Mods Guide for London

Today I round round London's oxford street, regent street, saville row and around soho to find the best places to go get the "mod life style". 

Guess on Regent Street

As you can see this maniquin has a lovely tailored jacket, and to make it look casual its put with a plain white t-shirt and dark jeans. This look is an updated young trendy mod look for men.

Lanvin store mount street

Shorts a new vision of mod tailoring

Shoes smart but quirky again to make it young and fun

Slim leg tailored trousers, with smart trainers and a sports look jacket

This is the kind of coat a mod would wear because its tailored and smart, but without looking too much like work wear, and still looking casual especially when its teamed with this big side bag. The trousers are really slimmed legged as well.

Shirts on Saville Row

Vespers outside Ozwald Boating what more could you ask for!

Hoss Regent Street

Here we have a very 60’s shaped dress from Hoss. 

The new buttoned down collar shirt! The collar is a lot smaller and it has the illusion of being to different tops. (the shirt underneath and a t-shit on top.it is also teamed with a really smart pair of tailored shorts, again from Hoss.

Karen Millen just off Oxford street

Here in Karen Millian we can see strong colour blocking and pinafore dresses that resemble the 60’s mod girls very well.

As we can see in coast here they have a short little orange dress in the window, its quite a straight shape because it has no shaping in it.

For Going Out to Club Venues Around the UK.

Here is a great website it tells all sorts of different events. 

Modculture.com - Mod rallies and events

www.modculture.co.uk

Guess 2011 Advertisement Campaign

This advertising by guess is extremely 60’s , its got the new look of the teenager, there's a flirting as it’s the start of being more open about sex and the hair and make up are extremely mod!

The girl:

Big full hair

Very dark eyes

Her clothes are more of a 50’s swimsuit vibe though.

The boy:

Slick smart hair,

Waist coat

Looks like the top is a long sleeved t shirt that possible has buttons going down the front because the neck is slightly higher for one that doesn't

Mui Mui Advertisement Campaign

This is Mui Mui’s advertisement  autumn/winter 2010, her we can see short dresses that don’t look particularly fitted, then we have the patterned tight with the little shoes with a very small heal, verryyy mod!

   

Designers inspired by Mods

Ben Sherman For Men

Originally the Ben Sherman, checked shirt with the button down collar however I have looked at some other designers that now use the 60's Mods style in todays fashion.


Pacco Raban


These designs are original 60's pieces and are the straight, short smock dresses that girl Mods would have worn but obviously everyday teenages wouldnt wear the silver disk dresses or even this kind of patch work dress below but the shape and length was the key trend. Bold colorful shapes like Mondrian paintings
  

Paul Smith

Paul Smith was born in the 1940s which put him in at the perfect age to be surrounded around the teenage culture of the 60s including Mods and Rockers.This collection particularly stood out for me with it being an interesting take on the old mod look and transforming it into something new.: in his 2011 Autumn Winter collection you can see the skinny leg trouser and blazers, they are very smart casual. It is very modernized with it being a lot more of a laid back style. In the video they don't wear shirts like the mods did, also the over all look with the models makes it different because many of the models have long hairs and facial hair whereas Mods were very clean shaven and had slick back hair.


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As you have seen from this video there aspects that I have mentioned above have similar trends to that of the mods style. for example; the blazers they wore in the 60's were out of mo hair and the ones in the video were made out of cottons and leather fabric to keep it current with the trends of the season. Also, with the blazers mod groups were identified with the varying sizes of the lapels on there jackets and in Paul Smiths collection there are different styles and sizes of lapels. With some of the outfits Smith uses waistcoats instead of a jacket as well to keep it smart but you can wear it loose to again keep it casual. With mods they would have worn a shirt with either smart trousers or jeans for a more casual event, but instead of giving a more informal look with jeans in this collection they have paired smart trousers with a casual t-shirt. Here shows shirts with quite floral like prints in contrast with the checkered shirts that the mods would have worn. There is always a lot of necklaces with this collection where as mods wouldn't have worn jewelry. 

Micheal Kors, is another designer to pull out the mod look in his spring summer collection in 2010.

They have slim leg trousers on that are smart with blazers but in this instance they have t-shirts with low necks.  also they have quite small shoes on and mods used to wear brogues which are smart looking but have a quirky aspect about them. the hair is even done in a similar way with it being slicked down.

I put this video up of Micheal Kors collection because it has some better examples of mod influenced clothing. Again there are similar features to the collection above 

Carolyn Massey

This is Carolyn Massey's Spring/Summer 2010 collection at London fashion week. This has a very strong Mod Vibe about it: 

In the first picture you can see that he was a button downed shirt, smart skinny leg trousers and smart leather Italian looking shoes. These aspects are all the same as Mods would have worn. however the shirt is royal blue and with large pockets at the from to give it a more casual, dressed down look. The trousers are slightly cropped to show the red socks as a quirky detail and also to again make the over all look less formal. 

The second picture has a certain Mod like look about it, the almost polo neck t-shirt and long cardie and the smart "school boy" shorts give it again a smart look. The cardie and the pumps give a slouchy look and the grey pulled up socks again increase the look of comfort. 

Lastly, the third picture has a high necked button up top, with a smart trouser but this time is slightly more baggy and tucked into  a smart "working mens boot", this boot could be linked to the mods because they were all working class, but this one is polished and for going out whereas theres would be covered in dust and pain ect. The cardie again makes the look relaxed but without it looking too informal. 

Paper Dolls and Warton

My chosen subculture - Mods

First none as Modernists, small individual groups, in the late 50's because of their love of everything modern, then shortened to Mods came to the attention of the public in 1964. Being a Mod was a life style choice, unlike sloans who were born into their subculture. Mods were working class teenagers who didn't have any responsibilities and money to spend on themselves therefore being about to afford the style they wanted to portray.

Mods came from a reaction after the Beatnik scene with their baggy clothes scruffy beards and yob like behaviour. Mods clothing was heavily influenced by the Italians and French tailoring with a smart but still young, they wore mainly mohair suits, that were two tone, the jackets would have slim lapels and the style of the vents would be a particular importance. These box like jackets were later updated to waisted jackets influenced from the traditional city gent look. They often had made to measure suits from places like, Harry Fenton, John Michael and John Stephen. With the jacket they would pair it with slim fit trousers that narrowed at the bottom and a buttoned down collared checked shirt, mainly from Ben Sherman (sold in John Stephen and Lord John on Carnaby Street). I interviewed my uncle on what he wore as a mod as well as the suits they also teamed their jackets with jeans from Levis. Some of the original Mods thought that it was becoming to commercialized so they called themselves "indervidualists" or "stylists".   

Bands started to adopt this style such as The Who, which my uncle informed me that 

dressed like mods but mods didn't like their music because it was more pop rather than, earlier mods liked, Modern Jazz then it turned to American soul then that was replaced by Rythm and Blues.

My uncle lived in derby when he was a Mod and listened to music from american soul such as Motown. I asked him what clubs he went to in derby, "the usual clubs i went to were; Clouds, The Hippo, Salk Club and The Penny Farthing. The mod clubs outside central London though were; "The Scene" and "Marquee" this is where original mods went, other clubs for newer mods were seen as trashy.

Mods often had lambrettas if they couldn't afford a mini and if you were really unfortunate you would ride a vesper! With the lambretta as you can see in the picture above they used to add loads of additional mirrors all for show! And to compete with the Rockers motor bikes. However, my uncle said that his group didn't do this.

 Subcultures - finding looks for different subcultures


Punk!

This Garment represents punk perfectly, firstly because of the obvious that it is a leather jacket! But secondly because Punks rebel against "perfectly" made garments so punching eyelets and studs through it shows how they feel about it.

  These trousers are in a tartan print, this is what Vivian Westwood, the fist well known punk designer is related to.

Sloanes!

 This is a typical Sloane shirt. as its well made looks expensive but in a comfy luxury kind of way.  You can tell its well made because the silky material, piping in the button stand and the embroidery on the button stand too. This would be teamed with a pair of skinny jeans and brogues.

50's Pin ups!

This garment is low cut, very fitted, with a halter neck a typical 50's feature. This dress is made out of cotton, so I think that it is more 50's than pin up. This would be worn with a white pair of stilettos.