Mods, The Ivy League And Working-class Menswear

And again from a couple of years back - well it's Saturday and there's a pint in The Brick with my name on it!

"A mate of mine dropped me a text message the other week. He had been around Manchester on the Saturday afternoon and had dropped on Man United's mob. He was enthusing that they were all wearing semi-flares, Adidas shoes and not a gaudy label in sight. I concurred with him that this was indeed great news. And as we know in general where Manchester and Liverpool lead then the rest of the North West follows.

This whole dressing up at football was only in part about labels. It was also about "the look". For every £400 jacket there was an Israeli Army parka from Millets. The dressed-down look if it is indeed coming back is most welcome. Because football fashion was always a part of working class fashion and working class fashion has always been about simplicity. The general consensus of argument tends to be whether football fashion started in the North or in London. Yet there is always the counter argument that it is just an extension of the modernist look that was taken up by Londoners after the 2nd World War. Now I'm no expert but I'd like to delve into this latter theory.

After the 2nd World War a whole new-world literally opened up before peoples eyes. As rationing was phased out many products and influences entered the nation's senses. Most of these came from across the pond and nothing was more influential than clothing. In Soho the jazz bars would be full of American sounds and by the end of the fifties the clothes were also American. This was an East American cool that was based on the clothes that formed the Ivy League look from the influential colleges in America. Button-down shirts, penny loafers, wing-tip brogues and flat fronted chino trousers.

As the 50's became the 60's the sharp young lads around the cities of Britain began to appropriate this look but added Traditional English and European looks to it as well as the Jamaican rude boy look that the newly arrived immigrants had brought with them. By 1965 this was becoming a much sought after look and a lad from the East End of London called John Simons opened 'The Ivy Shop' on Richmond Hill. A shop that is, arguably, the most important menswear shop in Britain ever. Here he took the imported American clothes along with all the European and Jamaican influences and his tailoring skill and created the proper Modernist look. This wasn't the cartoon Carnaby Street mod that can be seen in Quadrophenia. There were no mirrors, rabbit tails and patches here. It was simple quality clothing. In 1969 he invented the Harrington Jacket that was a variation on the golf jacket that Ryan O'Neal's character Rodney Harrington wore in the then popular soap opera Peyton Place. That jacket is still a staple item in many a lad's wardrobe.

And that is the influence. As Mod split two ways with the hardcore tough mods mutating into skinheads and the "artier" mods moving towards the hippy movement those clothes from the sixties remain the constant among many a young buck's look. As well as the Harrington jacket much of the clothes that John Simons and others brought into the country and introduced to sharp dressed young working class men can still be seen today. The omnipresent Duffel Coat was worn by the modernists. As was the reefer jackets. Flat fronted trousers, Levi's and Crombie coats. The suit that never loses its appeal is a simple three-button slim fitting 60's influenced coat. The anoraks of Massimo Osti are strictly modernist in design. And take a look at your shoes. They can produce as many variations of design as they like but they will never better a pair of English brogues or an American loafer. As for boots next time you pass Jeffrey Tonks shoe shop in town take a look at the Clarks Desert Boot. It is perfect. As for the brands - John Smedley, Lacoste, Marks & Spencers, Ralph Lauren, Levi's, Barbour, Champion sweatshirts and everything else that is just right are made along modernist lines. Paul Smith has made his fortune from such ethics and produced some of the most desirable clothes you will ever see or wear.

And then there's Adidas. Adidas trainers with semi-flared jeans and cords might strictly be an 80's Northern casual revival look yet the semi-flared jeans can be seen on the arse of The Beatles on many of their covers while the classic Adidas trainers are purely modernist in design and spirit.

I realise this is an indulgence and will only be of interest to lads that are interested in clothes but hey that was always the modernist viewpoint. It was elitist and it still is. Let the others follow FASHION while the discerning amongst us will forever be interested in the CLOTHES. And that is the massive difference.