Mod to Suedehead

[The Saint]

You’ve only got to look at 60s photos of mods on scooters and 90% are wearing parkas. The rest macs, anoraks or cagoules. The books I own shows when on two wheels the parka or some other coat was definitely worn. They didn’t want to mess up the clothes underneath.

Indeed , a lot of those 6ts Mods did wear parkas , easily 90% you need to remember that most of those photos date back to 1964. In the 8ts it was 110% and all year around usage too. .

 

[Bela Kun]

I just picked up a m-51 field jacket. Don't know why, just really appealed to me recently.

M-51 is more Fidel Castro, I guess. Nice coat, although I do prefer the M-65 collar.

 

[andyf]

Indeed , a lot of those 6ts Mods did wear parkas , easily 90% you need to remember that most of those photos date back to 1964. In the 8ts it was 110% and all year around usage too. .

Yes I remember the 79- 80s revival very well. And had said parka to cover my altered suit I found in a charity shop. Amongst, the jam stripe and jam winklepicker shoes I wore. Oh dear.
And also remember barging through a couple of bikers and a skinhead (parka swaying like a good un) so I didn’t get knocked over by walking past them on road. I gotta couple of kicks for that stunt lol

 

[covskin]

 

[pressuredrop]

lol!

Next up, Mod to Suedehead discusses the Safari Suit, and by extension, just how bad a dresser Roger Moore really was...

 

[Gsvs5]

I just picked up a m-51 field jacket. Don't know why, just really appealed to me recently.

Subliminal messages.

 

[andyf]

lol!

Next up, Mod to Suedehead discusses the Safari Suit, and by extension, just how bad a dresser Roger Moore really was...

Even though that’s a picture of Lee majors lol

 

[Ivyskin89]

I do recall seeing a field jacket in the movie Meantime that I thought looked good and I know Tim Roth wore one in the movie Made In Britain.

Subliminal messages.

 

[Ivyskin89]

 

[pressuredrop]

Even though that’s a picture of Lee majors lol

I know my bionic men & terribly dressed Bonds, Andy.

My fear is we're heading for some dangerous waters with discussion of the m-65/safari jacket lineage.

 

[Inkss]

Found some very old pics of myself.
1979: Me as a baby Skin aged 10

1982 : Mod revivalist phase aged 13

1984 : Not sure what's going on here. Maybe my 'Steve McQueen in the film The Hunter' phase

1989 : My hair has decided it's time to **** off.

 

[Thin White Duke]

You lost your Barnet at 30 @Inkss ? Tough luck matey!

Great pics there.

A few lads in our late 70s revival set graduated to getting scooters in the eighties and as they leaned away from sartorial style in favour of getting their hands dirty, a few got Belstaff jackets which arent far off M-65 style.

The other M-65 to Mod crossover may be from those who were emulating Lennon in his New York period but it’s a bit tenuous innit?

Then as pictured above with the Britpop era I think Liam Gallagher, again possibly influenced by Lennon, seemed to wear M-65 type jackets.

Not sure if this link will still work but I did a post some time ago mentioning field jackets:

https://rodsmodblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/field-jacket-mod-style/

I quite like the look of those tanker jackets - a slightly more dressed and less bulky MA-1 style. Film fans will remember Clint Eastwood wore won in ‘Kelly’s Heroes’.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

Can you remember the first time you saw M65s specifically M-o-M? And do you agree they had a ‘hippie vibe’ before Taxi Driver gave them a more aggressive image?

This isn't as easy as it sounds, for several reasons. Firstly I don't think anyone went into a shop and said "Can I have an M65?" or "Can I have an M51?" or anything like that. There was just the generic term 'combat jacket'. Secondly, it is very unlikely that your average 'surplus shop' would tag them in the window with anything other than 'combat jacket'. They could have been M65s, M51s, or a dozen other kinds for all we knew. As with just about anything else, it all depended on what came into the surplus shops at the time (just like I said about the short-lived vogue for MA1 jackets in SE London in the late winter 1969, early spring 70, before we all started to get arty).

No, I didn't see them as particularly 'hippie vibe' stuff. Rather, I saw them around the Blackpool area worn by guys who were maybe a bit rocker-ish, maybe a bit last-year's-mod-ish, blokes who, when we were wearing short hair, striped ties, and sharp suits, they were looking a bit like Them/Van Morrison in the era of the photo below.

 

[Man-of-Mystery]

Y'know, I wouldn't mind a kind of Fidel/Che chic, but I couldn't manage the beard and the cigar.

 

[Inkss]

New York City in the 70s was pretty much M-65 central.