Customer Reviews

The Soul Stylists: Sixty Years of Modernism

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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This modest-looking little paperback is an amazing collection of primary sources for anyone studying the fashions or culture of these groups. Well organized and well edited, and a fascinating read.

As with most oral histories, you'll find this story to lack cohesiveness often, with many gaps in the narrative and conflicting claims about what really happened. That said, this lightning-fast read is packed with more than its share of entertaining and informative insights from various people who, in the 40s through the 90s, made these scenes into the legends that they are. Although ostensibly split in half between music and clothing, clothing seems to get more coverage. Required reading for any present-day mods and skins.

This book is pretty modest. It sits at just over 200 pages, but because its more of an oral history, there's a lot of white space and that cuts down on the "true" size of the book. You'll be surprised at how quickly the pages go by.

It is a great book though. Hewitt's writing is suplimented with bits of interviews from original players of the day (names like Ann Sulivan, Ian Hebditch, Cox, etc.) all of whom share their personal input into the clothes, the music...everything. The interview segments are the absolute best part and without them this book would just be a long essay from Paolo.

I wish it were longer. I wish there were more lifted from the interviews. I wish there were pictures. I have "Mod: A Very British..." and its not as if I'm lacking photos of the era, but I just think a few personal ones from the people in the book would have really beenfitted this book.

I'd pay as much as forty dollars to have this book in my collection. As it is, I only paid $9. Good deal, good book.