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The Look goes on...

Botolph

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What do you folk think about my recent pondering, having looked at several mod/skin related social media sites, I fear that the relevance of what they were about is now obsolete. Old men/women who look embarrassing, young people who look out of time.

Yeah but don’t you think that skinhead and mod are a young man’s game? That its boundaries are set/pushed/pulled back on by the young faces of the respective scenes? Of course you have the sad old codgers still trying to pull the look off(and fail horribly)— but the young set have new bands, pushing musical boundaries, setting the musical tone for a certain set of disenfranchised youth everywhere.
Not sure about the mod scene, but there are probably more young skinheads worldwide than there ever were. It has moved long ago beyond Britain and has been diluted for sure but it’s still there.
 

Thin White Duke

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What do you folk think about my recent pondering, having looked at several mod/skin related social media sites, I fear that the relevance of what they were about is now obsolete. Old men/women who look embarrassing, young people who look out of time.
Is that a dig at me? :colgate:
I can’t answer your question specifically as I don’t know which sites you’ve been looking at.
There have been a couple of comments on this thread about wanting to keep it skin-related as there are so many Mod websites out there. I’m not particularly interested in skins and from a style perspective the skin ‘look‘ is very prescriptive and restrictive IMO. I don’t know of any Mod websites aside from Modculture which has slow traffic and Mod generation which is all but dead in the water. If you’re on about Facebook sites you’ve lost me as I’m not on.

The subject of old Mods comes up from time to time, along with “how can you call yourself ‘Mod’ when you’re emulating a style over fifty years old?”. This was recently discussed on Modgeneration. I don’t have the energy or the money to indulge in the infinite oneupmanship and ever faster consumption and adjustment of the original faces. I think the style of the early sixties was the absolute apex of men’s style and I’m happy that it was / is so classic that it can be adaptable to any decade including the present without looking like ridiculous cosplay. Maybe not always successfully but still eminently possible.
 

Luigi_M

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the style of the early sixties was the absolute apex of men’s style
Amen.
Trivial as it may be, the Bond saga shows that to good evidence.
Connery dressed like a tough gentleman.
Compared to him all others fade.
 

Yorky

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Is that a dig at me? :colgate:
I can’t answer your question specifically as I don’t know which sites you’ve been looking at.
There have been a couple of comments on this thread about wanting to keep it skin-related as there are so many Mod websites out there. I’m not particularly interested in skins and from a style perspective the skin ‘look‘ is very prescriptive and restrictive IMO. I don’t know of any Mod websites aside from Modculture which has slow traffic and Mod generation which is all but dead in the water. If you’re on about Facebook sites you’ve lost me as I’m not on.

The subject of old Mods comes up from time to time, along with “how can you call yourself ‘Mod’ when you’re emulating a style over fifty years old?”. This was recently discussed on Modgeneration. I don’t have the energy or the money to indulge in the infinite oneupmanship and ever faster consumption and adjustment of the original faces. I think the style of the early sixties was the absolute apex of men’s style and I’m happy that it was / is so classic that it can be adaptable to any decade including the present without looking like ridiculous cosplay. Maybe not always successfully but still eminently possible.
Absolutely not a dig at anyone on here, just a throw away statement. I just think that the mod scene hit its apex in the mid 90's and now all that's left are people that are remnants of that in their 50's, and youngsters too far removed from even the revival to make it relevant.
 

Thin White Duke

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Absolutely not a dig at anyone on here, just a throw away statement. I just think that the mod scene hit its apex in the mid 90's and now all that's left are people that are remnants of that in their 50's, and youngsters too far removed from even the revival to make it relevant.
Maybe you’re right about the ‘scene’.
I was always too far removed from it myself really once the main thrust of the revival faded out in the eighties.
From a music point of view, once the Jam disbanded and the other revival bands faded away there wasn’t much identifiable ‘Mod’ music remaining (if there ever was in the first place!) and music to me has such a subjective diversity it’s a bit silly to be bound by only by what’s considered Mod music anyway.

I could never afford a scooter when I was a student in England, then I moved here where there is no scooter scene.

I obviously couldn’t attend weekenders etc being at such remove, and as I’ve said before, I wouldn’t mind if I did get to one now out of curiosity but I rather fear there would be an element of cosplay on display like the old rock and roll nights they used to put on for ageing Teds.

So that leaves the clothing and that’s what has kept me bound to any sort of Mod identity over the years. I still maintain it’s possible to be clearly influenced by that early sixties look without looking like a ridiculous Ted, and to enfold those kind of clothes into activities of daily living whereby you’re not wearing a badge-encrusted parka, but you might be dressed entirely within the bounds of what’s considered ‘normal’ for work, pub, restaurant, family day, job interview, day trip, holiday, match, whatever else, your threads might even be partly ‘under the radar’ to a casual viewer but to anyone in the know they’d realise you’re ‘one of us’.I suppose that’s what I’m aiming for in my own Mod connection but I realise I’m a member of a ‘scene’ consisting of one person! That’s why I started up the blog to connect with other like-minded people and I’m constantly amazed when I look at the diversity in the country of origin of the readers. So maybe there is some loosely affiliated scene bubbling along out there in some way?

(Or maybe they just look in to laugh at the daft Brit transplant and his wacky clothes and ramblings!!)
 

Mr Knightley

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The thread has suddenly come back to life!

I agree with your 'throw-away' comments @Yorky

With the benefit of hindsight, I should have called this thread something more like 'The Look Moves On' - 'goes' implies little change, perhaps. What we wanted to explore (cerneabbas came up with the original idea) was how Mod / Skin / Suedehead styles move on and influence the way we dress today. Something about an 'unbroken circle' of style that traces its roots back to the very early 60s, but adapts over time. It was seen as a thread to complement MtoS.

I don't think there is any suggestion we should 'keep it skin' @Thin White Duke I never intended it to be. Looking back at my own evolution, I probably went from Mod to Suedehead, almost missing out Skinhead. I only had one pair of boots, which were worn two or three times. I did have a short haircut, but started growing it out by the start of 1970.

Regarding the 'mod scene', I used to go to the Ad-Lib Club in Lincoln occasionally and that was full of older 'mods' trying hard to recapture a late 60's look. Not always a pretty sight. So much of it cheap and / or over-designed, like mulitiple ticket pockets, hankies with tie tacks through them, matching tie and hanky and so on...

But, what is the Look today? I remember an earlier discussion where we talked about men's clothing shops that still catered for those with an interest in modernist styles. John Simons was of course mentioned - I have frequented his shops since 1969 - but another poster (possibly gsvs5, although I could be wrong) said he felt the type of style propsed by Al Bazar, Milan, a store that has been going since 1969, was closer to the 'spirit' of the Look today. It has moved with the times rather than still offering overtly 1960's trad-influenced styles.

Each of us obviously has his own answer, which is why this thread can be so interesting.
 

Mr Knightley

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I meant to mention the Trad Friday Challenge that Luigi and others are participating in - voting is still open until tomorrow morning.
 

covskin

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The whole context has changed so that none of it means anything anymore. Some teenager gets blue hair now and it's the most dull and boring thing you've ever seen. I do sense that young people feel they have missed out on something that we had.
 
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Mr Knightley

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Do you think that @covskin ? I don't know many young people and of the few that I do, I would say they don't think anything existed at all until they were born. But I do agree they are extremely boring.

On another note and thinking of your new boots, you may have spotted that Margaret Howell is doing a range of work boots and heavy shoes, all MiE:
 

Yorky

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The whole context has changed so that none of it means anything anymore. Some teenager gets blue hair now and it's the most dull and boring thing you've ever seen. I do sense that young people feel they have missed out on something that we had.
I get why people who still think of themselves as Mods or skins still go to events, because it is probably the only social scene that they have got, but everything has to be age appropriate. I have always been who l am alongside fellow citizens and usually accepted, working in a coal mine for 21 years I got the piss taken out of me by some, but there were others that had been there and understood.
I am a mod but in the current sense of what I think a mod is today. I understand that for some of the originals that time passed and fashions changed, and being a mod meant moving on. But to me it was non negotiable, it was what I had been waiting for and really with changing fashions at the time a no brainier. My adult reasoning still thinks the same why wear something that looks ****, when you can do otherwise. I understand that it's not always easy, and I have had some **** going on myself for the last 4 to 5 years, where I couldn't see any light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but my code has never faltered and as insignificant as it sounds made me get up everyday and carry on.
Sorry about the sermon but as I am now in a good place I wanted to share it.
 

Botolph

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The whole context has changed so that none of it means anything anymore. Some teenager gets blue hair now and it's the most dull and boring thing you've ever seen. I do sense that young people feel they have missed out on something that we had.

Right because we’re older, jaded, have been there, and done that. We see a kid with blue hair, a shaved head, or a punky jacket and think, “pfffft, ooh you’re a rebel”. But to those kids, when they’ve stumbled upon something fresh and exhilarating that they've never before witnessed in their innocence, they feel alive, unique, and sometimes cliquey, a lot like like we did— albeit within a new and bizarre paradigm(the internet, social media, etc) and a little detached from actual reality.
I think that young people are in a time of flux currently, as technology has shot far ahead of society and people are trying to(and will) eventually catch up.
The fact that cliques, gangs, scenes, etc., have been happening since time immemorial gives me an inkling of hope that youth are just in a transitional time, and when the dust settles the tribes(old, new, or both) may return.
 

Kingstonian

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I meant to mention the Trad Friday Challenge that Luigi and others are participating in - voting is still open until tomorrow morning.
Some rather bizarre voting.

Always trust your own judgement. You can safely ignore the popular choices.
 

Kingstonian

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Yes, agreed. I had thought and hoped that @Inkss would have been the one to beat. Oh well, it is always something of a lottery...
Agreed. I thought his entry was on a completely different level to all the others.

Cannot see a breakdown of who voted for each entry this time, but as you say the votes are a lottery.
 

Mr Knightley

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I recall from the last time that I ran one, you have a range of options when setting up the poll. You may limit the number of entries that each may vote for , allow the punters to see who has voted or not, choose the length of time for voting and so on.

You commented I recall that this one had been running for ever. In the ‘old days’ the Friday Challenge started on Monday or Tuesday, closed on Saturday and the voting ran from Saturday evening to Monday morning. That way interest was maintained ?
 

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