The Look goes on...

[Yorky]

@Mr Knightley is this turning into a "Mods" only thread ?
Since a while now most posters are speaking of "mods" rather than "The Look".
From what i understood of The Look, it's in constant evolution since the 60s, originated in Europe, in several places like Italy, France, England, with strong post WW2 American influences, and then it went under an evolution (we know some of this terms were later gave to a trend) : mod, hard mod, peacock, skinhead, suedehead, smoothie, boot boy, soul boy, later casuals, etc.
Now i suppose the originals of the styles already moved on before somebody put a sticker on them (we have an example with skinheads in UK and Minets in France where in both cases it's the press that gave them their name)...
I thought the real interest of this thread was to speak about today.
Frankly to me Cary Grant (as he has been mentioned recently) looks very dated, and i have no interest in dressing like that - i mean for nostalgia, retro, dated things, moth-eaten clothing there is already "Mod to Suedehead".
Personnaly i can recognize myself in "The Look" for several reasons (mainly "Drugstore", and "skinhead") as a broader, family like term, but i can't in "mod".

I think that the look started before the sixties, definitely since the 50's, maybe before then.

 

[Clouseau]

I think that the look started before the sixties, definitely since the 50's, maybe before then.

Speaking of the evolution since the 60s, when people began to give names.
For example the guys from the Champs Élysées Drugstore began to hang around the Champs mid 50s.
And we had the post war US army influence that was very strong since 1945 (clothing, music, way of life, etc.)
Actually i think - it is not enough said - that USA "way of life" and consumer society, was one of the main influences of The Look.

 

[Clouseau]

I think that the look started before the sixties, definitely since the 50's, maybe before then.

But that was not the point.
The point is : what about the look now without constant references to a dead and buried past?

 

[Mr Knightley]

@Yorky I did not know about the derivation of Long Johns - interesting, but I wonder if they were ever part of the Look

You always bring us back to the point @Clouseau ! But is the past dead and buried? Or does it carry on having an influence? Actually, I think it was Yorky, not me who introduced CG this time around and relating to the buttoning of jackets and also his casual looks from To Catch a Thief (which I also watched very recently). Surely that outfit with the Breton top and loafers could be worn as part of the Look today?

 

[covskin]

Seems to me that the look was distinctive as a globalised thing in a non-globalised world and has hit that brick wall some time ago leaving various bits of debris that we continue to wear. That Nighy bloke saying he's into jazz and 60s and is a Modernist, what the hell does that mean.

 

[Clouseau]

@Yorky I did not know about the derivation of Long Johns - interesting, but I wonder if they were ever part of the Look

You always bring us back to the point @Clouseau ! But is the past dead and buried? Or does it carry on having an influence? Actually, I think it was Yorky, not me who introduced CG this time around and relating to the buttoning of jackets and also his casual looks from To Catch a Thief (which I also watched very recently). Surely that outfit with the Breton top and loafers could be worn as part of the Look today?

Well of course it has an influence, like all things from the past, but i am far more interested in new takes.
Personnaly i never wore breton tops, because here they are associated with…Bretons fishermen. I've got nothing against fishermen (or Britanny that is my favorite place in France with the Riviera - not the same climate though) but well i don't want to dress like them !
I do wear Breton knitwear though, you know the traditional navy pull-over with buttons on the shoulder. But for me this is just a practical garment, not really stylish.

 

[Thin White Duke]

Chipping in with a couple of points ...

The knitted long sleeve polo top was a stylish item in the sixties, such as worn in Thunderball etc - I always kinda liked them but the name ‘John Smedley’ I’m sure I only became aware of somewhat recently despite their long lineage.

And @Clouseau don’t be so hard on the ‘dead and buried’ - you identify some of your influences as from skinheads which were around 40 years ago. The Keydge and Hardy and Johnson jackets we discussed recently are almost stitch for stitch replicas of what CG wore all those years ago!

 

[Clouseau]

Yes @Thin White Duke, but just influences, i am not trying to reenact a look i had roughly between 1980 and 1983. I still wear some part of the clobber but never more than two items at the same time.
(I confess i reenacted a suedehead look and a Quadrophenia look, but it was for friday Challenges !)
Agree about the H&J jackets that are very traditional - i don't own one, but the JKeydge came with a certain twist.
I am moving on for a certain time to more contemporary items.

 

[Yorky]

But that was not the point.
The point is : what about the look now without constant references to a dead and buried past?

Without the past there wouldn't be a future, I think that I've said it before, but how far can the look be updated, without it no longer being the look.
Many of the photos that you post of yourself, are takes on the past, albeit mostly very good.

 

[Thin White Duke]

Agree with that ^^^

As for the vents - yeah it’s an eighties - nineties thing but I also like the look of a clean and unruffled back on any jacket. Even going back decades (Sorry @Clouseau !!) I seem to remember eg Kirk Douglas in ‘Out of the Past’ wearing a big shouldered DB jacket and when he turns around you see a smooth expanse of back that looks good.
I don’t like the way vents can either gap, or else cause those vertical soft folds in them like a pair of drawn curtains!

 

[Clouseau]

Thanks @Yorky. As you said : takes.

 

[Clouseau]

Without the past there wouldn't be a future, I think that I've said it before, but how far can the look be updated, without it no longer being the look.

I think a guy like @Rais for example, consciously or not, really update the Look in using very modern items, techwear, military garments. Always neat, practical, and stylish.

 

[Yorky]

I think a guy like @Rais for example, consciously or not, really update the Look in using very modern items, techwear, military garments. Always neat, practical, and stylish.

Can't really agree with that, he looks too futuristic, could have been an extra in Bladerunner.
Maybe he rides an hover scooter?

 

[Clouseau]

This is real modernism @Yorky.
He lives with his time.
21st century skinhead.

 

[Yorky]

Agree with that ^^^

As for the vents - yeah it’s an eighties - nineties thing but I also like the look of a clean and unruffled back on any jacket. Even going back decades (Sorry @Clouseau !!) I seem to remember eg Kirk Douglas in ‘Out of the Past’ wearing a big shouldered DB jacket and when he turns around you see a smooth expanse of back that looks good.
I don’t like the way vents can either gap, or else cause those vertical soft folds in them like a pair of drawn curtains!

Probably one of the reasons, why mods were known to have stood up on buses, even when there was empty seats, apart from creasing their trews.