Sharp Stylings #32: Paul Weller (Early TSC Period)

We can learn so much from yesterday’s fashion icons.  And living in a post-Mad Men world means we can even enjoy aspects of current male fashions! Every Friday, I’d like to start your weekend off right with a little style inspiration from either then or now. Hopefully, my fellow Mod enthusiasts will find the whole or some detail of the whole to appreciate and maybe even adopt.

So yeah, after the last post, was there any doubt about who I'd be featuring for today's Sharp Stylings?

I know I get down on Paul Weller at times, but that's only because I just don't see him as a Teflon 'Modfather'. The guy's made some bad mistakes in his life, both musically and fashionably. But, I think I've also given him much-deserved props, because he has been a tremendous influence on so many people and has also done a lot of good, both musically and fashionably. He's a complex figure with efforts to admire and efforts to criticize.

But let's go back to a time when he was full of promise, on the cusp of his post-Jam effort, The Style Council.

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are already lost in his magnetic gaze. Snap out of it, already! Geez, we get it... the guy was an attractive young man. He had great hair at this time, perfectly short with just the right amount of sides for the length of this particular hairstyle. Man, if I tried pulling this off, I'd end up looking like a Monchichi.

I also dig on the polka-dot shirt he's got on, offering a nice '60s Carnaby touch. Sharp bit of loud detail in an otherwise muted outfit. But the focus here is on that fantastic white overcoat, perfect contrast to the dark clothes underneath. No parka here, my friends! I think it was these early Paul Weller photo sessions that first started turning me off to parkas. I mean, why walk around in a grubby army coat when you could be bustin' out the style with a piece of Modernist flash like this?

Yeah, I know a couple of years later, he'd be dumping this look. But he did find his way home again, eventually.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!