Mod to Suedehead - Page 589

Welcome Davichan,
Your Introduction is so long its gonna take a week to read, Lol,
Thanks for making the effort Mate,

Roy

Welcome Davichan,

Your Introduction is long - and as an Englishman a little sad for me to read!

When I buy something 'Made in England' I imagine a gifted artisan using skills and tools passed down from his father and grandfather and working in a converted cow shed in the depths of Derbyshire. The end product should be exquisite, of course. Regrettably this is not always so.

However I have at least now found a tailor (thanks to modculture) who was an original mod and still works from his shop in Ilford operating as part of a loose cooperative of 70 year old tailors. Our first project is a pair of dogtooth trousers in English cloth by Holland and Sherry. I'll let you know how it goes....
Edited by Brideshead - 9/5/12 at 6:00am

This should be interesting.I was looking at Web Site the other day that included a Tailor from East London.Would this be the same lot Brideshead?

Anyone know the best place to source some decent suiting materiel. My Tailor has nothing suitable at the moment. And really want a new suit making.

Hi daviechan - great intro.

Might interest some 'locals' - Fred Perry v Topshop... some people never miss a trick to rip-off, do they?

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/professionals/s/1588085_fred-perry-settles-trademark-dispute-with-topshop?s_cid=business%20bulletin-20120906%20(1415)

this is a cool vintage photo, never seen it before but supposedly it is from 1967 but you can see some of the mods here, looking very proto-skinhead, with braces, turned up jeans/boots etc

originally posted by Symond, promoting his "great skinhead reunion" for 2013 on faceachebook

Somebody cocked up well there.To me,that was bloody stupid of Topshop-especially when they know the "Labels" will sue.I can remember a Bar in Spain-where it was called"The Hard Rock Cafe",the actual Company were coming after them ,with a vengeance.

Back in the 50s and 60s,if you wanted a product copied,you went to the East End.There the Jewish Clothing Sweatshops etc.,that would bang out anything you needed.If you had the Contacts there,you could get what you wanted.It was rumoured that John Simons would have "American Shirts" made there.A batch of original "Troy" Shirts(for instance) would be purchased and then the Label and the Shirt Style copied.Us, in England, would not know any different.John Simons started his Trading there(in a Doorway))so he had the contacts.Don`t forget about the "Royals". If you went into the Ivy Shop,it was small so only a certain amount of stuff was"out on show".John Simons was an astute Businessman that saw there was a "Market" for American Clothing-after starting off as a Window Dresser,in Cecil Gees.

I stopped going to the Ivy Shop because of escalating Prices and the Attitude(in the Shop).John Simons did not like Skinheads,and it showed.It is only later that these Stories started coming out-and don`t forget,I spoke to one of his Partners.

John Simons had a Shirtmaker in Walthemstow,who created his "Albany"Shirt Range.

My eyes-Walthamstow.

Hello,

not a skinhead at all, being an Indonesian, but I am a huge fan of R&B and early british rock and it's so hard to find anyone to share that with. I am into The Miracles, The Who, Aretha, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Stones, Buddy Guy, Sam Cooke, Junior Wells, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, early Rod Stewart etc but what has eluded my catalgue is finding The Faces records... there's this one solid bootleg recording I found years ago but I lost in since and haven't managed to find it. The title's "That's All You Need" (taken from one of their tracks).

Hoping to enjoy and learn lots from this thread.

Interesting. Care to expand on this? 1960s US shirts would have the union stamp on the bottom though you could fake that.

I don't think Royals were ever claimed to be American-made, as far as I remember.

As I said,a Batch could be ordered and bought,then the Info was there-to be copiedI bet you did not know that the "Albany"Make was made in E17,though.There was no info.regarding that on the Label.The Royals were marketed as "American Longwings",,and placed alongside the Loafers etc.,if I remember correctly.There was no mention of them being produced in Northampton either.Roy has already stated,he thought they were American made Brogues-and I believe most of the others did as well.It wasn`t until I bought mine from Timpsons that the Penny dropped.

There is a Compilation Cd of the Faces Tracks,which covers a lot of their Albums.Welcome aboard kashmir.

I never heard 'longwings' until the internet. 'Wingtips' was the term at the time round my way. 'Plain caps' or more often 'flat tops' for the non brogue equivalent. 'Gibsons' for the split toe jobs. Cordovan was mentioned but did not mean much to me at the time.

I do not recall Albany.

Smooths,Gibsons and Royal Brogues were the three I remember,when I bought them.