Web Page  No 2424

20^th  November 2017

First Picture: Teddy Girl.

Second Picture: Teddy Girl Group

Third Picture ; Teddy Boy fashion

Forth Picture: Teddy Boys and girl

Fifth Picture: Warning Poster

The Ted’s

We all remember the ‘Teddy Boys’ and the havoc that some of them caused in the late 1950’s but who remembers the ‘Teddy Girls’?

The Teddy Boy, was characterized by an unlikely style of dress and fashion inspired by Edwardian period dandies fused together with American rock ’n roll fashion. They originally formed gangs based in East London through to North Kensington and became high profile rebels in the media and within a short space of time the movement had spread nationwide. But an important sub-subculture of the Teddy Boys, was the unlikely female element, The Teddy Girls.

In 1955, freelance photographer Ken Russell was introduced to Josie Buchan, a Teddy Girl, who introduced him to some of her Teddy Girl friends in Notting Hill. He vividly remembered a 14 year-old teddy girl, who, he said, had attitude by the truckload. The teddy boys were tough, they’d been born in the war years and food rationing only ended in about 1954. They were proud. They knew their worth. As they had the money they just wore what they wanted.

To understand the teddy girls style, we first have to go back to the boys culture. They emerged in England as post-war austerity was coming to an end and working-class teenagers were able to afford good clothes and began to adopt the upper-class Saville Row revival of dandy style Edwardian fashion. By the mid-1950s, second-hand Edwardian suits were becoming readily available on sale in markets around the country as they had become unwearable by the upper-class gentlemen once the Teddy Boys had started sporting them.

The ‘Teds’, as they called themselves, wore long coloured drape jackets, velvet collars, slim ties and began to pair the look with thick rubber-soled creeper style shoes and the ‘greaser’ hairstyles of their American rock ’n’ roll idols. Despite their overall smart style of dress the Teds were a teenage youth culture which were out to shock their parents’ generation, and they quickly became associated with trouble by the media.

Teddy girls were mostly working-class teenage girls as well, but considered less interesting by the media who were more concerned with sensationalizing the violent working-class youth culture of the boys. While teddy boys were known for hanging around on street corners, looking for trouble, a young working-class woman’s role at the time was still focused around the home.

But even with lower wages than the boys, teddy girls would still dress up in their own style of drape jackets, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars and to put their feminine spin on the Teddy style with straw boater hats, brooches, espadrilles and elegant clutch bags. They would go to the cinema in groups and attend dances and concerts with the boys, collect rock ’n’ roll records and magazines. Together, they essentially cultivated the first market for teenage leisure in Britain.

In the end, it was the troublesome reputation of the teddy boys that got the better of this youth subculture. Some of the violence and vandalism, but not all, was exaggerated by the media, but there were notably a few gangs that chose a far darker path.

While most dedicated teddy boys were, at worst, involved in petty crimes, there were instances of gangs rioting and using razors, knuckledusters and knives to carry out attacks. The racist tendencies of some of the teddy boy gangs in the end lost to the unstoppable rock ’n’ roll movement centred around many African-American acts. The British pop boom of the 1960s brought new music and new youth cultures and the era of the teddy boy was coming to an end.

It’s certainly a great shame that such an interesting and elegant style of dress for young people had to be associated with such negativity and violence. The Teddy Boys were the first group in Britain whose style was self-created.

Were you one?

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Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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On this day 20^th  November 1960-1965

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