Again in 1959, Colin MacInnes supplied up the next description of a younger gadabout-town in his novel Absolute Novices: “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 Novices 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 hanging about MacInnes’ anatomisation of Swift’s outfit is that, over half a century on, it nonetheless feels very, properly, fashionable. Regardless of being some half a century outdated, mod type may be very a lot related right this moment.
What Is Mod Model?
Whereas fellow youth subcultures – the teddy boys, the rockers, the punks, the brand new romantics – have both fallen by the wayside, grow to be a hardcore cult, or dwindled into costume-party irrelevance, the unique rules of the mod look are nonetheless taking part in out in males’s style. The sharp tailoring, the knitted polos, the jacquard and paisley accents, the Clarks Desert Boots – these are all nonetheless trendy items that resonate with the person of right this moment.
There’s the manufacturers nonetheless flying the flag – Ben Sherman and John Smedley (and their descendants, similar 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 neglect modern clean-cut modfathers similar 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 seems to be have crashed and burned? It’s all concerning 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 Avenue, floor zero of the unique mod detonation within the late fifties and early sixties, and Powell is guiding me by way of his rogue’s gallery of mod-con shoppers: Paul Weller in a double-breasted gray pinstripe go well with, primarily based on a ’60s type; Martin Freeman in an Ivy League-inspired short-jacketed, slim-trousered pinstripe go well with; Bradley Wiggins in a velvet double-breasted jacket, accepting his Sports activities Character of the 12 months Award. And right here’s Powell himself, wanting equal elements Edwardian gent and East Finish gangster on the set of 1986’s Absolute Novices – the film.
Mark Powell
“Paul, Martin and Bradley are basically following the philosophy of the early mods,” says Powell in his gruff geezer accent. “Men were all wearing suits back in the late fifties, but the mods tweaked the look by taking inspiration from jazz, the Ivy League, and Italian tailoring. Guys like Miles Davis had been through the zoot suits and bebop flamboyance, but then they went the other way, and embraced the preppy, conservative Ivy League look – slim suits, knitwear, loafers – and made it look really contemporary and slick.
“The Italian thing then came in with the boxier jackets and slimmer flat-fronted trousers. It was very aspirational – a way to stand apart from your parents and peers, and to align yourself with this new Britain that embraced immigration, that looked to Europe, with the tailoring and the scooters, and that was starting to break down class distinctions. But the true mod look was never generic; it was always changing, always 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 determine 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 offered 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 material, 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, artistic director of the Ben Sherman model right this 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 right this moment, when tech titans are inclined to have wardrobes filled 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 trendy method, to reference some mod panache in a recent look right this 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 Gifted Mr Ripley and also you’re heading in the right direction.
Pair it with some tailor-made go well with trousers – with a brief break – penny loafers (the quintessential mod shoe) and a few mild colored socks and also you’ve bought a flexible outfit prepared for work or play. Costume it up with a blazer; down with a Harrington or bomber.
Off-Responsibility Traditional
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 plain decisions, however right this moment you may decide one up in a myriad of colors and materials together with suede or corduroy when you fancy being, properly, fancy.
You possibly can put on nearly 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. Preserve the denims slim, tuck the shirt in and roll the hems of the denim to point out off these boots, simply watch out with them in winter – suede is delicate and the crepe soles get particularly slippery when moist.
Trendy Tailoring
Consider traditional mod type and also you’ll most definitely image tailoring. And but it’s so troublesome to get proper. The everyday mod go well with would function 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 evenly structured, with two buttons and ever so barely wider lapels. This might be comfier and can look much less like a fancy dress. 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 sneakers end off a go well with fairly so properly as a pair of sharp Chelsea boots in black leather-based – make sure the trousers are hemmed excessive to permit their modern silhouette to shine. And in relation to shirting, attempt a tab collar. It’s a comparatively troublesome type to choose up today however you’ll look all of the sharper for it and the unique mods would recognize your savvy sourcing. To finish the look a knitted tie is important – goal for a darker shade than the go well with to show adequate distinction between the 2.
