The new Ambassador Record player from GPO Retro is now available from Atom Retro! This is the first record player from GPO Retro to feature bluetooth connectivity and also be fully portable, with a rechargeable battery with up to two and half hours playback. This vintage briefcase style record player comes in two colours - Green and Black or Cream and Brown leatherette with vintage look brass corner protectors - and plays 33, 45 and 78 RPM records.

With bluetooth connectivity, the Ambassador record player will connect to any bluetooth speaker and is compatible with the GPO Retro Westwood speakers. A USB stick is also included with the record player.

A beautiful record player which looks great as a centrepiece in any room or pack it up and take your vinyl collection with you everywhere!

Shop the GPO Retro Ambassador Record Player

• New GPO Retro Bermuda Record Player now in stock
• Ray-Ban Icons Sunglasses: The Wayfarer
• Nic Armstrong: With A Natural Flair

Part two of our Mod hairstyles guide explores the 1960s - the birth of the Mod look. Along with Mod clothing, Mod hairstyles are part of intrinsically part of mod style and image. How you chose to wear your hair contributes to your over all identity, and none more so than within a culture like Mod or any of it's subcultures Mod Revivalists, Scooterboys, Skins and more. The Sixties saw a lot of social and political change and this was reflected in fashion and style. The new generation wanted to break away and create its own identity. Mod was born!

Steve Marriott with his classic layered look

1960s: The Steve Marriott Layered Cut

Similar to: The Mop Top

Maybe the first proper mod hairstyle, the Steve Marriott take on the classic mens layered cut landed somewhere in between a long haired lover from Liverpool Mop Top and the shorter, neat Ivy League look of the past. The hair is cut in layers, resulting in a choppy, different length look which is typically longer at the front, sides and fringe and cut shorter at the back. At the side, the hair might be cut around the ear, or worn slightly over it. There is a soft centre parting which reaches the front where the fringe is worn swept to the sides.

Although not as famous as other 1960s hair cuts, this mod hairstyle is as iconic and popular among mods today as it ever was.

The Beatles with their classic Mop Top look

1960s: The Mop Top

Similar to: The Pageboy
The Mop Top, or Beatle Cut, (or 'Arthur', according to George Harrison!) is probably the most famous haircut of the 1960s. Named because of it's resemblance to a literal mop, the haircut originated from the Beatles Hamburg days. Astrid Kirchherr, a photographer and the girlfriend of original Beatles bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe is credited with the style which was worn first by her, her friends and Stuart. Later all the other Beatles (except for a reluctant Pete Best!) adopted the look giving the band it's first cohesive and truly unique look. The hair is cut long, down to the collar and covering the ears with a long fringe at the front and no parting. Although ridiculed by adults at the time, the mop tops was vastly popular in the sixties. In the Britpop nineties there was a revival to this intrinsically sixties mod hairstyle.

Steve Marriott with a shorter, jagged cut

1960s: The Other Steve Marriott Cut

Similar to: The French Crop

Like a sixties update to a classic French Crop haircut, this is the shortest style in our sixties mod selection. Still cut with choppy layers and in different lengths, this is a much shorter, low maintenance version of the Steve Marriott layered cut. It can be cut around the ears, or overlapping them as the wearer desired and features a blunt, choppy, short fringe at the front with a little bit of feathering.

Neat, sharp and with lots of attitude, this is a mod haircut which harks back the short back and sides of yesteryear, with a modern update. 

The Yardbirds Keith Relf with a long Pageboy cut

1960s: The Pageboy 

Similar to: The Mop Top, The Bowl Cut

A unisex haircut which suits both men and women mods. The cut first became popular in the 1920s with young boys after it was worn by child star, Jackie Coogan (who grew up to be Uncle Fester in the original Addams Family TV series!) It was named after what was perceived to be a 'pudding basin' haircut wore by medieval pageboys. The cut is worn straight and long, past the ears, where it then curls inwards and usually with a long fringe at the front.

Popular in both the fifties and sixties, it's perhaps the 1960s when it was the most prominent as an alternative to the mop top and a style which still fit with the non-conformist, long haired looks of the decade.



Further Reading: 

• A Guide to Mens Mod Hairstyles: The Fifties
• The Beatles Style Guide Part 3: 1963 - 1964
• Sixties Boutiques #2: John Stephen - The King of Carnaby Street

(This article was originally published on Atom Retro's Mod Clothing Chronicles).

A life leading up to Bazaar:

Born in Blackheath, London to Welsh Parents, Mary Quant finished her studies at Blackheath High School and went on to study illustration at Goldsmith's College. Upon finishing her course, Quant took up a post as an apprentice couture milliner, whilst also taking a pattern cutting class in her spare time. It was her experiences during her apprenticeship that led Quant to realise that fashion shouldn't just be reserved for the upper classes, but should also be accessible to a younger, less privileged clientele.

Quant surmised that at the time fashion simply wasn't tailored to the youth market. Inspired by memories from childhood, images of Chelsea Beatniks and flamboyant dance outfits, Quant was to assume the mantle as a pioneer of youth fashion. Teaming up with her husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett-Greene whom she had had met whilst studying at Goldsmith's College and Archie McNair to take on accountancy, legal and commercial aspects, Quant plotted a fashion revolution that would begin at 138A Kings Road, London.

Along with Mod clothing, Mod hairstyles have a rich and interesting history and heritage. Often how you wear your hair contributes to your over all identity, and none more so than within a culture like Mod and it's subcultures - Mod Revivalists, Teddy Boys, Rockabilly, Scooterboys, Skins and more. In our new blog mini-series we explore the history of mod hairstyles past and present, kicking off with the roots of the Mod look and mod fashion in 1950s America. Would you wear your hair like this?

A rare picture of Elvis with the Ivy League hairstyle in the 1950s

1950s: The Ivy League

Similar to: The Crew Cut, Butch Cut, The Short Back and Sides

A classic go-to hairstyle for men everywhere. The Ivy League coins it's name from the popularity the look enjoyed with college students in the US in the 1950s, giving rise to it also being called The Princeton, although there is some argument over whether this style really originated from Harvard University. A popular haircut which is never out of style, the Ivy League appeals to mods for it's neat, sharp cut and it's versatility for a short hair cut; this cut doesn't look out of place with any outfit.

Like the Crew Cut, the Ivy League is close and high on the sides and back. The hair is shorter at the crown and gradually gets longer towards the front. The hair is generally styles with wax, known as 'Butch wax'.

A Teddy Boy John Lennon sports a Duck's Arse hair cut in Hamburg, 1960. (Photo by Astrid Kirchherr)

1950s: The Duck's Arse

Similar to: The Detroit, The Long Pompadour
Also known as the Duck's Tail or simply, the DA, the subtly named Duck's Arse was the go-to hair style for 1950s British Teddy Boys. Using just about an entire can of pomade, the hair is slicked back around the sides of the head, (to resemble a ducks wings) and then the teeth edge of a comb used to define a central parting at the back, running from the crown of the head to the nape of the neck, resembling it's namesake! The hair on the top of the head was left messy and disarrayed or combed up and curled down.

A barber from Philadelphia, USA called Joe Cirello claims to have invented the Duck's Arse hairstyle in 1940. His clients included Elvis Presley and James Dean. Incredibly popular in the fifties for Teddy Boys, and giving the 'Greasers' their name, the hairstyle became associated with rebels and non-conformists, especially when it was sported by Dean in Rebel Without A Cause, and of course, Elvis Presley.

Johnny Cash wore a Pompadour in the mid 1950s

1950s: The Pompadour 

Similar to: The Quiff, The Duck's Arse, The Elephants Trunk

Elvis is all over 1950s Mod hairstyles! The Pompadour - also the Quiff - is of course the style Elvis was best known for and the hairstyle of choice even today for a lot of Rockabilly Mods and Teds. The pompadour also had something of a revival in the mainstream in recent years, being worn by people like Alex Turner and friends. The pompadour hairstyle - and with the onset of the 1960s, the Long Pompadour, sports slicked back hair, similar to the Duck's Arse, but with volume on top and at the front so that it looks like a wedge from the side - or go the full quiff. Again, lots and lots of pomade is required to craft the Pompadour! This is an extrovert hairstyle with its roots firmly in that early 1950s rock and roll look that the early mods craved. We think it's this hairstyle which lead on to the longer mod hairstyles of the 1960s.
Further Reading: 

• Beatles Style Guide: Part 1 1961 - 1962
• Rayban Icons Sunglasses: The Wayfarer
• New Saddle Shoes from GH Bass for Summer 2016