Friday 26 October 2012

Mod commandments

Thou shalt not wear anything with the word Mod emblazoned upon it. Or a roundel. Or a Union Jack.


Thou shalt not wear a track suit top (not even one of those nice Fila ones). Unless on your way to or from some kind of sporting activity.

Similarly, thou shalt not wear bowling shoes unless thou be bowling.

Thou shalt not wear a pork pie hat. Unless you are an elderly black man. Which you are not.

Thou shalt have no polo shirts but Fred Perry

Thou shalt not have a handkerchief poking out of the breast pocket of thy Crombie coat.

Thou shalt not wear braces

13 comments:

  1. Thous shalt not buy Mod compilation CDs with scooters on the sleeve.

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  2. Certain pork pie hats may be acceptable. The rest of the rules seem fine and can be ratified, especially regarding track suit tops.

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  3. John - I ended up restricting it to sartorial matters, there was only one musical one really: Thou shalt not listen solely to 'Mod' music.

    SA - Hmm, it'd have to be one very special pork pie hat. Maybe I'm just being bitter and twisted, I like hats but they tend not to suit me. The only one that really works on my head is a furry politburo style thing. There's possibly an argument to be made for its mod credentials via their adoption by free jazz types back in the day.

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  4. This post, by the way, is written in a fancy ye olde font (for, like, extra authenticity), but it doesn't show up if you're using an Apple computer. I only mention it because I faffed about for probably almost 30 minutes to achieve the effect.

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  5. It's only vaguely on-topic, but I loved that picture from just after the Olympics where Paul Weller was clearly having *his* photo taken with Bradley Wiggins.
    He mods up his cycle helmet and he won the tour de france, and I imagine he wears the odd tracksuit.... although, I guess he could invoke the sporting activity rule, right?

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  6. Oh, he's definitely covered by the sporting activity rule. I think I approve of Bradley Wiggins, I'm not sure. I suspect his modernism may be a little archaic. Though I did like those tops he did for Fred Perry.

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  7. did you see the blue pea coat he was wearing the other day? At the launch of the 2013 TdeF route, no less. More stylish than your average cyclist, certainly.

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  8. I hadn't, but I've investigated. It's a very nice coat. It's a shame isn't it that being just a little different is so conspicuous.

    I nearly condemned double breasted jackets but on reflection decided that I'd only have been doing so because they don't suit me.

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  9. I just got myself an epic German u-boat commander's double-breasted leather jacket....

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  10. (Not an original - plain buttons and not nazi insignia - but you know what I mean)

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  11. Other than that, I'm single-breasted all the way. I've had 2 suits tailored in my life, and on both occasions, the tailor insisted in single-breasted, 2-buttons and slashed, angled pockets. Something to do with being very tall and very thin, apparently. One said he spent his whole career making people look taller and thinner, so he was damned if he'd let my stupid ideas ruin my wedding suit. The other tailor was in Vietnam, but he managed to make his point inspite of the language barrier....

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  12. I'm glad to hear my prejudice is shared by tailors (and internationally too). I avoid them due to my being quite broad shouldered and not particularly tall (5'11" fact fans). So if you at your height are warned off them who exactly do they suit?

    Their genocidal death trip to one side the Nazis were very snappy dressers, though I don't think I could go for your jacket, just on height/broadness grounds (though I do regularly wear its RN equivalent the Duffel). Nazi attire related anecdote: wandering into the back room of a junk shop just off the Piazza Navona I found myself surrounded by mannequins dressed in Nazi uniforms. Such is their potency, for a split second I thought "Danger! I'm not safe here".

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