According to the Museum of Youth Culture, Mod is defined as “a youth subculture whose origins can be traced back to the late 1950s and a group of young Londoners calling themselves “Modernists” due to their love of Modern Jazz and the streamlined style and cool sophistication of the African-American musicians who were its stars.”
“Mods wanted to stand out from the crowd and reinvent what it meant to be young, modern, and British with their fervent preoccupation with continental style. Mod boys wanted to outpace the moneyed classes by wearing sharp, tailored suits resembling those worn in Italy or France. Similarly, their hairstyles mirrored European trends. Though longer than the traditional “short back-and-sides” sported by the older generations, the “French Crew,” for example, was still a neat and clean look.
Girls were also drawn to the subculture early on, attracted by the scene’s focus on style. While the boys wore sharp, tasteful suits – which were covered by parkas when riding their Italian Vespa or Lambretta brand scooters – the girls also adopted clean lines whether in matching tops and skirts or fitted dresses – all of which favored hemlines at or above the knee. Female Mods sometimes had hairstyles not dissimilar to those of the boys, while others sported chin- or shoulder-length bobs.”
London’s Mod youth subculture quickly caught on, first spreading throughout Great Britain and then crossing the Atlantic by the mid-1960s, where its fashions, music, and youthful vibe resonated with American teens. Designers such as André Courrèges and Mary Quant, who popularized and then commercialized Mod fashion in London, became as popular in the U.S. as they were in the U.K. According to her New York Times obituary, “when [Mary Quant] toured the United States with a new collection, she was greeted like a fifth Beatle; at one point she required police protection.” You can learn more about Mod fashion and Mary Quant in this month’s feature profile on her life, look, and contributions to fashion.
Although the Mod look and its designers were well-known by and actively marketed to American teenagers following the new, hip London fashion and music scene, it did not become a mainstream fashion statement in this country until May 1966, when the cover of Life magazine featured four Chicago students in full Mod gear on its cover, with the title “Face It! Revolution in Male Clothes.” At the time, Life was one of the most successful weekly publications around with readership in the millions. Fashion historians claim this spotlight coverage validated the Mod aesthetic to earn it a place in the vintage history books.
Crossing the Atlantic with Mod fashion was the British invasion; rock & roll groups such as The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, whose beat and style came to represent everything modern and new among restless teenagers looking to identify themselves not only through their choice of music and dress but by their actions and politics. Our music columnist Laurence Carpenter writes more about the British Invasion and the rich tapestry of memorabilia left behind in his September article, “The British Invasion: A revolution in music memorabilia.”
The 1960s also introduced us to new concepts in visual art such as Op Art, and such artists as Bridget Riley and Peter Max, artists whose works continue to define the era.
Op Art, an abbreviation for ‘optical art,’ is a style of visual art that uses abstract patterns and color, most notably black and white, to create optical effects and illusions intended to confuse and excite the eye and create the impression of virtual movement and hidden images.
Op Art burst onto the American art scene in 1965 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted the survey exhibition The Responsive Eye. Although art critics dismissed Op Art as commercial – ‘retinal titillations’ – it caught the public’s imagination and quickly led to the application of Op Art in the design of everything from the latest in Mod fashions to advertisements, album covers, poster art, stationery and home furnishings. Today, Op Art is considered one of the hallmarks of the Mod Era of the 1960s and 70s. You can learn more about this 60s art movement and the artists now “hot” on the auction scene, in this issue.
Whereas Op Art had its focus on primarily black and white imagery and abstract patterns, the work of Peter Max – also uniquely identifiable – was all about color and psychedelic art. Starting out in a small Manhattan studio in 1962, Max’s work, licensed products, and posters went on to define the decade and still do. You can learn more about Peter Max in Judy Gonyeau’s article in this month’s feature.
By the 1970s, the counter-culture Mod-driven youth movement of the 1960s had turned psychedelic, which came with its own look popularized by bell bottom pants, flowing maxi dresses, ponchos, leisure suits, frayed jeans and earth tones. Short, coiffed bobs grew out, replaced by long and flowing hair for both men and women; fashion went from style-conscious looks to denim and tie-dye; and rock-and-roll diversified into such subgenres as hard rock and progressive rock, each inspiring its own fashion aesthetic as a form of identity.
Since then, the Mod aesthetic has gone through many revivals since its formal demise, often driven by the adaptive fashion styles of contemporary artists and bands, and the more recent revival of popular 60s London bands from the original era, whose fashion and music helped commercialize Mod and launch a youth movement.
Sponsored
Related posts: