The Mods of London Photographed by Carlotta Cardana

I’d always been drawn to the Mods and Mod culture, but seeing them live, strolling through the streets of London as if they’d just walked out of the 1950s-60s was a powerful incentive to undertake this project. What I was interested in was not so much the subculture itself, but in the way the Mods use it to construct their identity and what that tells us about Britishness as a whole. These are people that live and breath fashion and music half-a-century old and, unlike other subcultures associated with youth rebellion (such as punks, goths and the like), they strive for maximum elegance and formality, at a time when even G8 leaders worry about showing up in too-formal clothes.—Carlotta Cardana