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?