Like every style discerning woman, a man needs a good hair-do too “…to give him all the confidence he needs” – at least according to these crazy 1950s / 60s archival films documenting some of the most popping hair crazes of the moment!
“No longer is it fashionable to have short backened sides; today a gentleman must concentrate on curls”, and perms, and matching partner twists!
God, there’s something so fantastic about watching these incredible dos be created and crafted so artfully by their technicians, and then enjoyed so outrightly by the men getting these out-of-this-world creations.
It means a lot to take pride your appearance, and most definitely at this time would have been perhaps quite strange to take it to this level – but these days we all know that books can most definitely be judged by their covers, so you might as well look your very best! And boy, did these boys know that . . .most particularly love the teen influences taking place here (ie. “The Twist” the dance, and matching partner hairstyle).
There is a huge resurgence of the male coiffure taking place these days, so don’t be surprised if you start seeing more complicated styles popping up in the {future} or near {present}. Even if we are wrong, it would sure be damn cool if they did!
It’s all about that transformative power of style, and if you can harness that ability, you got it made in the shade.
So, we hope you enjoy this cool blasts from the {past} and/or possibly {future}!
All the young dudes (I want to hear you)
Carry the news (I want to see you)
Boogaloo dudes (and I want to talk to you all of you)
Carry the news
– All the Young Dudes, Mott the Hoople {written by David Bowie}
The band Mott the Hoople are all Gods of Glam in our eyes; and we weren’t the only ones who see that! In fact, the King of the Gods of Glam himself practically initiated them into the cult with this 1972 cult hit penned by the master himself.
Bowie also offered the band “Suffragette City” after learning the band was on the brink of breaking up just at the verge of their success.
They went through several names for themselves including The Doc Thomas Group, The Shakedown Sound, and the Silence – but it was the 1966 novel, Mott the Hoople, by Willard Manus that truly stuck.
In the spirit of the dunes we thought this timeless classic could definitely coincide. . .
This is an ode to Black Sabbath, the mystical heavy blues rockers from Birmingham who knew just the way to make their music crawl.
With the use of the occult and horror-inspired lyrics, and one-of-a-kind 1970s rock ‘n’ roll bohemian swag, we are definitely feeling a brotherhood with this unique quartet!
So let your spirit float to this one, kids. It is sure to take you somewhere…
Sincerely,
{theEye}
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Pictures loaded by Graham Young, Birmingham Mail. The first ever picture taken of Black Sabbath taken in 1968 of Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, on a bank of grass close to Portland Road, Edgbaston. One hundred prints have been made at £495 each. Jim Simpson says: “If any one band can claim to be the originators of Heavy Metal, then that band is Black Sabbath. Strangely, Heavy Metal was not a term used in those days, though Sabbath certainly prided themselves on being heavier than any of their so-called rivals. In fact, their early publicity claimed, Black Sabbath, the Heaviest Band Around. Makes Led Zeppelin sound like a kindergarten house band. Quite how the Sabs changed from being a perfectly good blues band into the musical phenomenon that we all know and love is shrouded in mystery. It all started with Geezer Butler who contributed the bands name as well as many of the songs. Their music developed naturally from then and its hard to indentify exactly what directly preceded it. Hendrix, yes, to a limited extent, but that only partly explains it. Whatever, Black Sabbath are THE Birmingham Rock Band. Ask yourself this. Who is the worlds most famous Brummie? Without doubt, its Ozzy. Also loaded: Jim Simpson at the private launch of Jim Simpson – A Photography Retrospective, an exhibition at Havill & Travis showcasing Jim’s extraordinary collection of photographs from of pop, rock and blues stars from the 1960s. Jim was the first manager of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. He has run Big Bear Records in Edgbaston for 46 years (to 2014) and founded the 30-year-old Birmingham International Jazz Festival in 1984. Havill & Travis at 14 Lonsdale Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 9RA. Tel 0121 427 5763. http://www.havillandtravis.com The gallery is a partnership between fiends Dave Travis (left), ex rock photographer turned concert promoter and Mission Print founder Gerv Harvill. Pictures loaded by Graham Young, Birmingham Mail.
These guys are legends, and their music echoes like the voice of a lost memory. Dreams, and fantasy, illusion, and grandeur – these are all summoned by their music. Formed in 1971, Roxy Music lives on today as one of the most popular bands there have ever been, and were even honoured by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the “Immortal” in a list of their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
We’d have to go ahead, and add them to our Best-Dressed Artists of All Time list with their wild nod to the past injected with the blinding buzz of Glam Rock England. We included a few pictures of these Idols, and were hoping the song be a great way to settle down into the night.
It’s as if they tapped into our brains with this one!
“Riot Club” is the latest film from British director Lone Scherfig who last brought us a vintage style feast in 2009’s “An Education”.
The film is a fictionalized vision based on the salacious modus operandi of the notorious Bullingdon Club, who came to the forefront of the media’s gaze in the 1980s as they trashed their way through some of England’s finest establishments. The most shocking aspect of their antics was that the band of bad asses were actually some of British society’s finest bred.
(1) the Hon. Edward Sebastian Grigg [the BBC Pension Trust sub-contractor and former SCREAM snuff-film director for Goldman Sachs], the heir to Baron Altrincham of Tormarton and current chairman of Credit Suisse (UK)
(2) David Cameron
(3) Ralph Perry Robinson, a former child actor, designer, furniture-maker
(4) Ewen Fergusson, son of the British ambassador to France, Sir Ewen Fergusson and now at City law firm Herbert Smith
(5) Matthew Benson, the heir to the Earldom of Wemyss and March
(6) Sebastian James, the son of Lord Northbourne, a major landowner in Kent
(7) Jonathan Ford, the-then president of the club, a banker with Morgan Grenfell
(8) Boris Johnson, the-then president of the Oxford Union, now Lord Mayor of London
9) Harry Eastwood, the investment fund consultant
Based on the play Posh by Laura Wade, the film delves into the manic musings of the centuries old club which resided within the historic confines of Oxford University, and the psychology of privilege that prevailed in the minds of the club’s most esteemed members.
Many members of the Bullingdon Club would go on to become some of England’s most powerful and influential politicians and businessmen including Prime Minister David Cameron, British ambassador to France Sir Ewen Fergusson, Jonathan Ford and Boris Johnson. Some of the club’s legendary members included King Edward VII, King Edward VIII, Cecil Rhodes, Nathaniel Rothschild, and Gottfried von Bismarck!
Gottfried von Bismarck from the House of Bismarck – known for his righteous parties and supreme style wisdom.
Days of Being Wild with Nathaniel Rothschild & Friends . . .
7. Nat Rothschild
Makes you think . . .
Needless to say, after watching the trailer for the film, we are psyched as ever to see the story of the Buller boys come to life! We love to see that secret society style truly is making its way to the forefront!
After all, everyday in life we encounter secret societies. Whether they be clubs or members only parties, or just the secret conversations with have with our friends and family – they are all the same. It’s that bond that keeps us all together in the end, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape wanting to feel like we belong to something exclusively ours.
This is the truth.
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Bullingdon Club, 2013.
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Can’t wait!
“I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”
Andrew Grimson, biographer of Boris Johnson on the Bullingdon Club in the 1980s
“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is an invisible labor. “
-Victor Hugo
New Wave just wouldn’t have been New Wave without this eccentric to pave the way through the 1980’s. With a penchant for pastels, and bold black and white stripes, we thank this latest E.O.F. Style Idol inductee for being part of a fashion revolution for men, for being fearless, and for using that pelvis for the good of mankind.
We would like to introduce you to William Michael Albert Broad.
Having grown up in Stanmore, Middlesex, England, amidst the English countryside with a background in proper Boys Schools, this rebel rocker would boldly defy convention and using peroxide to pave his way, he would come to be know as the one and only Billy Idol.
In October 1975, Idol went to Brighton Polytechnic to pursue an English degree, and lived on campus (East Slope), but left just after Year One. Billy’s academic ambitions would be cut short, as there was definitely a change in the air…
The world was shifting and popular culture was rapidly changing; the squeaky boy bands of the past were begging for a make-over! Raw unbridled sexuality would be exactly what the doctor would prescribe…
“If your world doesn’t allow you to dream, move to one where you can”
– Billy Idol
The name Billy Idol was inspired by a schoolteacher’s description of the young Broad as “idle” – a bit of a slacker, non-chalant, “too cool for school”, as they say. But it was his music ambitions and talent for performance that showcased the young man as anything but idle.
The stage name was also a nod to the pop acts that came before him. Billy Idol looked to history, comparing himself to his own idols like Billy Fury and Elvis.
“We were saying the opposite to the Clash and the Pistols. They were singing ‘No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones’, but we were honest about what we liked. The truth was, we were all building our music on the Beatles and the Stones”
He then went on to join the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans; a loose gang that traveled into town when the band played. Billy could see similarities between himself and the motley punk troupe. He had a hunger for performing, and Billy knew he had to make his mark as an entertainer.
Billy first joined the punk rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (before the band had decided on that name) in 1976, but soon quit and joined Chelsea in 1977 as a guitarist.
It wasn’t until Billy would step out from the background and take center stage as front man of Generation X that the act from across the pond would make a huge splash in international waters. This quickly ushered in the ‘second wave’ of British invasion acts during the MTV era in the 1980s.
“I love it when someone insults me. It means I don’t have to be nice anymore.”
-Billy Idol.
By 1982, Billy made a splash on the club charts as a solo artist. The single “Dancing by Myself” hit the pop charts like a comet! With a string of hits like “Rebel Yell”, “White Wedding”, and “Eyes without a Face”, as well as a hit cover of “Money Money”, Idol Fever hit America in a huge way.
With an electric look consisting of scantily clad chains and leather, with a gyrating pelvis and curling lip, only comparable to the King himself, Idol had the idol sex appeal like no other teenage dream, and successfully ruled the charts for over a decade.
In 1990, Idol was involved in a serious motorbike accident that slowed down the shock rocker, and nearly cost him a leg. He was also hit by a car when he ran a stop sign while riding home from the studio in Hollywood one night, requiring a steel rod to be placed in his leg. Idol would go on to speak about this accident and credit it for completely changing his life.
Having spent years partying and crediting much time to white weddings, Idol didn’t want to waste anymore time.
Due to the circumstance of the accident, Billy would have to pass on a movie role tailor made for the Prince of Peroxide.
Film director James Cameron had chosen Idol to play the T-1000 character in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and had drawn storyboards to resemble him. Unable to perform major stunts, Idol was replaced by Robert Patrick.
And did you know?
“Don’t You (Forget About Me)“, written by Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff, had originally written it with Billy Idol in mind, but the singer turned it down, leaving the song to Simple Minds, who made it a hit in 1985! The Breakfast Club would have been a very different film if the rebel-hearted singer had left his hand print on the flick.
Influencing youth to revolt to this day, bleaching one’s head peroxide blonde wouldn’t have the same impact if it weren’t for the one and only Billy Idol. And if you browse LOOKBOOK, or any other street style source, you will be finding kids rocking the edge just like Billy.
Wiktor Hansson as Billy Idol for Tush Magazine
Count on finding this rocker’s look mimiced in fashion magazines and on the backs of the style obsessed youth. Billy Idol is what every man fantasizes of being; a sexual being unrestricted by the bounds of society, a creature of vanity, insanity, and completely possessed by the spirit of rock n’ roll. He shows that it’s good to stand out from the crowd, and to be extraordinary.
With a touch of James Dean’s rebel ways, the natural class of Errol Flynn, and a wildly adventurous spirit, Billy keeps himself current to this very day, performing and touring the world over. We love this star decked head to toe with crucifixes and chains, or wearing nothing at all. One thing is for certain, he’ll always be our Teen Idol!
The exhibit which originally premiered at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London was a record breaker, and I’m expecting to see the same thing happen here in Toronto! {theEye} is getting an exclusive preview of the show next week, and will be sure to let you know all about it, but until then, we wanted to load you up with some David Bowie inspiration so you can skip the line and see all of Bowie’s dazzling duds and fascinating personal articles up close and personal without making a dent in your wallet!
Who are the dapper gents in top hats and scandalous bathing shorts?
None other than some of the original members of The Brighton Swimming Club. This photo was taken circa 1863 by photographer Benjamin Botham.
Seems like the boys of Brighton have been stirring up a lot of conversation on the net, which seems quite remarkable for a one hundred and forty nine year old memory!
It’s remarkable that photographs like this have survived, helping keep the past alive, and showing all of us here in the {PRESENT} the weird and wonderful moments of the past they don’t teach you in history class.
The Brighton Swim Club was established on May 4th, 1860, following a meeting of swimming enthusiasts at The Jolly Fisherman in Brighton’s Market Street. The members, all serious for the sport, were completely revolutionary to the strict mandates of Victorian dress codes often ditching their scanty shorts to swim the seas nude.
As noted in our story on Men’s Vintage Swimwear Styles, swimsuits were made of heavy cottons or wools and covered most of the body, making it highly uncomfortable and straining.
Due to public outrage over the sight of the naked male swimmers, authorities in Brighton would introduce regulations that insisted that men who wanted to swim on the main beach between the hours of 8 AM and 9PM, would have to wear a bathing costume to “preserve public decency”.
That’s where the calecons, a French creation, came into play allowing for the coverage authorities desired, and the lack of coverage desired by the club members. They were truly rebels of the waters, treading the fine lines of societal morality and the function they knew they (and WE) needed!
The Brighton Swimming Club is still alive and well today! The Swimming Club has gone through great efforts to keep their history in tact so all can see. Floating Memories is an archive dedicated to preserving and curating their collected history, and features a remarkable database of vintage clothing and lifestyle. Their Vimeo channel yields some true wonders!
If you enjoy the beach (I know you do), and vintage styles (I know you do too) be sure to check this out!
Thanks to Callum James for bringing this remarkable tradition to our attention. His blog Front Free Endpaper features many cool vintage treasures to adore. Also David Simkin, whose Sussex Photo History blog featured a brilliant page on The Brighton Swimming Club, including a detailed breakdown of that fantastic picture of the gentleman wearing top hats that’s been buzzing around the place!
Once again, history prevails and shows it’s not going away anytime soon. So have fun! Do what you want!
Hope you’re all having a great summer!
Sincerely,
{theEye}
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We celebrate all the independent states of Kate, who turned 39 today!
Amazing to see her beauty has not faded a bit since she first appeared on this iconic cover of THE FACE Magazine in 1990!
In fact, it is her unique beauty that stood apart then, and still stands apart to this very day, which is why she is already a legend at not even 40.
We expect this real life Wonder Woman will continue breaking ground for the next 39 years to come.
“You lie, in faith; for you are call’d plain Kate,
And bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the curst;
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,
For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate,
Take this of me, Kate of my consolation;
Hearing thy mildness praised in every town,
Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,
Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,
Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.”
