Sharp Stylings #14: Gabor Szabo

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.

Right here is another instance when everything is just right with a photo.

Cover image to Gabor Szabo's 1966 Jazz Raga LP on Impulse Records. Head out to your local record shop and find this one!

Not that you need me to point anything out, but:

• Beautiful, shining Lambrettas at the forefront of the image.
• Jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo busting out his sitar at a traffic stop while out on a Sunday scooter ride.
• Cute Carnaby Street model diggin' on the entertainment while waiting for the traffic light to change.
• Oh yeah, and Szabo looking MAF (an old term my friends and I used to use that I'd forgotten about - 'Mod as F***')!

If you could take all of my tastes and mash them up into one single photo, this would just about be it. Stock Lambretta scooters, Modded-out jazz musician playing sitar psychedelia, Carnaby Street clothes... the only thing that could make this a more picture-perfect representation of my tastes would be if the model was actually Tammi Terrell holding a glass of Syrah in one hand and an Evil Dead 2 DVD in the other as Antoine Doinel and Batman wave at them from across the street while sitting on a couple of Eames chairs.

But let's go back to Gabor Szabo. Instead of donning a kaftan, long hair and love beads* to go with his sitar, he keeps it cool with a crisp, sharp outfit:

• Tight, houndstooth-patterned trousers with no flare. (And I'm a fan of small flares!)
• Dark, thin floral tie.
• Dark jacket contrasting with a light blue shirt. And are those cocktail cuffs, I see?
• Short, neat hairstyle which I'm totally cool with despite my dig of the backcomb.
• Pinkie ring! 

This photo has always struck me right due to the psychedelic vibe coming from his instrument despite the fact that he's dressed like an early-to-mid-sixties Mod. And what I dig most about his outfit is the contrast between the patterns and colors. He's suited up but in an almost casual way.

That's how you do it!

[*EDITOR'S NOTE: Yeah, yeah, I know the photo's from 1966 which pre-dates kaftans, long hair, and love beads.]