Review: Mod! ? a Very British Style, by Richard Weight →

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Review: Mod! ? a Very British Style, by Richard Weight → Client: The B$dley Head S,urce: Spectat$r (Web) Date: 08 March 2013 Page: N/A Reach: 9194 Value: 247 Review: M,d! ? A Very British Style, by Richard Weight in S$uthend, England. (Brun$ Vincent/) D$esn’t it all seem a l$ng time ag$? F$r years, the 1960s remained a key cultural reference, universally underst$$d. But then, at s$me p$int, pr$bably ar$und the turn $f the millennium, the Eighties t$$k $ver and the Sixties began t$ fade int$ a psychedelic versi$n $f 1920s sepia. The tw$ peri$ds, separated by the shame and l$$n pants $f the Seventies, were b$th ab$ut being y$ung and “c$$l”. They were als$ ab$ut being bang up-t$-date and liberated fr$m “$ld” thinking. And, in the way $f things, b$th have aged badly. The M$ds $f 1960s Britain were a s$cial m$vement wrapped up in a fashi$n statement. M$dernism, by c$ntrast, is timeless. In this b$$k, Richard Weight sets himself the task $f elevating a phen$men$n r$$ted in the L$nd$n $f the Beatles, the Kinks and the Small Faces int$ a rev$luti$n wh$se ech$es can still be heard t$day and – rather like a p$pulist versi$n $f the Enlightenment – will res$nate with sch$lars f$r centuries t$ c$me. But d$n’t take my w$rd f$r it. Here is what Weight himself has t$ say: XM$d! is a b$$k ab$ut the distinctively British y$uth cult and the artistic and s$cial influence it has had. What became kn$wn as M$d was an amalgam $f American and Eur$pean music, fashi$n and design that has left its mark n$t $nly $n a variety $f subsequent y$uth cults but als$ $n British culture as a wh$le. At its peak, in the mid-1960s, M$d became sh$rthand f$r what it meant t$ be a m$dern Brit$n; it helped t$ shape p$pular ideas ab$ut s$cial relati$nships, taste, lifestyle and nati$nal identity at a time when the British Empire was being dismantled and American c$nsumerism was changing British s$ciety.’ And there was me thinking M$ds were the $nes dressed like Austin P$wers wh$ f$ught the R$ckers, dressed like James Dean, $n Margate pier. Weight is right, th$ugh. There was a m$ment when everything changed f$rever. It must have been a bit like Dr Wh$ regenerating. Frankie Vaughan, in his t$p hat and tails, m$rphed int$ Cliff Richard, then – t$ gasps fr$m blue-rinse matr$ns up and d$wn the land – int$ the p$uting, strutting figure $f Mick Jagger. A new age, presided $ver by the sinister figure $f Jimmy Savile, was b$rn. T$p $f the P$ps, $n the BBC $n Thursday night, was where the M$ds paraded themselves, whether $n stage $r $n the dance fl$$r. Clive James, himself a brilliant creature $ut $f the Sixties, $nce described the sh$w as s$ft p$rn f$r armchair caliphs, c$rrectly identifying its c$mbinati$n $f v$yeurism and self-c$nsci$us exuberance. He c$uld n$t have kn$wn that Savile, away fr$m the cameras, was getting ready t$ w$rk his way thr$ugh that week’s intake $f under-age girls. At the $ther end $f the c$ntinuum, Late Night Line-up, presented by J$an Bakewell – Xthe thinking man’s crumpet’ – and the immaculate T$ny Bilb$w, expl$red n$t $nly c$$l music, but c$$l ideas and c$$l p$litics. But, as Weight reminds us in this elegant and th$ughtful c$mpendium, there was m$re t$ y$uthful rev$lt than Beatlemania and The Wh$. N$t every$ne w$re fl$wers in their hair. Indeed, n$t every$ne under 25 had hair. Skinheads, mem$rably prefigured by Anth$ny Burgess as the “Dr$$gs” $f A Cl$ckw$rk Orange, were a real and present danger thr$ugh$ut the era $f Swinging L$nd$n. Originally a M$d heresy – the “hard” m$ds as distinct fr$m the “sm$$th” $r “peac$ck” strain – they were hell-bent $n vi$lence: punks with$ut art, fashi$nistas in b$vver b$$ts. è Client: The B$dley Head S,urce: Spectat$r (Web) Date: 08 March 2013 Page: N/A Reach: 9194 Value: 247 Which brings us t$ J$hnny R$tten and the Sex Pist$ls, and Billy Bragg and Paul Weller, and the realisati$n that Weight is ready t$ g$ all the way with his thesis, that M$ds aren’t $f any $ne time, but $f all times, $n a j$urney $f disc$very and re-disc$very that never ends. I d$n’t kn$w ab$ut that. Weight admits the c$nundrum that y$uth culture, inextricably linked t$ the new, inevitably ends up b$und t$ the past. T$day’s y$uth are t$m$rr$w’s $ld s$ds. The same m$ds – even the same r$ckers – wh$ tr$$ped in their th$usands t$ The Clash, the Jam $r, m$re recently, Oasis, are n$w sat $n their s$fas with a six-pack watching T$p Gear. It is als$ the case, I w$uld argue, that music is n$ l$nger the defining fact$r in y$uth culture. Guitar bands are bec$ming an endangered species. The average age $f th$se attending stadium gigs, t$ listen t$ Muse, $r C$ldplay $r Radi$head, is upwards $f 40. Singers and musicians, have ceased t$ be h$useh$ld names. Adele – a thr$wback t$ the age $f Helen Shapir$ and Dusty Springfield – is pr$bably the $nly current British p$p star wh$ c$uld walk d$wn any high street and expect t$ get m$bbed. My m$ther knew wh$ Pete T$wnsend was. My sister w$uldn’t have a clue wh$ Alex Turner ($f the Arctic M$nkeys) is. Weight d$esn’t hang ab$ut. T$ a s$undtrack $f B$b Marley and Dizzie Rascal, he $bserves that many y$ung Brit$ns b$rn in the 1980s and X90s are h$stile t$ the idea $f a multicultural Britain. But he als$ n$tes the sharp rise in recent years in bi-racial marriages. Al$ng the way, he rec$rds the rise and fall $f Habitat (definitely M$d) and the subsequent d$minance $f IKEA (musically t$ne-deaf, unless y$u c$unt Abba). There are n$ds, t$$, t$ Italian c$ffee machines, Paul Raym$nd’s Revue Bar, Carnaby Street, Britp$p and C$$l Britannia. But y$u see what I’m getting at. I h$pe it w$n’t $ffend the auth$r if I say that M$d! is best underst$$d as a hist$ry $f p$pular culture in Britain since Larkin first had sex and the Beatles went t$ number $ne with Please Please Me. What matters is that he has d$ne his j$b well. As we age, we need t$ be reminded that $ur y$uth was special and that n$stalgia is g$$d f$r the s$ul. As f$r what is n$w unf$lding, the anal$gue age has given way t$ digital and the internet and s$cial media have $nce again changed everything. I w$nder what future cultural hist$rians will make $f the y$uth $f t$day, hard-wired as they are t$ their smartph$nes, iPads and ib$xes. I’m n$t sure any $f these c$uld be described as M$d. N$r c$uld their users. Y$u have t$ be alive f$r that. M$d! A Very British Style, by Richard Weight, is published by The B$dley Head. Tags: 1960s, Fashi$n, Music, N$n-ficti$n, s$cial hist$ry [s$urcelink] http://bl$gs.spectat$r.c$.uk/b$$ks/2013/03/review-m$d-a-very-british-style-by-richard-weight/?utm_s$urce=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-m$d-a-very-british-style-by-richard-weight [/s$urcelink] [J$urnalistname]Walter Ellis[/J$urnalistname].
Recommended publications
  • The Alan Bown
    Garageland 1-176 COR:Mise en page 1 11/03/09 18:32 Page 1 GARAGELANDMOD, FREAKBEAT, R&B et POP 1964-1968 : LA NAISSANCE DU COOL Garageland 1-176 COR:Mise en page 1 12/03/09 17:44 Page 2 DU MÊME AUTEUR THE SEX PISTOLS, Albin Michel, 1996 OASIS, Venice, 1998 DAVID BOWIE, Librio, 1999 IGGY POP, Librio, 2002 A NikolaAcin, always on my mind Un livre édité par Hervé Desinge Coordination : Annie Pastor © 2009, Éditions Hoëbeke, Paris www.hoebeke.fr Dépôt légal : mai 2009 ISBN : 9782-84230-351-8 Imprimé en Italie Garageland 1-176 COR:Mise en page 1 11/03/09 18:32 Page 3 MOD,GARAGELAND FREAKBEAT, R&B et POP 1964-1968 : LA NAISSANCE DU COOL NICOLAS UNGEMUTH # Garageland 1-176 COR:Mise en page 1 11/03/09 18:32 Page 4 Garageland 1-176 COR:Mise en page 1 11/03/09 18:32 Page 5 Préface parAndrew LoogOldham LES SIXTIES,ou d’ailleurs la fin des années 1940 et les années 1950 apparence profonde et préoccupée par son temps,il n’en était rien : qui les ont inspirées,sont loin d’être achevées.Elles continuent de elle était plus préoccupée par l’argent.L’histoire et en particulier ces miner,déterminer et servir de modèle visuel et sonore à presque tout périodes dominées par le multimédia tout-puissant nous montrent ce qui vaut la peine d’être salué par nos yeux,oreilles,cœur, que (désolé John etYoko) la guerre est loin d’être finie et que troisième œil et cerveau aujourd’hui.Et tout est dans la musique.
    [Show full text]
  • Freak Emporium
    Search: go By Artist By Album Title More Options... Home | Search | My Freak Emporium | View Basket | Checkout | Help | Links | Contact | Log In Bands & Artists: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z | What's New | DVDs | Books | Top Sellers Browse Over 120 Genres: Select a genre... 60's & 70's Compilations - Blues (9 Email Me about new products in this genre | More Genres products) > LIST ALL | New See Also: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Year Offer 60's & 70's Euro Folk Rock 60's & 70's UK Folk Rock 60's & 70's Japanese / Korean / Asian Rock and Pop 60's & 70's Compilations - Pop & Rock Search 60's & 70's Compilations - Blues : go! 60's & 70's Acid Folk & Singer/Songwriter Search Entire Catalogue > 60's & 70's Compilations - Psychedelia 60's & 70's Psychedelia 60's & 70's Compilations - Garage, Beat, Freakbeat, Surf, R&B 60's & 70's Prog Rock 60s Texan Psych And Garage Mod / Freakbeat Latest additions & updates to our catalogue: Paint It Black - Various. CD, £12.00 Blues For Dotsie - Various. CD, £12.00 (Label: EMI, Cat.No: 367 2502) (Label: Ace, Cat.No: CDCHD 1115) Fascinating twenty track Everything from Jump to Down Home to Boogie compilation CD of Rolling Stones Woogie babes on this collection of West Coast covers by some of the greatest Blues cut for and by Dootsie Williams.
    [Show full text]
  • Put on Your Boots and Harrington!': the Ordinariness of 1970S UK Punk
    Citation for the published version: Weiner, N 2018, '‘Put on your boots and Harrington!’: The ordinariness of 1970s UK punk dress' Punk & Post-Punk, vol 7, no. 2, pp. 181-202. DOI: 10.1386/punk.7.2.181_1 Document Version: Accepted Version Link to the final published version available at the publisher: https://doi.org/10.1386/punk.7.2.181_1 ©Intellect 2018. All rights reserved. General rights Copyright© and Moral Rights for the publications made accessible on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, any such items will be temporarily removed from the repository pending investigation. Enquiries Please contact University of Hertfordshire Research & Scholarly Communications for any enquiries at [email protected] 1 ‘Put on Your Boots and Harrington!’: The ordinariness of 1970s UK punk dress Nathaniel Weiner, University of the Arts London Abstract In 2013, the Metropolitan Museum hosted an exhibition of punk-inspired fashion entitled Punk: Chaos to Couture.
    [Show full text]
  • When the War Ended in 1945, Europe Turned to the Task of Rebuilding, and Americans Once Again Looked West for Inspiration
    When the war ended in 1945, Europe turned to the task of rebuilding, and Americans once again looked west for inspiration. The swagger of the cowboy fitted the victorious mood of the country. Dude ranches were now a destination for even the middle class. Hopalong Cassidy and the puppet cowboy Howdy Doody kept children glued to their televisions, and Nashville’s country music industry produced one ‘rhinestone cowboy’ after another. Westerns were also one of the most popular film genres. As the movie director Dore Schary noted, ‘the American movie screen was dominated by strong, rugged males – the “one punch, one [gun] shot variety”.’43 In this milieu, cowboy boots became increasingly glamorous. Exagger- atedly pointed toes, high-keyed coloured leathers, elaborate appliqué and even actual rhinestone embellishments were not considered excessive. This period has been called the golden age of cowboy boots, and the artistry and imagination expressed in late 1940s and 1950s boot-making is staggering. The cowboy boot was becoming part of costume, a means of dressing up, of playing type. This point was made clear by the popularity of dress-up cowboy clothes, including boots, for children. Indeed, this transformation into costume was becoming the fate of many boots in fashion. Although most boot styles fell out of fashion in the 1950s, in the immediate post-war period a particular form of military footwear did pass into men’s stylish casual dress: the chukka boot, said to have come from India, and its variant, the desert boot. Designed as a low ankle boot with a two to three eyelet closure, chukkas were said to have been worn for comfort by British polo players both on and off the field in India.44 The simple desert boot was based on the traditional chukka but in Cairo during the war it was given a crepe sole and soft suede upper.
    [Show full text]
  • Youth Activist Toolkit Credits
    YOUTH ACTIVIST TOOLKIT CREDITS Written by: Julia Reticker-Flynn Renee Gasch Director, Youth Organizing & Mobilization Julia Reticker-Flynn Advocates for Youth Contributing writers: Kinjo Kiema Clarissa Brooks Manager of State and Local Campaigns Sydney Kesler Advocates For Youth Madelynn Bovasso Nimrat Brar Locsi Ferra Head of Impact Design & Illustrations: Level Forward Arlene Basillio Contributing Artwork: AMPLIFIER Special thanks to AMPLIFIER, Cleo Barnett, and Alixandra Pimentel for their support and input. This guide was created by Advocates for Youth and Level Forward, and is inspired by the film AMERICAN WOMAN. Advocates for Youth partners with youth leaders, adult allies, and youth-serving organizations to advocate for policies and champion programs that recognize young people’s rights to honest sexual health information; accessible, confidential, and affordable sexual health services; and the resources and opportunities necessary to create sexual health equity for all youth. https://advocatesforyouth.org Level Forward develops, produces and finances entertainment with Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning producers, working to extend the influence and opportunity of creative excellence and support new voices. We take great responsibility for our work, using film, television, digital and live media to address inequality through story-driven, impact-minded properties. https://www.levelforward.co/ AMERICAN WOMAN is a film that raises questions about power: who has it and who doesn’t, and how best to change that. It challenges us to question the ways people wield power, grapples with the choices presented to both the powerful and the marginalized. The story’s center is a young pacifist whose violent activism has sent her on the run from the law, and who is wrestling with her choices as she joins a cohort of young radicals and their kidnapped convert.
    [Show full text]
  • Nostalgia and Representations of Mod in Quadrophenia and Absolute
    ‘This can’t be the scene’: Nostalgia and Representations of Mod in Quadrophenia and Absolute Beginners Author[s]: Jamie Zabel Source: Moveable Type, Vol.12, ‘Nostalgia’ (2020) DOI: 10.14324/111.1755-4527.108 Moveable Type is a Graduate, Peer-Reviewed Journal based in the Department of English at UCL. © 2020 Jamie Zabel. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Moveable Type 12 (2020) ‘This can’t be the scene’: Nostalgia and Representations of Mod in Quadrophenia and Absolute Beginners Jamie Zabel This paper examines critical commentary on The Who’s Quadrophenia as well as Colin MacInnes’ novel Absolute Beginners and other prose writing to locate the nostalgia for youth culture, specifically Mod, that these texts articulate. Additionally, this paper performs a comparative narrative analysis of Absolute Beginners and Quadrophenia which establishes that these texts speak to Mod/pre-Mod superficiality and its ultimate failure as a subculture rather that its potency as a subcultural form. As a result, a comparison of these two texts calls the nostalgia that the album particularly generates into question. * Introduction On the surface, Colin MacInnes’ novel Absolute Beginners and The Who’s album Quadrophenia tell the stories of young white men who find a sense of belonging and identity in the Mod subculture, a way to challenge an overbearing and dominant parental culture. However, in the end, both of the texts’ protagonists become disillusioned; the Mod subculture does not offer the belonging or sense of purpose that they thought it would.
    [Show full text]
  • Record Dreams Catalog
    RECORD DREAMS 50 Hallucinations and Visions of Rare and Strange Vinyl Vinyl, to: vb. A neologism that describes the process of immersing yourself in an antique playback format, often to the point of obsession - i.e. I’m going to vinyl at Utrecht, I may be gone a long time. Or: I vinyled so hard that my bank balance has gone up the wazoo. The end result of vinyling is a record collection, which is defned as a bad idea (hoarding, duplicating, upgrading) often turned into a good idea (a saleable archive). If you’re reading this, you’ve gone down the rabbit hole like the rest of us. What is record collecting? Is it a doomed yet psychologically powerful wish to recapture that frst thrill of adolescent recognition or is it a quite understandable impulse to preserve and enjoy totemic artefacts from the frst - perhaps the only - great age of a truly mass art form, a mass youth culture? Fingering a particularly juicy 45 by the Stooges, Sweet or Sylvester, you could be forgiven for answering: fuck it, let’s boogie! But, you know, you’re here and so are we so, to quote Double Dee and Steinski, what does it all mean? Are you looking for - to take a few possibles - Kate Bush picture discs, early 80s Japanese synth on the Vanity label, European Led Zeppelin 45’s (because of course they did not deign to release singles in the UK), or vastly overpriced and not so good druggy LPs from the psychedelic fatso’s stall (Rainbow Ffolly, we salute you)? Or are you just drifting, browsing, going where the mood and the vinyl takes you? That’s where Utrecht scores.
    [Show full text]
  • The Working-Class and Post-War Britain in Pete Townshend's
    Class, Youth, and Dirty Jobs: the working-class and post-war Britain in Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia This chapter examines Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia (1973) and the way in which it depicts continuity and change in the lives of the British working-class in the period that the album documents (1964/5), the political milieu in which it was written (1972/3), and the legacy of the concept that was depicted in the screen version directed by Franc Roddam (1978/9).1 Quadrophenia was recorded and released in a fraught period of industrial militancy in Britain that had not been witnessed since the general strike of 1926.2 The album can be ‘read’ as both a social history of an element of youth culture in the mid-1960s, but also a reflection on contemporary anxieties relating to youth, class, race, and national identity in the period 1972/3.3 Similarly, the cinematic version of Quadrophenia was conceived and directed in 1978/9 in the months prior to and after Margaret Thatcher was swept to power, ushering in a long period of Conservative politics that economically, socially, and culturally reshaped British society.4 Quadrophenia is a significant historical source for ‘reading’ these pivotal years and providing a sense of how musicians and writers were both reflecting and dramatizing a sense of ‘crisis’, ‘continuity’, and ‘change’ in working-class Britain.5 Along with the novels and films of the English ‘new wave’ and contemporary sociological examinations of working-class communities and youth culture, Quadrophenia represents a classic slice of ‘social realism’, social history, and political commentary.
    [Show full text]
  • Racists on the Rampage
    law SKINHEADenforcement specialS I reportN AMERICA RACISTS ON THE RAMPAGE INCLUDES: Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary • Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments SKINHEADA Publication of the SouthernS IN PovertyAMERICA Law Center RACISTS ON THE RAMPAGE Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments a publication of the southern poverty law center KEVIN SCANLON SKINHEADS IN AMERICA Racist skinheads are one of the potentially most dangerous radical-right threats facing law enforcement today. The products of a frequently violent and criminal subculture, these men and women, typically imbued with neo-Nazi beliefs about Jews, blacks, ho- mosexuals and others, are also notoriously difficult to track. Organized into small, mo- bile “crews” or acting individually, skinheads tend to move around frequently and often without warning, even as they network and organize across regions. For law enforcement, this poses a particular problem — responding to crimes and even conspiracies crossing multiple jurisdictions. As these extremists extend their reach across the country, it is vital that law enforcement officers who deal with them become familiar with the activities of skinheads nationwide. What follows is a general essay on the history and nature of the skinhead movement, pre- pared with the needs of law enforcement officers in mind. After that, we reprint recent reports on the contemporary skinhead movement in America, including an overview of the latest developments, portraits of 10 particularly frightening leaders, and a gallery of insignias and tattoos commonly used by racist skinheads. This booklet was prepared by the staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks the American radical right and also publishes the investigative magazine Intelligence Report.
    [Show full text]
  • Fashion Never Forgotten
    Fashion never forgotten Can you imagine dressing in exactly the same way as your parents? (1) The different ‘looks’ were started by the new rock and pop bands, who often came from the UK. Four British people remember the excitement of being part of these fashion movements, which they still see alive in retro fashion today. Mod fashion started in the early 1960s. Most mods were fans of the rock band The Who. They often fought with ‘rockers’, who were traditional rock and roll fans with leather jackets and motorbikes. Alan, the mod ‘In the difficult economic times before the 60s, parents expected teenagers with jobs to pay rent. (3) The mod look wasn’t cheap – the classic outfit was a slim-fitting suit with a shirt and thin tie, and pointy leather shoes. There was a more casual mod look, too. Although it borrowed a lot from Italian and French style, we liked to give it a very British character, with Union Jacks and RAF emblems. It’s a fashion that’ll always be popular with people who like to dress smartly.’ insight Intermediate Student’s Book Unit 1 pp.10–11 © Oxford University Press 20 14 1 Hippie fashion started in the USA, but in the London of the late 60s, the designer boutiques of Carnaby Street and the King’s Road made it more chic. It was popular with fans of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Carol, the hippie ‘I sometimes spent a lot on hippie-style clothes – I had a fabulous purple dress that cost a fortune! But for the real hippie look, I bought things in second-hand shops.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Development of Total Hip Replacement
    EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT The transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, London, on 14 March 2006 Edited by L A Reynolds and E M Tansey Volume 29 2006 ©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2007 First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2007 The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183. ISBN 978 085484 111 0 All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/ Please cite as: Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2007) Early Development of Total Hip Replacement. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 29. London: Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. CONTENTS Illustrations and credits v Abbreviations ix Witness Seminars: Meetings and publications; Acknowledgements E M Tansey and L A Reynolds xi Introduction Francis Neary and John Pickstone xxv Transcript Edited by L A Reynolds and E M Tansey 1 Appendix 1 Notes on materials by Professor Alan Swanson 95 Appendix 2 Surgical implant material standards by Mr Victor Wheble 97 Appendix 3 Selected prosthetic hips 101 References 107 Biographical notes 133 Glossary 147 Index 155 ILLUSTRATIONS AND CREDITS Figure 1 Site of a total hip transplant. Illustration provided by Ms Clare Darrah. 4 Figure 2 Mr Philip Wiles FRCS, c. 1950. Illustration provided by Sir Rodney Sweetnam. 5 Figure 3 X-ray of Wiles’ hip, c.
    [Show full text]
  • Transatlantic Translations of the Button-Down Shirt
    TranscUlturAl, vol. 6.1 (2014), 97-107. http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/TC Transatlantic Translations of the Button-down Shirt The button-down shirt is an icon of at least two nationally-determined fashion traditions: The United States’ ostensibly upper-class Ivy League style and Britain’s ostensibly working-class subcultural street style. This article explores how the button-down shirt has been translated in these different national contexts. I will use Roland Barthes’ notion of ‘fashion narrative’ to elucidate the close relationship between the button-down shirt and the ‘national imaginaries’ of the United States and Britain. I will first discuss the origins of these two fashion narratives and explore the links between them. To illustrate the lasting impact of these fashion narratives, I will then compare the modern-day publicity materials of two shirt companies closely associated with the button-down shirt in their respective national contexts. PHOTO 1 Caption: An original Troy Guild (a 1960s campus competitor of Gant, much sought-after by collectors of the Ivy Look) In simplest terms, the button-down shirt is a type of shirt on which the collar points are fastened by buttons. Most often seen in menswear, it can be worn formally with a tie or casually, without one. More than just a shirt, it is what fashion scholar Michael Carter, by way of the social theorist Georg Simmel, would refer to as a ‘fashion classic’ (38). Along with other iconic garments like blue jeans and the ‘little black dress’ it seem to possess an internal aesthetic coherence that resists the vagaries of fashion.
    [Show full text]