Men’s Fashion
The 1960s was a mix and match fashion bonanza with many different trends and short lived styles that disappeared as soon as they were created. However, there was one group that had an impact on men’s fashion and it was to last and influence clothes to this day. We look at the rise of the Mods.
The decade began with Rockers, who owed their styles very much to the Edwardian inspired Teddy boy era of the 50s. There clothing was black, leather and loose fitting, macho and motor bike orientated. They were good people who, sadly, got a bad press and society saw them and their fashion in a less than favourable light. They were hard, too, masculine men and enjoyed biking and American rock and roll music. Much attention was given to creating a very male-only look. Clothes were utilitarian, functional rather than aesthetic, while hairstyles were long, greasy and often wild.
As a reaction to the Rockers a new group of, very often, middle class boys began to congregate in London. Many of these boys worked in the fashion or finance trades in the city and did not easily fit into the Rocker mould. They choose short, neat hair, neat suits and added colour, style and accessories into their clothing. They also chose the new Italian scooters like the early Lambrettas or Vespas and buzzed like bees in the thick London traffic.
They were the complete antithesis of Rockers. They created their image by adapting modern, existing styles and, because of their modern outlook, they called themselves Modernists, later shortened to Mods.
They existed alongside Rockers and saw that trend subside and they even continued to flourish when the Hippies arrived in the late 60s and survived into 70s and 80s culture. Why were they so successful? I believe it may be because they had adaptability, a sense of changing what was already there to suit themselves but it may also be that they represented very nearly convention and, in a toned down way, what everyone else wore. Also, their fashion was easily adapted to the opposite sex while Rocker fashion was not so girl friendly.
Mod Gear
Mod clothes are tight, well-fitted, colour coordinated and, most of all, had new and innovative styling differences.
A good way to see the ‘look’ of Mod fashion is to choose Bing’s excellent long search page for men’s Mod Fashion. A link is here.
From this page it’s easy to get an overall view of the basic elements of the style and also to note, incidentally, Mod hairstyles. Despite the fact that this is a search for men’s fashion it also illustrates how the style overflowed into female fashion producing that slightly androgynous look that characterised the sixties.
Many of the photos in the Bing list are modern styles which show how the style lives on in the fashion designs of today. But look also for the original styles and see how they are repeated in today’s fashion for men.
I had hoped that Ebay would prove, as it had with suits, to be a source of material but I could not find any suitable pages to bring you. Whether it was just a bad time or whether I was searching for the wrong thing I am not sure but try the other links below for retail Mod and similar fashion.
Sherrys – look around the rest of the shop, too
Mod Lifestyle
The Mods had the drive and the talent within their ranks to create life where it had not existed before and they wrote their own magazines to popularize their culture. They also, and this is important, created their own bands, many of whom were to rule the music scene from years to come like the fabulous Who, The Small Faces, and The Kinks all of whom began as Mods.
With hindsight it is possible to see how Rockers, like the Teddy Boys before them, were stagnant, happy to enjoy life with their off-the-peg lifestyle while Mods were revolutionists wanting to change, not just their life, but the lives of everyone around them.
In this they were successful beyond their wildest dreams for the mid-60s saw Mod styles, clothes and music spreading like a raging fire to consume all its path and create what has gone down as the classic 60s look. Young fashion designers may not have considered themselves Mods but the Mod fashions had so much scope for innovation that they were adopted and moulded and thus spread far and wide.
A good website on more information on Mod culture is here.
So Mods, in their neat, fashionable, fitted suits, ruled the mid-60s but the songs and shouts of change were on the way for the late years of that decade saw the rise of yet another group who called themselves hippies. Like the Mods before them they, too, were the complete opposite of what had gone before and took fashion, culture, music and even ideas in a completely opposite direction. I have already written about hippies and you can find the first of my articles here.
Photo exfordy
Mens 60s Fashion part 1: Suits
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I don’t agree with you saying that mods in the sixties was made up of middle class. it was all about working class youths makeing a better liveing and the most of what they had, people often get the sixteis fashion and mods mixed up in the same way that people think that mods followed the beatle which as a whole they infact did not. I’ve bin a mod since 1983 and always will, its a way of life.
Thanks very much for that comment.