Paul Smith creates costumes for Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia ‘Mod ballet’

Quadrophenia has been an album, a rock opera and a movie and now it’s become a ballet with Paul Smith on board to design the costumes.

The Who’s landmark 1973 album Quadrophenia debuts this month as ‘Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet’, presented by Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music UK. It’s at Sadler’s Wells in London until 13 July and will also tour the UK over the summer.

Smith’s involvement is perhaps fitting given the mod obsession with sharp tailoring and the designer’s beginnings as a tailor in the 1960s and 70s. As the press release says, he “played a pivotal role in the reinvention and modernisation of men’s tailoring in the 20th century. His eponymous company has continued to champion his playful, irreverent ideals during the intervening six decades, making Sir Paul and his team uniquely placed to create the costumes for this new vision of Pete Townshend’s opus”.

The brief for the ballet was to design and make suits that “faithfully replicate mod fashion’s famously razor-sharp lines whilst also giving the dancers a full range of movement”. Paul Smith has created suits that “are immediately reminiscent of the 1960s, with slim trousers and jackets featuring narrow lapels, longer vents, and additional buttons. Working with the cast, each suit has been made bespoke for each dancer, to ensure they are entirely unrestricted while dancing”. 

A greater range of motion has been achieved through the implementation of design details, such as articulated sleeve gussets and specially cut trousers.

That materials include tonic suiting, subtle checks, and details like the famous ‘target’ motif. A full-length stone-coloured raincoat, adapted from the company’s AW24 collection and similar to a piece seen in the 1979 feature film, will also be worn onstage.