Fashion Books (Mods, Teddyboys, Skinheads)

If you can manage to find it, "My Favourite Shirt" by Paolo Hewitt and Terry Rawlings has some great pictures of this period, and is focused around Ben Sherman's works.

Get Smart... paging Get Smart... you've got a call on line 1

Teddy Boys: "Teds" ...originally published in the 70s, republished a few years ago. It's a silver colored hardback, all photos from the Teddy Boy revival scene of the 70s (think Flying Saucers, Crazy Cavan etc)...lots of gig pics and tons of "teds on the street" type pics. otherwise check out The Velvet Collar for lot of great pics, many vintage. I got it about 5 years ago, not sure if it's still in print Mods: "My favorite shirt" is great. Ben Sherman put it out a few years ago but I'm pretty sure it's out of print now. Richard Barnes' Mods! is a classic, lots of photos. Personally I like this one better, Mod: A British Phenomena ...it's much bigger and covers a lot more ground, from the original 50s Mods that were into R&B/jazz up thru the 60s and 70s revival (check out the guy on the cover with his selvedge turnups on the jeans) Another good one that is nearly impossible to find is called This is a Modern Life ...I cant believe it's selling for that much. I got it for about $15 when it first came out years ago. It focuses mostly on the post revival 80s scene but it has some awesome pics that I've never seen anywhere else. Skinheads: For better or worse you cant beat the Pandora's box that is "Spirit of 69" ...folr that price I dont even know which edition you're getting. The original one is a large format 9 x 12 ish size book, the later reprint is a smaller version (maybe 8 x 5?). I remember we all sent our money ($20) to the guy publishing it back in 1989 just waiting and hoping we'd get our copy, and sure enough we did. It gets a lot of flack but the book is well put together and covers the entire range of the skin scene from 60s traditional to white power skins and everyone in between. The follow-up isnt bad, called Skinhead Nation where it focuses more on various crews around the world. The film "World of Skinhead" is a movie version of this book. Tons of pics of course. Skins by Gavin Watson is good. He's an old bootboy turned pro photographer and these are pics of a London crew from the early 80s (the main fella Symond is quite well known in the scene) Skinhead by Nick Knight is a classic. More focused on the late 70s/early 80s oi scene, but has some bits on ska and traditionals. His "clothing" section is classic and shows the blatant influence of ivy league style on skinheads. This one is a fave of mine.

Speaking of My Favourite Shirt, if anyone wants a paperback copy I might be able to one secure one or two for a good price. I've seen the hardcover version go for insane amounts on the used market.

No pics but a great book if you want to read about the different tribes, Robert Elms' The Way We Wore is fantastic

as is The Soul Stylists...again, no pics but some good writing with interesting quotes and anecdotes by some well known stylists.

oh shit, how could I have forgotten this one, maybe one of the most important books for modernists and skinheads....Paul Gorman's The Look....it's not entirely a mod/skin book but a good bulk of it does go into it and is some of the best written stuff about the cults. There's a reason why *we* call guys who are properly sussed to have "The Look"

one of the best online photo albums of skinheads

this fella's MSN site is awesome, TONS of pics from the early 80s Oi scene

no prob, I'd def get Mod: A British Phenomena and Nick Knight's Skinhead

both easy to get and inexpensive, and really good. If you ever get a chance to pick up "Spirit of 69" you should, while Nick Knight's book is good, it's not very big, and So69 is a much larger book with tons more pics and info

Hey Get Smart, do you know of any sites that focus in on mod and skin fashion? My chick loves the late 50s/early 60s fashion from England and France (as do I). Thanks man.

That MSN London skins site has a lot of pretty girls on it.

did you see that link about 3 posts above you? has page after page of skinhead pics

I dont know of any GOOD sites that have a bunch of mod photos...most of the revival era mod photo sites I've seen are actually less sussed than skinhead pics from the same time (too many fucking parkas with horrible white socks which were "cool" during that time)

Sorry about that, I just read the posts about books and skipped to posting without reading the whole thread. Thanks anyway.

This is probably the best mod site around that I know of, there's others but this one actually talks about being a mod today:

http://www.modculture.co.uk/