the whole 60’s scene. I am a lot more qualified on the subject though, than some of the bullshitting so-called experts. I was a real Mod in 1964, and by 1965 “Swinging London” and Carnaby Street had emerged. Even the dreaded flares were creeping in. While I’m on the subject of flared bottom trousers, let me enlighten some of you that get boot-cut trousers confused with flares. Traditionally a boot-cut trouser is what it says it is. The bottom of the trouser goes over your boot. This cut of jeans has been around for decades and was made popular in the United States going back to the days of the Wild West and of course cowboy boots, (I‘m sure you all know what they are) hence boot cut. On a traditional boot-cut trouser, the width of the bottoms should be the same width as the knee measurement, normally around eighteen to nineteen inches wide. Now if the bottom of the trouser is wider than the knee, then whichever way you look at it, like it or not, they’re flares, because they flare outwards. My guess is that because of the stigma with flared bottom trousers, modern day so-called designers have called them boot-cut instead. Why not call them what they are? They’re fricking flares for fuck’s sake! Yet another instance of misrepresentation. So, sure we have had various Mod revivals, and let’s not take anything away from the likes of the very talented Paul Weller and the Jam from the 70’s and 80’s, whose interpretation of the 60’s Mod scene (in my opinion anyway) was excellent. I welcomed too the revival again of the 90’s with the help of the likes of Oasis. So the legend lives on. Unfortunately, however, a lot of the real thing has been lost in the interpretation. Every would-be Mod and his fucking brother has got their oar in and bastardised the whole thing.
Very recently I was watching a program on BBC1 hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, and they were talking about the Mods and Rockers scene of the 60’s. They had a woman on the show that they claimed was an expert on the fashion of the time. Although her comments about the models dressed like rockers were basically correct, as was her explanation as to where that particular style originated, the way the male model portrayed a 60’s Mod was totally incorrect. His attire was a mish mash of 60’s, 70’s revival and 90’s retro Mods all thrown together. But to top this, her description was totally and utterly incorrect and bordering on being offensive to any self- respecting 60’s Mod. I quote, “the suits the Mods used to wear originated in Italy”…….. Bollocks they did! “They wore made-to-measure, button three, tight fitting bum freezer jackets. The trousers were tight fitting, and they wore Cuban-heeled winkle picker boots!” Madam, that is the biggest load of old codswallop I’ve ever heard. Yes bum freezer jackets, tight trousers and winklepickers did originate in Italy. That part you did get right. These items of clothing were popular in the early 60’s but not in the Mod era. I clearly remember buying a suit exactly as in your description in 1961, and just for the record the suit the male model was wearing onthe programme was not a bum freezer as you described, nor were his boots winklepickers. Winklepickers along with bum freezer jackets, went out of fashion by early 1963, and yes those of us that could afford it and were real Mods did have our suits made by a personal tailor.
Unfortunately because a lot of us Mods rode around on Vespas and Lambrettas which everyone knows are Italian, some of you have assumed our clothes were of the same origin. Let me tell you the Italian youth were still wearing boxy bum freezer jackets and high heeled winklepickers in 1964. Italy was not a force to be reckoned with as far as men’s fashions were concerned until the 70’s. For that, you had to look to the style and elegance of the French, and the quality of the classic English look. Yes I did say English. I’ll forgive the lady for the incorrect information, only because I’ll accept the fact that she weren’t there at the time. Even she’s been misinformed. And also, just for the record I can even tell you where the Mod suit the male model was wearing came from, and who made it.
The other problem is that people get regular clothing confused with stage wear. Let’s face it you are more likely to find old publications and re-runs of ‘Top Of The Pops’ and ‘Ready Steady Go’ from that era that are to do with the music and entertainment industry, than with clothing. The Cuban heeled, Chelsea boots or “Beatle” boots, were worn by the band with the same name. Then other music groups like the Dave Clark Five followed. But let me assure you they were not winklepickers. To prove my point I quote part of an advert by a North London company for this style of footwear, that was a regular feature in the New Musical Express throughout 1964:
“‘Mersey Boots’; ‘New beat boots’- with elastic side gussets, inverted front seam, rounded toe and 2.5 in heel” etc. etc. Not a word about winklepickers! Even before the Beatles and until today, this type of high heeled boot was and still is popular throughout the entertainment industry - especially with those that are vertically challenged (man’s natural animal instinct to look bigger than he really is.) I can honestly say we as real London Mods did not wear this style of footwear. I can recall only one of the lads that hung around with us wore this style of boot. His family had just immigrated here from Spain. He weren’t really a Mod but he was a shortarse. To make a point, how many ordinary people did you see walking the streets in the 70’s dressed in the outfits that Elvis used to wear on stage, other than the odd nutter here and there?
We all know the story about little Jimmy whose dad told him that when he was driving home from the pub he had seen his mate Johnny’s sister Tracey snogging her boyfriend in the back of his car. Jimmy told some of his mates, and his mates told their mates and so on. By the time the information reached Jimmy’s mum it nearly caused a divorce. The information she received was that Jimmy had seen his dad shagging Johnny’s sister Tracey in the back of his car outside the pub. Second hand information can distort the truth.
I have had many conversation with blokes that reckon they were Mods. Judging by their ages they were either five years old at the time, or they were still a sperm in their father’s testicles.
There are publications that have portrayed the way we were, and the way we dressed that are totally incorrect. There’s photographs of Mods in these publications that are clearly not from 1963-1964. The clothes are incorrect. Some of the registration numbers on the scooters do not correspond to that period. If you’d like to check with the DVLA they will confirm that a ‘C’ reg is 1965, and a ‘D’ reg is 1966. There is even one photo that has an ‘F’ reg. The earliest that could be is 1968. In one of the publications there’s a photo of a young bloke probably about eighteen. He’s wearing a check button down shirt, jeans that are too short and boots, and he’s standing next to a scooter that I can only presume is his. If you clock the registration it’s HLY 488C. Now at best the picture was taken in 1965, but in my opinion judging by his clothes more than likely it was 1967 or even 1968. Or it’s even possible that they could be retro Mods from the late 70’s. I’m not for one minute saying that the way these publications have portrayed the way the younger generation used to dress in the 60’s is incorrect. Nor am I saying that they have deliberately gone out to mislead. However would it not have been correct procedure to caption the photographs with the year they were taken? What I am saying is that neither the Mods, myself, nor any of our mob dressed like this between 1963 and 1964, and believe me, we were the Mods! I refer you to the film “Quadrophenia”, a great film by the way. Judging by the Brighton Mods and Rocker riots portrayed in the film we are led to believe that this took place in May of 1964. Do you remember the part of the film where Phil Daniels is tearing down posters from his bedroom. One particular poster that sticks out like a sore thumb is - yes you’ve got it - “The Who.” Let me tell you in May 1964 The Who were not The Who, they were known as The High Numbers. As I said their first hit as The Who was My Generation and that was in 1965. The Who, in my view anyway, are one of the greatest ever British bands. There’s no denying that, but you must also remember that it was The Who that produced the film. So let’s not distort history for the sake of a film. I know the film was low budget, but come on, some of the clothes the actors were wearing are an insult to anyone that was a true Mod. I’ll just give you one example. I’m looking at a photo from the film. It’s the one where a group of them are walking down the street in Brighton. You’ve got Phil Daniels in the middle, to his left is the bloke from ‘The Bill’ wearing a soppy hat, and to the right of Phil there’s a bloke with a fag in his mouth wearing a striped suit. Look carefully at the suit. There‘s no doubt that this suit is from the 70’s. For crying out loud, the trousers on the suit are fucking flares!
Even the so called Mods from the out of London area dressed a little different to us Londoners. A classic example is that of a photograph of a very well known pop group wherein the four group members are all holding umbrellas. I’m sure you know the one I’m referring to. The suits they’re wearing are very sharp and well tailored. The jackets are perfect except they don’t have ticket pockets, but the trousers on the suits are almost drainpipes and some of the boys are wearing pointed toe boots with Cuban heels. This might be all very nice but if you know your 60’s fashion then you’ll know that this is not a London Mod look but a Liverpudlian one. Also let’s not confuse stage wear with regular Mod clothes. Unfortunately as I said earlier the majority of old 60’s publications available to researchers are music related.
Nowadays there are retro Mods all over the world. Japan, in particular has a very strong following. The Japanese retro Mods have been a major factor in the bastardisation of the way the real 60’s Mods dressed. What they’ve done is combine the clothing of the entire 1960’s, along with the 70’s and 80’s revival, and come up with a right cock up. Because the Japanese during the 90’s had tremendous purchasing power, the British clothing manufacturers made them whatever they wanted. Even those of us that knew the styling was incorrect bowed to their every need. In the 90’s the Japanese would sell twenty incorrect retro black Mod suits to one of any other colour. The hipster trousers on them would all be plain fronted with front frog mouth pockets. They would wear these suits with check button down collar shirts, and skinny knitted ties and Doctor Marten shoes or boots. In the winter season they would wear over their suits either a Crombie style black coat, or a high collared highwayman’s style double breasted black P coat. On their own all these garments are fine, but to combine them together is yet another insult to the original Mods.
Let me explain. Yes some of us did wear black suits, but it was not the most popular colour. Midnight blue kid mohair, and the blue/black, and bronze/ black iridescent three ply Tonik mohair were the most popular - not a cheap synthetic black fabric. The trousers were plain fronted, but they had side pockets not front pockets and they were definitely not hipsters. We did not wear check button down collar shirts. We did wear skinny knitted ties, and in the winter some of us wore the traditional dark blue Crombie, but not the P coat or the Reefer style with a highwayman collar. That style came later in the 60’s.
There is a lot of controversy as to what is a Tonik suit? Let me explain. Tonik is one of the brand names of a fabric manufacturing company called Dormeuil, who, may I add, were originally French. They were, and still are, one of the finest suppliers of woven woolen suiting fabrics in the world. All good tailors then and now, from Saville Row to Hackney Road, use their fabrics for their top end suits. I have yet to see a ready to wear suit in this fabric. Now their Tonik fabric is a three ply wool and mohair that has a sheen to it, and is iridescent or ‘two-tone’ to look at. The reason they can get this look is that mohair, which is produced from goat hair, has a natural sheen to it, and this is woven into the weft of the cloth. Then they use pure wool that comes from sheep for the warp. Now to get the two tone or iridescent look, they use for instance black for the warp, and royal blue for the weft. This gives a superb cloth with all the characteristics that Tonik by Dormeuil is famous for. And believe me a real Tonik suit is not some mass produced cheap shiny piece of crap that some of you imitation Mods are wearing.
So it’s back to the story of little Jimmy and his Dad. You see although check button down shirts and Doctor Marten footwear were popular in the 60’s and were a strong influence on how the younger generation dressed, they were not items that the true 60’s Mods would have had in their wardrobe. Check button collar shirts and Doc Martens came onto the fashion scene later in the 60’s and were associated with skinheads. The highwayman style coat or jacket, as with hipster trousers, were yet another 60’s trend. Now we’re talking swinging London and the Carnaby Street era. Toward the end of 1964, pop groups the likes of the Kinks and The Moody Blues had started wearing this style on stage. If you look at photographs of celebrities involved in the revival of the 70’s and the 80’s you will see a lot of them in black suits. Don’t
get me wrong black is a great colour for stage wear. As for the front pocket saga on the trousers, you see in the 70’s, at the same time as the Mod revival, a trouser made by Farah a very successful clothing manufacturer, was making (and still is today) a plain fronted trouser or ‘slacks’ if you like, that had a straight leg, and yes front frog mouth pockets. This item of clothing became very popular with certain elements of the younger generation, and with the exception of Levi’s are probably the biggest seller of all time when it comes to men’s trousers. So basically they’ve put a bit of this with a bit of that, and come up with tat, or if you prefer - a load of old bollocks!There are clothing shops even today in famous London streets selling their interpretation of 60’s Mod clothing who profess to have been there since the Mod era of the 60’s. What a load of old bollocks! None of the original shops exist now. The pioneers of London’s Carnaby Street and the likes of John Stephen and Lord John, the founders of both of which I know personally, have long gone. There are clothing brands that although they were around in 1963, will have you believe that we as Mods used to wear their shirts. Considering that they did not really become that popular until 1966 they are confusing Mods with skinheads. I was there first hand. I can only tell you what I know and what I can remember. These are my personal opinions and they are not meant to discredit or offend anyone.
However the truth must be told. There were Mods and there were Mods. There were those that called themselves Mods simply because they didn’t ride motorbikes or wear black leather motor cycle clothing. They were normally very young, around fifteen years old. Most of them were still at school or had just started work. The clothes they wore were whatever their parents could afford or what they could afford themselves from their paltry wages. They were mainly from working class families. Then there were the “MODS.” Now these boys were a mixed bunch, average age 16 to 18, hence the scooters, because the majority of us weren’t old enough to drive cars. Sure some of us wore parkas and desert boots, what other coat could you buy that kept you warm and dry on the back of a scooter, and was acceptable to your mates as a fashion item for a couple of quid, and a pound for the boots? And yes some of us did go to the seaside resorts for aggro. What else was there for us to do on a bank holiday when everywhere else was closed? So no one’s denying that, but let me tell you the real violence was between ourselves, not with the rockers. Striping your opponent was all the rage. There were many stabbings, and some murders. There were lads from all walks of life. From apprentice plumbers and electricians, shop workers and van boys, to trainee bank managers and trainee solicitors. And so on. And let’s not forget the boys that actually worked in the menswear shops or whose fathers owned the shops. These boys, a lot of whom were Jewish, had a strong influence in the way we dressed. Sure we had our own style of dress, but we didn’t invent it, it was already there. The parkas were second hand army surplus, and the suits we wore were traditional English styling with a French influence. Not Italian, as I’ve said before. Just look at some French films that were made in 1962. Even some of our dads, uncles, and older brothers wore the same style suits. Only they didn’t dress up very often. I remember my first real made to measure suit. The style was in a traditional English style book that was available to look at in the majority of tailors. They were probably published in the 50’s. Button three side pockets with flaps, a ticket pocket with a flap, an outside breast pocket, a long centre vent in the back of the jacket, and depending which personal tailor you went to, long side vents. The trousers had side pockets not front pockets, as is interpreted today, and straight legs which were plain fronted, absolutely no pleats. The less fortunate lads that could not afford a bespoke suit would buy the suits ready made for about ten pounds from various retail outlets in and around London. In our neighbourhood there were shops the likes of Smart Weston’s, Conicks, and Leslie Allen. Leslie Allen did both off the peg and bespoke suits that were actually made in the factory behind the front shop, so you could purchase a ready to wear suit from around ten pounds, or have one made to measure from twenty five pounds upwards. Some of the boys would go up West to shops such as Austin’s, and later on, John Stephen and Lord John. Those that could afford it would get their suits made by the various multiple Yorkshire based clothing companies that had outlets in the South, the likes of John Colliers, Burtons, Alexandra’s, Willoughby’s, and Hepworths, who thanks to George Davis are now Next. They would make you a made to measure suit for around fifteen pounds. In those days English clothing was regarded as the best in the world. To complement our
suits we wore tab or pointed collar shirts and skinny ties.
And as for the music we listened to, you only have to glance at the best selling singles from February to August 1964: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Manfred Mann, Herman’s Hermits, Peter and Gordon, The Four Pennies, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Supremes, The Hollies, The Searchers, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, Cilla Black, Kathy Kirby, Julie Rogers, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Dionne Warwick and Billy J Kramer and so on. Hardly fucking Northern Soul or Ska was it?
The closest we got to anything like that was a hit record called My Boy Lollipop, by Jamaican born artist Millie, and that was a flash in the pan! I am not critical of Ska or Northern Soul music, all I’m saying is that it was not popular with us 60’s Mods. Then we had the Ultra Mods, sometimes referred to as the faces. These were the elite, the impeccably dressed fashion leaders. Generally speaking we were a little older, seventeen to nineteen. Now these blokes wouldn’t dream of riding on scooters and running riot at some seaside resort, we had cars. Mindless aggravation was left to the others. We wouldn’t, in our wildest dreams, even contemplate buying a suit off the peg or even get one made to measure by one of the multiple tailors. Only the best would do. Our suits were made by a personal tailor. By that I mean that the bloke that measured you actually cut the cloth and made the suit. Besides the choice of cloth, the fit had to be to perfection. They weren’t tight, they just fitted you correctly. The shirts had to be double cuffed, cuff links were a must, and had to have either a tab collar, a half penny round, or a longish point. It was imperative that we showed a half inch of our shirt cuff below our jacket sleeve. Our shoes were low cut Chelsea boots or the penny loafer. For those of us that had the resources, the moccasin style shoe from France with the stitching showing where the sole joined the upper was a must, and the chisel toes were just coming in. No we didn’t wear our trousers too short either. We wore them correctly! We looked the bollocks! Not like a sack of shit, the way some of you blokes look today.
It wasn’t too difficult to work out who bought their clothes from where. It was easy to spot the lads that bought their clothes off the peg or wore hand me downs. Their jackets didn’t fit properly. They had no shape. They were far too boxy. The shoulders were too wide, as were the lapels. Some of them had short side vents and no ticket pocket. Some of them even wore jackets with the sleeves too long. The trousers they would wear would quite often be too tight and too short. And to top it all the fabrication would be totally wrong. Some of them would even wear pointed toe shoes which were a relic of the early 60’s. They were not from nineteen sixty-four. They would wear the standard shirts that were available to one and all from the High Street, or even their old school shirts. Some of these youngsters would even wear their old school blazers, striped or otherwise, with the badge taken off. Mind you that’s all the poor sods could afford. No self respecting real Mod would dream of wearing a sports jacket and trousers. It had to be a suit. As I said these boys weren’t real Mods, they just weren’t rockers.
You could tell the boys that had their suits made by the multiple tailors. The style was right, and sometimes the cloth was right, but not all the time. They weren’t hand finished, so to the untrained eye it might as well have been off the peg. Fit wise they were nearly right. The shoulders might have been a touch too wide or the sleeves a little too long, or they may have not been waisted enough, but most of all their suits lacked that sharpness you had with a proper hand tailored one. The real Mods, the faces, now we did stand out. You could tell us a mile off! Made to measure hand finished suits in kid or Tonik mohair. The jacket style had to be a button three, narrow lapel, side pocket and ticket pocket all with flaps. A long centre or side vents and hand stitched edges were a must, and let’s not forget the silk hanky in the top pocket. Our trousers had side pockets. No belt loops just side adjusters. The length had to be perfect, the front just touching the shoe and the back touching the base of the heel. The exact measurement of the trouser width was sixteen and a half to seventeen inch at the bottom with the knee measurement being an inch or so wider. Now our suits were very fitted, not tight. In all honesty if you were fat you couldn’t wear them in this style. Mind you if you’re fat you don’t look particularly good in anything. Our shoes were always clean and regularly polished, not grubby and scuffed like a lot of the other lads. Our shirts were in plain colours or self motif designs. Shirts with a pin through collar were available in the latter part of the year. Let’s not romanticize the early 60’s and the Mod era too much. Trust me it wasn’t all roses. Simple things like bodily hygiene was a chore. A lot of the working class homes were not only cramped and unheated, they didn’t have bathing facilities, so it was a weekly trip down to the local baths, and even those that did have bathrooms only seemed to use them once a week. Can you imagine girls washing their hair only once a week these days? And let’s not forget the outside toilets. Friday night was the traditional bath night if I remember right, and as for oral hygiene, well that was almost non existent. It was common for people in their 40’s to have false teeth. If you think it’s bad now being on a crowed bus or underground, try being around then, especially on a smoked filled tube train. Can you imagine today someone wearing the same unwashed shirt and underwear and socks for two days in a row, and not bathing? Well let me tell you there were pupils at my school in the early 60’s that wore the same clothes all week. As teenagers we had to do as we were told at school and at work, unlike today, whereby we treat teenagers as young adults. Let’s not kid ourselves and say that all the clothes worn in that era were great, because they weren’t. Yeah sure the style and cut of the suits worn by the Mod boys were the bollocks, so were some of the shirts and footwear. But like all fashion eras there was the good, the bad, and the fucking ugly. The good things about the way we used to dress, like the cut and the style of the boys’ suits, and the girls’ dresses have become classics and will go on forever, simply because they were not offensive and were easy on the eye. Classic fashion is not about loud colours and over the top styling. It’s about simplicity and subtlety.
The question has been asked as to how the Mod fashion started. Some people will have you believe that it was inspired by a group of students that were into jazz music, who frequented the various jazz clubs around Soho in London, and in turn were influenced by the various overseas jazz musicians that performed at these clubs. Well that’s bullshit. Can someone show me a photograph of these zoot suit wearing jazz musicians dressed in a remotely similar way to us Mods? I don’t think so. The Mod fashion started the same way as all fashion trends start, and still do today. The difference was that the early 60’s was the beginning of the teenage revolution. Gone was the grey era of the 1950’s. National service and conscription had been abolished, and we began to have rights. We would no longer work as apprentices for no, or very little money. In some cases we had even had to pay the employer for the privilege of being their apprentice. Not any more. We were no longer prepared to be seen but not heard. All of a sudden we had a voice, we became a strong consumer group. We no longer had to listen to the same music as our peers. Out went the likes of Vera Lynn, Doris Day and Perry Como, and in came The British Pop Scene and bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that conquered the world let alone England. How about the old farts that reckoned that the music of that time was a another flash in the pan and referred to the likes of Mick Jagger as long haired louts eh? Well our Mick (or is it Sir Mick)? is in his 60’s now, and he’s still rocking, strutting and pouting, and the music is still the bollocks. Anyway the British clothing manufacturers had to take notice of us, and they did. This is how it works. There are those that create a fashion, let’s call them the creators. Examples of these are Chanel, Christian Dior, and in modern days the likes of Versace, Valentino and Paul Smith - basically couture or well established designers in their own right. They blame their own catwalk shows and the media, but they are then very quickly ripped off by other clothing companies, who in turn show their interpretation of the styles at various trade shows around Europe. One of the biggest shows used to be held twice a year in Paris. Every would-be clothing manufacturer and multiple retailer would attend these shows, and because the exhibitors would be showing their collections at least a season in advance, and also the fact that these shows are held before the British ones, gives the rip-off artists plenty of time to copy and produce the items, and in many cases get the styles into the shops before the original creators. Then the rip-off merchants mark II, would in turn rip off the rip-off merchants mark I. Now because every would-be clothing manufacturer fancies themselves as designers, the end result would always be a little different to the original. To put this into perspective, in August of 1977 the company I was with was showing a collection of men’s tailored clothing that I’d designed at the French show in Paris held two weeks before the British show in London. One of the main features of the collection, besides the complete change in body fit and silhouette was the introduction of leather and suede trim on the jackets. Our main competitor in the UK at the time came to the French show, not as an exhibitor, but as a visitor. I was told by one of their senior managers, who later came to work for us, that as soon as they returned from the show in Paris they started altering their collection to include leather and suede trim, and had the samples ready in time for the British show. As the copyright law stands, when it comes to clothing it is almost impossible to take legal action. You may well ask where do the creators get their ideas from. Well in my opinion, we are all influenced by something or other, no less than styles from previous decades. Those of you that are familiar with the clothing market held on Fridays and Saturdays on the Portobello Road in West London may understand this better than most. Let me explain. The market consists of several hundred traders, of which eighty percent sell vintage clothing, or as I would put it used or second-hand clothing. In my opinion the only thing that should be tagged vintage is good wine, not somebody’s cast-offs. Anyway a lot of designers such as Paul Smith, Jean Paul Gaultier, Oswald Boateng, and Julian McDonald to name but a few, make regular visits to the market to get ideas and many of those famous names that don’t, send their scouts instead. Give credit to Paul Smith, he is one of the few that will admit this. If you really want to know where the style for the jacket of the Mod suit came from, I’ll tell you. It was already there. I refer you to a British B film, made in 1963 called Murder at the Gallop, starring Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley. Anyway several of the male characters including Fat Boy Robert Morley himself were wearing tweed type Jackets, and guess what style they were? Yes, button three, narrow lapel, side pockets with flaps, the now famous ticket pocket also with a flap, and a longish centre vent. So it was an adaptation of the English and the French tweed riding jacket.

You may well ask, “What about the girl Mods?” The simple answer is, “What girl Mods?” The truth is there weren’t any girl Mods as such. Of course there were girls, and some of them had their own style too. I shortened many a hem line and put a nip and a tuck here and there on my girlfriends’ outfits. I’m sure there are those of you that will disagree with me, but remember we are talking 1963/64 not 1965. Sure some of the better off girls followed the French fashions, but in all honesty the clothing available at that time for the ordinary girl was drab and non descript. It was a little later that it all happened for the girls. Although designers like Mary Quant and Barbara Halunicky were out there, Vidal Sassoon had already created the world famous bob cut, and the likes of David Bailey had changed the way clothing was photographed, it wasn’t really until early 1965 that there was a drastic change in women’s clothing - the birth of the mini-skirt that revolutionised the way young women dressed. But in 1964 it was the Mod boys that were the peacocks. You may well ask why am I so passionate about the subject. Clothes are my passion. A good suit can be better than sex, or at least it can help get you some. The fact of the matter is that in thirty years or so there will not be any original Mods left to pass on the truth. All we’ll have left to go on is the inaccurate publications. So let’s get the facts right now.
Every manor had its little Mod gang or crew, and every gang had its three or four faces. You’d see them at various clubs and dance halls. The others would all be fucking around making a nuisance of themselves and causing aggro. Not the faces. Sure we had fights but not for the fun of it. We were first in the pecking order. We’d be immaculately dressed standing at the bar, not sitting in case our suits got creased, getting the first pickings of the crumpet and whatever else was around. We looked, and were, the double bollocks, and not a button down collar, check shirt in sight! We were the bollocks, we were the Londoners, and we were, THE MODS! And in myopinion, you know where the word Mod comes from, its short for fucking Modern! Mind you, what do I know? I was only there!
Hopefully the following story will help you to understand what it was all about. If it don’t then maybe you don’t want to understand, the way we were, or maybe you’re one of the pretenders?
……………………………….....................................................................................
The 60’s have to be the most memorable decade of the twentieth century. It took the population of London the entire 50’s to get over the effects of the Second World War, then bang we were in the 60’s. To me this was the decade for the young. We now had a new breed of young London talent: designers, photographers, hairdressers, actors, authors, musicians, business people and so on, and the really good ones are still around today forty odd years later. What does that tell you? We had the birth of pirate radio, that gave the authorities and the BBC a kick in the nuts. We had an aura of confidence about us. Yes, we had an attitude, but was it a bad one? I don’t think so.
………………………………...................................................................................
feedback here!




Mod from Modernism
The term mod derives from modernist, which was a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. This usage contrasted with the term trad, which described traditional jazz players and fans. The 1959 novel Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes describes as a modernist a young modern jazz fan who dresses in sharp modern Italian clothes. Absolute Beginners may be one of the earliest written examples of the term modernist being used to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. The word modernist in this sense should not be confused with the wider use of the term modernism in the context of literature, art, design and architecture.

Mod (originally modernist, sometimes capitalised) is a subculture that originated in London in the late 1950s and peaked in the early to mid 1960s.Significant elements of the mod lifestyle included music, such as African American soul, Jamaican ska, and British beat music and R&B; fashion (often tailor-made suits); and Italian motor scooters. The mod scene was also associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs. From the mid to late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or modern. There was a mod revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, which was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s. Today there is still a mod inspired underground scene and global community that maintians high passion and dedication to detail. The modernists and mod style still sends echoes through modern day mainstream culture and is a firm continual pool of inspiration for designers, musicians and artists of all kinds.