Scooter for lifestyle (MODS) is Vespa and Lambretta

The term Mods is short for modernists, a term originally used in reference to modern jazz fans, but which ultimately came to define an entire lifestyle. 

What are The Mods? Mod (from Modernist) is a subculture originated in london, england around late 1950’s and peaked in early-to-mid 1960’s. 

This subculture was (and still is) also a fashion trend, which took off in the late Fifties in London and then over the following two decades in North America.

Mods listened to African-American music, ska, soul and R’n’B. They attended all night parties and rode Vespas that were polished to a shine and decked out with mirrors and other special features. They favored French haircuts, smoked Gauloise cigarettes and sported Italian suits under fishtail parkas decorated with various patches.

Girls wore minidresses, mini-skirts, headbands, boots, sunglasses, fake eyelashes and Twiggy haircuts.

Mod is one of the social subculture that originated from London, England in the late 1950s. The term mod derives from modernist / modern. In the 1950s, the term Mod used to describe modern jazz musicians and fans (because of modern jazz is a mainstream music at 1950s).The Mods still need to maintain their perfection of personal style and fashion. The youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes. Sometimes people call them “fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool” or “swinging London”.

Many Mods used a scooters for transportation, usually Vespas or Lambrettas. Scooters had provided inexpensive transportation for decades before the development of the mod subculture, but the mods stood out in the way that they treated the vehicle as a fashion accessory.

“Vespa hit the British market at the perfect time. Rapidly changing, fad-driven youth culture took up scooters as status symbols, incorporating them into the Mod movement, a subculture that favored modern fashions and a select group of rhythm & blues and British rock bands like the Kinks, the Who and the Small Faces. The scooters were easier to obtain by teenagers than cars, and allowed them to get home from concerts and clubs after public transportation had stopped running for the night. Mods liked to customize their Vespas with elaborate chrome frames, footrests and extra rearview mirrors – sometimes dozens of them 

Vespa: such was the creed of the young, elegant mod crowd, whose members were part of a social phenomenon that spanned the globe and is still talked about decades later.

Quadrophenia, the cult 1979 film that got its title from the Who song by the same name (the band produced the movie), brought mod style mainstream. Protagonists Jimmy and Ace (the latter played by a very young Sting) expressed youthful exuberance, rage, yearning for freedom and the desire to escape their everyday struggles through music, fashion and amphetamines. The film made them timeless icons. Key mod bands include The Who, Small Faces and The Jam. Then came Oasis, a group that paid tribute to the mods in the Nineties through their sound and fashion.