A brief overview of the three influences of mod fashion: Pop-art, Italian Design, and R&B Style, and how you can let these fashions influence your own.
The mod explosion in the 60's owes a lot of its visability to its revolutionary new clothing styles. At the time, Carnaby Street in London was given credit as a hot bed of new fashions, where bands like the Dave Clark Five, the Who and the Rolling Stones would shop for their tours, spreading new looks across the world in every city where they stopped. The basics of men's mod fashion can be derived from this period and has remained popular ever since.
Mod fashion was very much influenced by pop art. Many of the iconic images of the Who are of Pete and the gang wearing shirts with simple abstract logos of dots and arrows, or the Union Jack. The idea of this is that outside its normal use, even a street sign can be art. The patriotism of British youth in the 60's is shown in the adaptation of the Union Jack and British Air Force symbols as motifs. Also popular were air force medallions and patches covering the front of a military shirt or even a turtleneck sweater.
Hairstyles were also strait out of Warhol's Factory. The hairstyles were generally short and in a dishevelled fashion with bangs either swept to the sides or cut strait across the forehead. Alternatively, a mod in Colin MacInnes's mod novel Absolute beginners has a "College-boy smooth crop hair with burned in part." The typical mod gets his hair cut every six weeks according to magazines of the time.
While there was an American pop-art influence, there was also a very strong Italian design influence. Scooter boy fashion had a tremendous affect on mod fashion. This can be seen in tight-fitting shirts and trousers with simple stripes and numbers adorning them. Of course it also helps to have the most important Italian designed accessory - a motor scooter.
The third element of mod fashion is taken from the R&B days, when mods would try to dress like those sharp Americans in their two-piece suits singing soul numbers. They, of course, didn't look the same on the Londoners. Popular for the Brits were slim-fitting black or grey suits with a lighter coloured shirt underneath and a tight, half-Windsored dark tie.
In Sept. 11, 1965's Disc Weekly, Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds was featured wearing a flower patterned shirt. While often associated with psychedelia, this can work within a mod outfit perhaps paired with a blazer and flat-front pants. In fact, gingham, check, paisley, polka dots, and even tartan, were on the must-have fabric list for mods in the mid-60's.
There are so many ways to dress mod that there's practically no better reason to dress mod. Try some out today.
