Sharp Stylings #50: Bradley Wiggins

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. 

Hold on a sec while I climb aboard this bandwagon...

Okay, the name on everyone's lips right now is Bradley Wiggins and for good reason. The guy won the Tour de France! Hey, that ain't no easy feat. Trust me... I've seen The Triplets of Belleville!

Oh wait, what? Did you say he likes Paul Weller and Fred Perry? Oh man, forget the bike thing... let's talk about that instead, here and here and here...

Actually, if we're gonna take this down a mod path, then I foresee a lot of future 'mod' types skipping out on suits and even Fred Perry polos in favor of cycling shirts. And let me tell you, ya gotta be in pretty good shape to get away with those. (Why do you think I avoid them?)

Instead, people should be looking to this image for inspiration:

Photo taken from the Stockholm Mods blog.

I love this photo just for the quality, the choice of B&W, and the style of bike he's leaning on. Plus, he's got on a pretty dapper suit! The waistcoat buttons a bit too low for my personal tastes, but he is just looking razor-sharp here! Well-cut pants with just the right amount of narrow going on. Three-button, light-colored jacket with high arm-holes, ticket pocket, and medium-width lapels (not a bad thing). And it looks like he's wearing a french-cuff, rounded tab-collar shirt. Toss in the beautiful B&W wing-tip shoes, and you have one of the most stylin' athletes around! (And let me tell you, if I won the Tour de France, you better believe I'd be stocking on a whole mess of bespoke suits!)

Everyone right now is playing up the 'mod' angle behind Bradley Wiggins. Hey, I don't know how 'mod' he is outside of having pretty good tastes in general. But what all this attention has shown is that people from all walks of life get into the mod thing and that it's only one aspect of a person's character. Mod types aren't one-dimensional. They're musicians, graphic designers, business people, construction workers, managers, computer programmers, and athletes.

Whether Bradley Wiggins is mod or not doesn't matter... the guy just won the TOUR DE FRANCE!!

He's now a sports hero.

And if you want a great analysis of the media's coverage of Bradley Wiggin's mod leanings, ModCulture has you hooked up.