Mod to Suedehead

Since somebody brought up cricket - tangentally - I can recall seeing scenes on the TV, in the very early 1970s when Lancashire dominated the Gillette Cup for three years, of jubilant Lancashire fans; amongst them were quite a few Manchester skins/boot boys with United or City scarves.

Has anybody got that photo they can post up of the Mod sitting on his scooter with cut-down Levis on, also, I think, he's wearing carpet slippers too? I can't find it anywhere....

I woke up thinking about it....must get out more.......

'The England squad at Heathrow Airport prior to departing for Mexico and the 1970 World Cup finals. Check out Jeff Astle (right) playing a record on a portable record player as he waits with Emlyn Hughes (left, in the hat) and Geoff Hurst (centre) for their flight to be called.

A portable record player! It was the iPod of its day, apparently.'


Off topic, but a great photo eh?



browniecj said:

Trying to get a decent 3 Button Blazer(OTP)is really hard to get these days.

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Hong Kong tailors.

browniecj said:

Blazer with centre vent and 3 buttons. Bought mine in Harry Fentons.

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I probably had the same blazer and mine was also from Harry Fentons . I seem to remember Harry Fentons was a decent shop for teenagers. Were they country-wide retailers or just in the South-East?

browniecj said:

iN THE 50S AND 60S,Blazers had Patch Pockets(or the ones I saw).I had one with Patch Pockets..It is only recently (maybe a few years)that some Jackets have been called Blazers(and some added Silver or Gold Buttons).Put "Blazers" up on ebay and you will see what I mean.That is why I said,it is very hard to buy a 3 Button Blazer-similar to what I bought before.

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I find exactly the same thing Col, the only place they seem to turn up (and still rarely) is charity shops.

That's a very smart Jacket Roy, love the pick stitching. I have something very similar (with matching trousers) but with covered buttons, tailors ticket inside reads August 1970.

Ill pm you it Bunty, I have it on my old pc, so may take a couple of days.

Thinks theres a couple of the same crowd.

Gsvs5 said:

There was always someone who took things to extreme.A mate had a bottle green suit made up with two rear vents that almost reached his shoulders,no exaggeration.It looked like a wedding dress on him and only saw him wear it once before he had them stitched up to a more realistic 12".
Blazers were always three button,patch pocket with only the top button done up.Sometimes the breast was patch sometimes not.

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Like that recollection - quite a picture.

Always liked bottle green. Seem to remember it being popular for suits & strides 1968-ish, a bit before skinhead style really took hold in the Manchester area. Bottle green strides were often worn later with DMs and Levi's denim jackets. Petrol blue was another colour of strides commonly worn with that combination and looked good too.

Man-of-Mystery said:

I recall side vents as being another of these 'North' things - outside London anyway, in the era we're talking about. I had a jacket with side vents in 1967/68 whilst still in the Blackpool area.

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My recollection of jackets in the Manchester area in the period is that side vents were the norm. My own two-tone suit in 1971/ 72 had them.

Bit of a side perspective on this regional variation: when I had a suit made recently I was talking to tailor about vents. He was telling me that, although he recognised it was a matter of the customer's personal choice, he always recommended side vents as he believed that jackets with a single centre vent would crease up more when you sat down when wearing them. That just made me think about the preference for single vents in London (I think I'm right about that?) and what has also been said on here about travelling on the Tube standing up to ensure crease-free trousers and spending the whole evening standing up at dancehalls etc. for the same reason. Just wondered if that maybe meant that my tailor's reservations about single vents and creasing didn't come into the reckoning for London dwellers, but outside London it did because you were more likely to sit down on buses to get around?

Like I said, a bit of an odd perspective ... and probably nonsense.

Sirryacus said:

They were a skinhead fad or a teddy boy fad? I thought you were implying you didn't wear red long because that is what teddy boys wore and then I commented that I would have thought they would wear plain colors such as black or white but you are saying that isn't the case at all and teddy boys wore colorful socks?

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Teddy boys often wore brightly coloured socks. I haven't seen a Teddy Boy in decades though I'm sure they must still exist.

Well, if you had a magnifying glass you could see these Teds are wearing an assortment of brightly coloured socks!

I can only speak from my own experience which relates to our locality (Manchester region). If I'm being really pedantic (not unlike me!) red socks were not skinhead wear, but became fashionable during the suedehead period which for us was the summer of 1971 until spring of 1972. Thinking about it (which I never have until now) I would suggest that red socks possibly became popular because the mass produced 'Crombies' that most of us wore came with a red hankie in the top pocket and the red socks complimented that. ( They certainly appeared around about the same time) Add in the aforementioned red rose badge on the blazer (and possibly a red silk in the top pocket) and you had quite a natty look. As I mentioned before, other brightly coloured socks started to make an appearance after the popularity of the red, but never really caught on in our area.

It's funny, some items of skinhead clothing seemed perennial - Levis, Sta Prest, brogues, button down shirts and boots of different styles were about right through but some things were very short lived - berets (as previously mentioned) and red socks being just two. By the summer of 1972 the whole thing was disintegrating as lots of different influences took over.

browniecj said:

iN THE 50S AND 60S,Blazers had Patch Pockets(or the ones I saw).I had one with Patch Pockets..It is only recently (maybe a few years)that some Jackets have been called Blazers(and some added Silver or Gold Buttons).Put "Blazers" up on ebay and you will see what I mean.That is why I said,it is very hard to buy a 3 Button Blazer-similar to what I bought before.

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My recollection is that blazers with patch pockets were quite common in the 1960s - what counted as "smart casual" in those days for blokes in their late 30s onwards. They were usually bought from tailors or gents' outfitters (those long-disappeared shops some of us remember). The badge on the breast pocket was often quite elaborate, embroidered using gold wire and "padded" to stand out in relief. Some were old school and university crests (quite a few of my teachers had these) but plenty had regimental crests. There were lots of blokes in their 40s and younger then who'd either served in the war or done national service.

I guess this is another example of "old man's" wear being adopted/ adapted.

Slightly off topic, I remember my grandparents going on holiday to Northern Ireland in 1966 or 1967. While they were there my granddad bought a blazer of the type described with an Ulster badge on the breast pocket, red hand and all that. He wore it during the holiday and quite a lot after they got back but once the Troubles kicked off and the IRA started bombing the mainland, he decided it wasn't the best thing to be seen out in and it stayed in the wardrobe for the rest of his life.



elwood said:

My recollection of jackets in the Manchester area in the period is that side vents were the norm. My own two-tone suit in 1971/ 72 had them.

Bit of a side perspective on this regional variation: when I had a suit made recently I was talking to tailor about vents. He was telling me that, although he recognised it was a matter of the customer's personal choice, he always recommended side vents as he believed that jackets with a single centre vent would crease up more when you sat down when wearing them. That just made me think about the preference for single vents in London (I think I'm right about that?) and what has also been said on here about travelling on the Tube standing up to ensure crease-free trousers and spending the whole evening standing up at dancehalls etc. for the same reason. Just wondered if that maybe meant that my tailor's reservations about single vents and creasing didn't come into the reckoning for London dwellers, but outside London it did because you were more likely to sit down on buses to get around?

Like I said, a bit of an odd perspective ... and probably nonsense. 

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The long single vent was just as important as the three buttons , narrow lapels .that made the skinhead suit, the longer the vent the more ally.
I have spoken on here before about standing up on the tube as not to crease your suit...and when you got to the dance hall you still stood up...trying to look hard,
It was so funny seeing a load of skinhead blokes standing up in a empty train carriage...funny enough all the girls with you would be sitting down.

roytonboy said:

Never heard them referred to as 'monkey jackets' until joining this forum. We called them surfer jackets or surf jackets. Mine was navy with red, white and blue trim. The first item of mod/skinhead clothing I owned (1967 at the age of 13).

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I had a navy one with the same trim around that time too. Confusingly I can remember people calling them bomber jackets as well as surfer/ surf jackets.

My first mod clothing also that year - considered myself very groovy in "hipster" trousers with straight across pockets on the front (not sure I've described that well) worn with desert boots, a blue double-breasted high-collar "Regency" jacket, and a button-down collar shirt with narrow tie. God knows where we got them in my size then.

(I could claim earlier a collarless Beatle suit in 1963/64. My mum was pretty skilled at making clothes and she copied the Italian collarless jacket look for me and my brother. But as the jackets were worn with shorts - well we were very young - I'll pass on that one. )

Man-of-Mystery said:

Since somebody brought up cricket - tangentally - I can recall seeing scenes on the TV, in the very early 1970s when Lancashire dominated the Gillette Cup for three years, of jubilant Lancashire fans; amongst them were quite a few Manchester skins/boot boys with United or City scarves.

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Lancashire got huge crowds then for those one-day matches. The usual football hostilities were suspended for the summer and terrace culture was transferred to the other Old Trafford. I remember Lancashire fans chanting "Lancashire la-la-la-la" to the Banana Splits theme tune (a popular basis for football chants at the time). And I think there was some adverse comment from the traditionalists about the arrival of such unsavoury behaviour as chanting at cricket matches.

(Off topic, but it must have been 1971 or 1972 that Lancashire won that televised one-day game against Gloucestershire that finished in near darkness at gone 9pm. Epic stuff!)

bunty said:

'The England squad at Heathrow Airport prior to departing for Mexico and the 1970 World Cup finals. Check out Jeff Astle (right) playing a record on a portable record player as he waits with Emlyn Hughes (left, in the hat) and Geoff Hurst (centre) for their flight to be called.

A portable record player! It was the iPod of its day, apparently.'


Off topic, but a great photo eh?

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Great photo indeed - and staying off topic, I'm sure I've seen a picture of Mike Summerbee back in 1967 or 1968 with one of those portable record players that came as an extra in his car!