Mod Male Meets 'Mod Male'

For those of you further along in your studies of Modology, you've probably already guessed where the name of this blog came from. Some of you, however, probably just think it was some generic name chosen randomly. Not so.

The original Mod Male was one of several men's clothing boutiques (along with His Clothes, Domino Male, Male W1, and others) opened by John Stephen in the 1960s.

Being a blog more dedicated to the male side of Mod style, I figured it'd be the perfect title as well as a nice homage to the 'King of Carnaby Street.'

Well, this past weekend, I came face-to-face with an actual piece of 'Mod Male' clothing, although I cannot confirm whether it is a John Stephen piece. These days, it's pretty hard to find a vintage John Stephen-labeled piece of clothing, unless you're lucky or a big vintage fashion collector.

As we were getting ready for the day, I noticed my friend Mike's brown corduroy jacket. Nice, casual jacket... perfect for a casual day of Austin site-seeing. But what caught my eye most about this jacket was the inside floral lining.

I told him that I thought it was a great lining, to which he replied, "Oh, this... here, thought you'd might get a kick out of it." Yeah, a kick... here's what he showed me:

Yup, he was wearing a 'Mod Male' jacket from Carnaby Street! My face nearly melted. Now, it does say "Alexander's THE MOD MALE - Carnaby Street W1," which does throw me off a bit. Is this a John Stephen-designed item which was made for a different shop using his 'Mod Male' tag? Or was there a shop called "Alexander's" which put out clothing using the name "The Mod Male," by coincidence, which also happened to be on Carnaby Street? I wonder if the A Dandy in Aspic blog can answer this one?

Well, as Mike and I were discussing the jacket, his other half, Sarah, overheard us and casually replied, "Oh, wait, here... let me show you this." She went into her room and came out holding a rust-colored, 2-piece, corduroy suit.

A latter-1960s ensemble that I had seen her in once before. But here was the kicker... she opened up the coat and said, "Here, take a look at the label!"

Yup, there it was, a bona-fide John Stephen-labeled piece of clothing! The real deal!

It's not often one comes across authentic vintage 1960s Carnaby Street pieces, and here were two for me to drool over. I wonder, how many readers of this blog have come across such pieces? If you have, share your stories... what types of pieces have you found? Can you describe what the item looks like? And most importantly, what label is on the piece or pieces?

In the meantime, Mike, close this post out with a little bit of modeling, why don't you?

Our European Honeymoon, Part 1: London!

At the beginning of October, we took a long-delayed honeymoon to a few places I'd never been before: London, Paris, and Barcelona. Two solid weeks of European travel which blew my mind! Oh, I can spend all day writing about the museums, the food, the people, the sights, and the culture we took in and loved.

But you don't want to read about that. You want to read about Mod stuff!

Well, let me start off by saying that the first thing I told my wife was that I didn't want to do ANY Mod stuff while in Europe. We have Mod people here in the U.S. I want to see stuff I can't get over here! So, no Brighton Beach visits, no Carnaby Street visits, no Mod clubbin'. Let's be 100% tourists!

But then I heard about the 'Reading Steady Go' Mod exhibit which would be closing within days of our arrival. Then, our hosts in Paris let us know that their band would be playing part of a French Mod weekender while we were in town. Then, we discovered that our American friend would be moving to London days before our arrival, just in time to let us know of any Mod nights going on. Well, turns out I'd be needing a larger suitcase to carry more outfits. Of course, this lead to my first mistake in traveling abroad: overpacking! I'll save this for a future post, though.

So obviously, we'd be fitting in some Mod stops into our trip. Still, I protested, no Carnaby Street! All these years, I had heard about it being a grubby alley with cheesy Mod shops and I just didn't care to give in to all that nonsense. (Yup, you guessed it... I ended up changing my mind on that too.)

Well, let's start this thing. We flew in to London in the afternoon, went through the long customs lines, picked up our bags, and hopped on to the Underground. Boy, was I excited... until the train arrived. Hey London, I've got a suggestion for you: instead of 'Mind the Gap', how about "FIX the Gap"?! Seriously... when our first Underground train arrived and I heard the announcement, "Mind the Gap," I snickered and elbowed Irene.

That snickering ended as I tried lifting our OVERPACKED luggage up and over that darn gap within the few seconds allotted to board the train! Oh yeah, and a little air-conditioning on those trains couldn't hurt.

Speaking of which, we hit a heat wave in London! We had packed for nice, Autumn, cool-to-cold weather, and then found out the hard way we should have packed short sleeves. But I'll get back to this in a bit.

We finally hit the end of our tube stop at Euston Square and I am very proud to announce that not ONCE did I make a Jam reference! Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my wife who started to sing a little lyric when we walked out of the station: "Saturday's girls work in Tesco's and Woolworths." I looked at her perplexed. She smiled and pointed at a corner store across the street, Tesco's. Again, I looked at her blankly. "From the Jam song!" she cried. Now, I thought I was a pretty alright Jam aficionado, but apparently not. Turns out it's a lyric from "Saturday's Kids," but unlike me, all of you probably already knew that. (SIDE NOTE: this wouldn't be the last Jam song reference she would make on this trip. When I pointed out Wardour Street to her, she replied, "Oh no! I hope they don't drop any A-bombs on us!" Cue rimshot. And I'm sure at one point she did say, "Hey, we're going underground!" Sigh...)

Now friends, let me tell you about our very first meal in London. After lifting our luggage up 2 narrow flights of stairs in the heat dropping our luggage off at our B&B, we decided to find some good English food to eat. So, we settled on a corner Italian pizza eatery and sat outside. As we were eating our pizza, four women surrounded us, asking for money. Now, here in the Bay Area, we're pretty savvy when it comes to panhandlers. Once you say 'no,' they tend to go away. Not in London! After asking us for money, they then asked for our food. I said 'no' again and thought that was it. I was confused... these women were dressed well, much better than our panhandlers back home. Then we realized they were gypsies! After I declined their request to take our food, one of them actually REACHED OVER AND GRABBED A SLICE! I threatened her with my fork as she looked me in the eyes and smiled a toothy grin. Now, I don't know about you, but I've seen Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell. 

I pulled my fork back because last thing I needed was to spend the rest of my vacation looking over my shoulder and worrying if I'd be dragged... to hell. Luckily, one of the waiters came out and chased them away, but that right there was my first dining experience.

Well, on our first evening in London, we decided to spend it in Reading instead. We had learned that the final days of the 'Reading Steady Go' exhibit would be celebrated this evening with a performance by The Birds with original lead singer, Ali MacKenzie, The Small Fakers (Small Faces tribute band, in case you couldn't figure it out) and DJs Jim and Paul 'Smiler' Anderson (the man behind the exhibit).

We were into this! Despite the heat (did I mention we were in a London heat wave?), we got all dolled up and ready for action! Little did we realize our only action that evening would be learning how the Underground works.

We spent about 30 minutes perspiring in King's Cross station as we tried to find the Reading tube stop. Guess what we learned? There is no Reading tube stop! But we were, however, directed to Paddington Station which we did get to, but not before jumping on a train that went in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Paddington we realized we would be getting into Reading way too late, not to mention the time we'd need to figure out how to get back to our hotel afterward. So we sat in Paddington, dressed all Mod-like and consoling ourselves with memories of Paddington Bear animated shorts on Romper Room.

We ended up getting back to King's Cross and having a couple of delicious ciders at a pub up the street from our hotel. Then, it was back in the sauna that was our hotel room.

The next day, we continued our trip proper-tourist style: Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Big Ben, Soho-oh-my god, the London heat! Seriously, guys, we're weather wimps... we admit it! That's why we live in the Bay Area. This heat was too much for us (even though it was probably just in the 80s, or mid-20s, for you Celsius folk). It was so hot, I broke my vow not to go to Carnaby Street. See, I figured that'd be the best place to buy a short-sleeved Fred Perry. After seeing guys all over London in pretty-cool looking FPs, I told my wife I needed one. I'm not even a huge Fred Perry fan, but I needed something to keep cool! (Plus, by this point, it was hitting me: I'm in London. It would be silly to skip Carnaby Street since we're already here!)

Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the street, most everything had closed. However, Carnaby Street was not the alley I had been led to believe it was. Oh no, this place was huge! Several blocks, I'd say, with side streets on top of that. Oh, we'd be coming back alright... but not before taking a couple of photos:

Our 2nd full day in London was spent at the British Museum. Seriously... like the full day was practically spent there! An AMAZING place that is definitely worth a visit (along with the National Gallery)! Afterward, we did a little more shopping in Soho. I was still hunting for a Fred Perry, especially after seeing great-looking vintage-styled ones on random people. We found the 'flagship' Fred Perry store, walked in, and walked right back out after seeing those price tags. We then walked over to another Fred Perry shop and walked out of that one too, seeing as how much worse the quality of those shirts seemed. Gotta tell you, London really loves its Fred Perry brand! We saw this during our hunt for the shirts:

After not buying any Fred Perrys, we met up with our friend Syd at a still-bustling Carnaby Street. Honestly, we skipped so many shops on the main street: Pretty Green, the Merc, Ben Sherman. Sorry guys, but as 'Mod' as these shops claim to be, nothing in the windows looked appealing. And regarding the Merc, I've NEVER been tempted to shop there. I always associated that place with the easy, insta-Mod look. Just not my thing. We did walk in to Sherry's, more as a joke than anything else. For years, I saw this shop as the type of place where insta-Mods might go for their insta-gear. However, I will say this for Sherry's: the people who run it were super nice and welcoming! Sure, they sold a lot of janky, cheap Mod gear, but y'know what? They also sold John Smedleys about 30 pounds cheaper than Fred Perry was selling them for. So, yes, I picked one up! Plus, they carried other current Moddish labels that looked interesting. I always like supporting the small shop owners and for a little mom'n'pop shop, I'd totally recommend them! Stay away from the cookie-cutter 'Mod' suits and hunt down a John Smedley or two.

Hey. Mod enough for ya?

The best shops, however, seemed to be OFF Carnaby Street. As we were walking along, I mentioned that I wished I knew where the Blaqua shop was. Lo and behold, we were walking right in front of it! I ran in, while Irene and Syd looked at the Paul Weller photos in the window. I heard Irene say, "Aw, he looks like such a grandpa..." and put my head down as the shop's proprietor also heard the comment. I told her, "No, no, my wife's a fan..." That started a long conversation on PW between them. I wanted to talk to the shop owner about Carnaby Street fashions and the influences of her clothing styles, but it was hard to interrupt their talk about what Paul Weller was like in person and how his recent shows had been. I did, however, enjoy what she had to say about Carnaby Street and how her shop had been doing. I highly recommend checking Blaqua out, but don't expect a by-the-numbers Mod shop or a Mod shop at all. It's just a small boutique with beautifully patterned shirts and ties, slick jackets, and more. Plus, the items they sell are made in extremely small quantities, so chances are that whatever you get, you'll be one of a few to own it. Dandified clothing that's worth being a part of your wardrobe! (Heck, I bought myself a red/purple floral tie!)

The other shop I dug was Peckham Rye. After Blaqua, I peeked in to this shop to drool over the ties in the window since they had just closed. But the man working in the shop was kind enough to open his door for us!

He shared some of the store's history and probably got a kick out of some American acting like a kid in a candy store in his shop. Ties galore in this place, not to mention pocket squares and scarves! And good news for any of you not near Carnaby Street: these items are sold online!

Well, after a nice Indian dinner and drinks at a pub with our pal Syd, it was back to the hotel to sweat through the evening heat. We had to catch up on rest because the next day, we'd be hitting Highgate Cemetery and then taking a Eurostar to Paris! Up to this point, despite the temperature, London was a hit!

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of our exciting European (Moddish) Vacation!

From Velcro to Chisel-Toe

Never count DSW out... found these awesome NEW shoes there!
Photo courtesy of Carrie Swing at http://carriedawaywithvintagegourmet.blogspot.com/.

Okay, enough with old memories... let's bring this blog back to what I wanted to focus on in the first place: clothes! Specifically, let's talk about shoes. Mod shoes... starting with an old memory.

When I was MUCH younger, all I needed in a pair of shoes were some good ol' Velco straps. I was a no muss, no fuss kinda kid... toss a pair of shoes on, velcro them up, and off to play with my buddies. That changed in the 7th grade. As the idea of 'cool' was becoming painfully apparent to me, my parents kindly bit the big one and invested in a pair of white, round-toed Reeboks for me. Of course, by the time I got them, the shoe trend had moved on to British Knights (BKs).

Yes, I admit it. I once wore shoes this ugly.

That Halloween, my buddy Robert showed up in a kind of costume: white t-shirt, spiked hair, and green make-up. He was a 'crazy person,' if I remember correctly. What really caught my eye, though, were the shoes he was wearing: his older brother's grey and black, pointed Na-Na creepers. I thought these things were the coolest shoes EVER. He then told me that you could buy shoes like these at a magical place called Melrose. (Of course, I thought he was talking about an actual store.) Unfortunately, however, I had to live out the rest of my 7th grade life in those Reebok tennis shoes. 7th grade... the last time I ever wore tennis shoes again as a daily part of my wardrobe.

I started the 8th grade out in a type of grey casual shoe that I saw the Filipino dudes at my school wear. Nothing special, but I thought they were pretty 'hip' since they weren't tennis shoes. But they were nowhere near as hip as my birthday gift that year: a pair of black and white, pointed Na-Na creepers with a buckle and the stitching on top! Sure, I had to endure an entire day of getting picked on the first time I wore them out, but hey! Isn't that what being 'different' and 'anti-society' was all about back then? (And yes, that day was going absolutely miserable until my skater/new wave friends started complimenting the shoes!)

Can't tell you how many times I heard kids yell out, "Hey Frankenstein!" (Ironically enough, creepers were "in" the following year.)

My next big shoe purchase was a gift for 'graduating' from the 8th grade: a pair of Dr. Martens! I can't remember how I had heard of these, but I do remember them being a big deal to have if you were on the 'new wave/punk' tip. So, I picked out a great lace-up pair in black leather with a pointed toe and stitching along the top, exactly like my creepers but without the 2-inch sole. I felt like I had finally hit 'ultra-cool' status, what with being the first kid in my 'clique' with Dr. Martens and all. Unfortunately, these came at the end of my junior high life.

I dug these shoes so much that I wore them from the ending of the 8th grade up to my first year in college!  And hey, these shoes were for sale a year ago... and they were considered 'vintage!'

I was sold on Dr. Martens after these and ended up buying 2 more pairs at a Na-Na sale in Santa Monica right before 9th grade started: one gray lace-up pair with a pointed toe, and a second pair with a pointed toe and buckle, in marble blue leather. Unfortunately, these shoes were pretty large for my still growing (but not by much) feet. Still, I wore them around school and didn't care what people thought. Not so sadly, these were the last pairs of Docs I ever got, never veering into boot territory, because after this, I was on the hunt for 'Mod' shoes!

And by Mod shoes, I mean loafers. And by loafers, I don't mean Bass Weejuns, but rather whatever penny loafers I could find at the Buster Brown shoe store in the local Puente Hills Mall. Man, I can't tell you how cool I thought I looked in those penny loafers, along with white socks, high-water tapered Dickies pants, and burgundy flight jacket with ska/mod pins! Shortly afterward, I moved on to a slicker form of shoe... the kind meant for suit-wearin': wing-tipped tassle loafers! Oh man... rude girls, prepare to swoon! (No, no swooning was ever done.)

Then I moved to the Bay Area and it was here that I really fell in love with shoe wear... actual Mod shoe wear. Aww... I still remember it like it was yesterday. I found my first pair of 1960s pointed ankle boots on Telegraph Avenue at Wasteland (before it was called Mars Mercantile) and these started an obsession with '60s pointed and chisel-toed shoes that I still have to this day. Sure, I went through bowling shoe and Jam 'stage shoe' phases. Had to get these out of my system, because after this, it was all '60s-styled shoes for me!

Back in college, I almost passed by one of my now favorite pairs of shoes: a total suede and leather Carnaby Street number. A buddy and I were in Mars Mercantile one day and he was kind enough to point out this pair of shoes in the women's section. I dismissed them without even looking until he brought them out. So glad he did because $10 later, I had these:

Sigh... unfortunately, when you get cool shoes you can either store them away for safekeeping or... wear them. As you can tell, I've worn these.

Then came the Bay Area Vintage Shoe Glory Days! One day, around 8-9 years ago (yikes!), a bunch of us were spending our happy hour at the Casanova Lounge in San Francisco. My pal, Jason Ringgold, and I decided to take a break and walk up to Clothes Contact where you could buy clothes by the pound. We were surprised to find a beat-up pair of absolute cool sixties Mod shoes. They were relatively plain but with a nice chisel-toe (imagine a pointed shoe with the tip of the shoe cut off). After snatching them up, we found out that the owner of these vintage shops had come across a warehouse in Germany with dead-stock '60s men's shoes! For the next several years, we were finding a pair here, a pair there... it was absolute shoe heaven for us! My personal shoe collection grew with the following:

Ya can't beat leather and suede combos!

Love the detailing on the sides.

My Small Faces shoes... but these were hand-me-downs from Mike Therieau, not a part of the German warehouse stock.

Soon, us Bay Area Mod dudes were classin' up sidewalks all over town! Eventually, this surplus dried out, but every once in a while, you can still find a pair from this old stock. In fact, about a month ago, I found these:

Suede and leather again... SH-BAMM!

I'm still totally obsessed with 1960s-style pointed-toe and chisel-toe shoes. I'm not as into the winkle-picker points as I used to be and I'm still not into heavy boots of any kind (i.e., Dr. Marten boots, monkey boots, etc.) or desert boots, as I've discussed before. No, I like my shoes narrow, with some cool detailing, a nice toe, and all-around slick!

Now, allow me to get a formality out of the way: Mod shoes. Mod shoes. Mod shoes. Mod shoes. (There. Now when people from the future do on-line searches for 'Mod shoes,' hopefully they'll be pointed here instead of some company selling bunk bowling shoes.) Mod shoes.

QUESTION: If you have a moment, please leave a comment describing your favorite pair of shoes. And this isn't just for the male Mods in the audience. Or Mods, for that matter. Just in general, what's your favorite shoe?

Sharp Stylings #6: Barry Gibb

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.

A while ago, I read though Jeremy Reed's recent John Stephen biography, and was struck by the following image:

Stare into my eyes... when you wake up, you will love disco music in 10 years.

Yup, that's Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees dapperfying your screen. He is wearing a white jacket, white shirt & tie, and white pocket square contrasting with, according to the book, cherry red waistcoat and pants. The only thing that bothered me about this photo? It's in black and white! (In fact, for a book about colorful Carnaby Street, there weren't ANY color photos.)

For me, though, this outfit struck all the right chords. But what killed me even more, and set me off on my current outfit goal, was Gibb's plan with John Stephen. He decided to have three 3-piece suits made: one in white, one in red, and one in blue. The idea behind this was so that he could then alternate the pieces and have a different outfit every time he went out! It's no wonder Barry Gibb won a John Stephen Fashion Award for Best-Dressed Man in 1968! (And yes, you do want to click that link, trust me.)

Yeah, this image sent me on a mission and part one of that mission has been completed. This week, I acquired a white suit! Well, off-white really.

Speaking of which, tune in on Monday for a Labor Day white suit post!