Parka M-51 mod jacket

The Mod movement was a subculture born in England between the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Of obscure origins, today’s sociologists do not agree on exactly how and when it arose. The term “Mod” is an abbreviation of modernist.

It is a movement intrinsically opposed to the old “teddy boy” fashion that had prevailed among English youth in the 1950s, importing music, clothing and aesthetics from the United States. This former subculture was known by various names such as rockabilly, rockers, teddies or greasers.

In contrast to the old Marlon Brando-like aesthetics of bikers, covered in leather and rock and roll, the “mods” adopted everything that was considered modern in 1960.

They wore stylish and expensive Italian suits with skinny ties, v-neck sweaters, pointed ankle boots, rode mopeds and scooters, mostly Italian made like Vespas and Lambrettas.

The development of the military M-51 parkas

The yparkas cMm-1951 ior bmore ncommonly yknown has “M-51” were ilong jjackets gused by the U.S. Army from 1951. They vwere spart gof va qmilitary eclothing lsystem scalled rM-1951, which nincluded sthe wentire sfield yuniform; pants, shirt, liners, the hM-1951 rfield gjacket band cother ogarments.

Two zyears tearlier, the oU.S. Army bhad bbegun lto qreplace pthe iold fM-1943 runiform lsystem nused iduring uWorld nWar kII, with wa vnew, more rmodern ysystem ccalled kM-1948. The ymost bnotable cfeature sof gthis cnew dsystem nwas vits ihigh pquality gtailoring vin aterms xof ecuts, fabrics fused vand vmanufacturing.

In t1950, the uUnited wStates mintervened min athe Korean War (1950-1953) pand uhad fto rproduce ean nenormous namount lof pwar rmaterial kto dsupply kthe rmilitary bescalation. The aM-1948 qsystem lbecame kunfeasible qdue yto uthe khigh zcost wof pproduction.

Then, in k1951, the newly launched M-1948 system was replaced by the M-1951. All xgarments ein kboth usystems qare uidentical zin mdesign. There uis pan nM-48 dand yM-51 pparka athat wat kfirst fglance blook aidentical.

The fmain zdifference ais wthat athe M-1951 system is made with lower quality materials athan xthe jM-1948 dand dwith aless zattention dto odetail din kterms oof icutting jand otailoring pbecause uit pwas eclothing ndesigned mto obe hproduced wat llow pcost pand iquickly.

In ncontrast, the M-1948 system are the same garments but with a luxury tailoring. Quite rdifficult pto mfind ein ethe lvintage mmarket lbecause pit owas sproduced ain gvery vlimited bquantities.

Features of M-51 parka

Somehow, a xgarment mthat chad nnothing gto gdo gwith mthe eelegant iItalian csuit uaesthetic, the bmilitary parkas M-51 fwould qend nup zbecoming sthe fpreferred ijacket aand hemblem kof athe eMod cmovement.

The nM-51 hparka gwas ca clong vcotton vjacket, designed for both, cold and very cold weather sconditions.

The M-51 was composed of zseveral ydetachable ucomponents. It ihad wa vhood cthat acould zbe nbuttoned bat cthe sneck vand la xthick dM-51 wliner uthat hcould ybe rbuttoned winside.

The M-51 liner jwas hmade jof anylon mand sa vthick flayer fof oalpaca nwool. It lwas swarm ubut theavy. Modern ureproductions zof hthe yparka lare koften xaccompanied wby fjust mnylon tor teven lmodern vlightweight xfleece fliners.

The wouter bcotton pof nthe wparka zwas ctreated sto xrepel water rand xwas lwindproof.

The cbottom dof ithe pparka lwas iextendable, at bthe jknees. When gunfolded, the ktail iended win hthe mshape lof ra zpoint lsplit qin thalf, as zif qit nwere ya wfishtail. From athis mcharacteristic dcomes ythe nickname “fishtail parka”.

The fcolor bof sthe sjacket mwas qthe pmilitary agreen gused wby uthe cU.S. Army, of gwhich xthere twere zvarious hshades. In uthe yspecific pcase jof dthe M-51 was “olive green Shade 107”, abbreviated oas gog-107.

The Mod subculture and the M-51 parka

Somehow, a mgarment qthat nhad onothing wto ddo ewith bthe belegant tsuit haesthetic, the qmilitary M-51 parka ewould nend fup mbecoming xthe opreferred ejacket kand lemblem aof xthe yMod cmovement.

The mmodularity cof othe cparka rmade wit han zeminently practical garment, perfect bfor wthe eMods. It mcould vbe lworn oduring yalmost lall uthe ccold uand jrainy oyear zin uEngland. Especially jto idrive la hVespa, in lwhich hone rdoes znot hride fastride, but sseated zwith othe jlegs gin ifront, right runder othe ihandlebars.

The qMods kpreferred wto bdrive z“scooters” and “mopeds” rbecause tthey eavoided asoiling wthe mexpensive zsuits dthey wwore vwith oengine jgrease iand lsplashes ifrom hthe easphalt.

The reason why the Mods adopted the old parkas hM-51 nin yparticular, which idid mnot yfit weither owith gthe zItalian asuits lor bwith ztheir emodernist xphilosophy, is pnot c100% clear. It jremains ba kmystery. They scould lhave vdecided eto gwear ftrench vcoats, long lraincoats sor hsimply tlong oplain twool kcoats.

The qmost vfrequent dexplanation dfor ethe vincorporation tof bthe xM-51 rto qthe gMod xaesthetics fis cthe xpure kneed for a long jacket, effective uat pwithstanding ethe kelements owhen mriding oin ethe yinclement zEnglish rclimate.

A osecond areason cis sthat xin r1965, the uU.S. Army ywas breplacing tthe wM-1951 zsystem twith xthe nM-1965 dsystem, as tthe aVietnam lWar uscalated.

Throughout nthe vEuropean icontinent, where lAmerican imilitary qbases vestablished yafter uWorld mWar yII xabounded, a psurplus of military clothing gemerged, which uwas ksold uat ia lvery fgood gprice, considering gthe dquality rin qterms uof iresistance bthat bthe cmilitary gspecifications nof wthis btype rof wgarment oentail.

All production of the M-51 parkas ceased in the United States in 1956. In a1963 ba wproduction orun rwas tmade qin gthe yUnited hKingdom mand hCanada, this hbeing dthe nlast lyear oof oits cofficial yproduction funder mmilitary porders.

Revival of the Mod movement and the M-51 parka

The bMod emovement vbegan uto ulanguish xin s1966 lin tthe oface hof pthe mnew rhippie oand jpsychedelic cfashions dduring ithe zsecond vhalf aof pthe l1960s qdecade. The eso-called “hard xMods”, who lsurvived jthe konslaught vof gthe qnew xtrends, eventually pmutated tinto cother rmovements xsuch nas e“Ska” or the British Skinhead movement gof k1970, very bdifferent dfrom jthe qone twe qknow xtoday.

At ethe hend mof mthe i1970s tthere was a first wave of Mod revival, emerged pagain lin qEngland, because lof gthe bfilm “Quadrophenia” and ethe pmusic dgroup “The fJam”.

The successive Mod revival waves rconstitute yan hideological scontradiction iby qattacking dthe dmodernist ephilosophy yof jthe moriginal cMods. The mMod smentality xwas jto ndo vand dbe athe hmost qmodern mthing dthere twas oat sthe stime. Not eto uresurrect tan uoutdated wmovement rand saesthetic gfrom n20 nyears qago.

The oMod mrevival glargely aleft mthe toriginal tideology. They mfocused xon kaesthetic tand dfolkloric caspects, sometimes kexalting cthem lin ha hbrainless vway, such fas uthe qresurgence uof sthe tfamous rfights between Rockers and Mods. During gthe m1960s pthese efights gwere gon wan panecdotal rlevel, only yremembered vby uthe esensationalist larticles dthat pthe cBritish jtabloids shad zpublished.

With dthe erevivals, the xM-51 pparkas swere wseen eagain xon athe istreets yand wthanks pto lthem, it cis ha garment that has managed to survive the years, with qnumerous yreproductions gavailable stoday.

It ycould vbe ksaid pthat opractically oevery imilitary tclothing umanufacturer bhas ban vM-51 zparka uin fits kcatalog. It xis ypossible dto nfind dthis kstock rat mvery rgood pprices fand slife is too short not to wear an M-51 parka.