The power of Pretty Green

​As you dear readers may have noticed, I have recently been very interested in looking at our various Mod shops’ offerings for the new Spring / Summer season in 2016 (SS16). 

In a way this is quite a weird thing for me to be doing, since I suspect most Mods, like me, don’t give a flying f**k about “new seasons” or “trends”, never have and never will. You see something you like and you buy it, simple as. Don’t need anyone telling you what to wear it with or any of that nonsense. I’m sure I can’t be alone in saying most of the stuff I buy comes from an eclectic mix of small, specialised and boutique shops, the more Mod corners of some high-street brands (such as Next), as well as a portion from the usual suspects Merc, Ben Sherman, Pretty Green and basically anywhere I can get my hands on some good clobber. It doesn’t really matter who made it, as long as it looks good.

The usual reason given for this is that the Mod “community” is not large enough to support a big brand on its own. Ben Sherman and Merc, and other similar big brands are hamstrung by their own size and end up offering watered-down, mainstream clothes as a way of generating enough revenue to support themselves, and tend to relegate their Mod offerings more and more to niche areas of their flagship stores where they know dedicated people will visit. One of my own pet peeves is the Ben Sherman suit collection which I’m pretty sure doesn’t offer a single three-buttoned jacket, despite that style being an obvious Mod preference, against current mainstream trends (as Mod ought to be aware of) and part of their own heritage. And yet they stock so many beautiful designs in their shirt bar, which is one of my favourite things ever. It just makes no sense to me. 

However, Pretty Green seems to be an exception to this. Although they started out with sky-high prices for their clothes, their egos seem to have settled now and they consistently manage to offer a strong, inspired collection of often quite daring stuff for a decent price. While they join in with high-street fashion brands in releasing “new seasons”, their clothing never gets lost in the mainstream. Take their SS16 line that I have been raving about. “Journey of Paisley” and “London Mod” are unashamedly rock ‘n’ roll. I might not like everything they have on offer, but more often than not, they grab a niche clothing area by the balls and make it into a big and bullish statement.

How have they managed this confident swagger while Ben Sherman and Merc, both well-established brands, seem to tip-toe along in the no-man’s land between Mod and mainstream? Is Liam Gallagher really this much of a genius? Or is Pretty Green deep in the red from losses and being subsidised by his music fortune?

Any answers, tell me what you think.