Teddy girls in the 1950s

[Mossleybrow]

Rose Hendon remembered: "Me and my friends used to go to the Back Ace Club in the Harrow Road. They had a juke box, and we’d all meet up there for coffee. Or we’d go down the Seven Feathers Club and there’d be music and you’d do your dancing. That was where I used to go with my boyfriend Jimmy. He was one of the Teddy Boys. They were smart. And it was because of that us girls started getting that look…We started wearing turned-up drainpipe jeans. Plastic belts round them. And blouses with a wing collar. Then we added in cameo brooches, and scarf, tailored jackets with wide lapels and velvet collars, white ankle socks and flat black shoes…The thing I spent most money on was an Astrakhan coat. It was £25 . It came from Debenhams in the Harrow Road, and buying it felt just really good. I felt …glamorous." Virginia Nicholson, Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, (2015), pp.356-357.

That’s how I dress! 1950s rockabilly, sweater girl look

Here you go, one of my favourite shops. All UK made too!
www.freddiesofpinewood.co.uk/

I spent a lot of my teens in jeans and ben sherman shirts (this was early 90's)

Great thread, thanks OP! Really love the photo and the look especially because I always feel the 50's must have been suffocating and horrible for women. Just the fashion alone seems so constricting. But this teddy girl look is still amazing today.

Love this thread! Placemarking to come back later

1920’s first wave of gender benders. Loss of men in war and women’s new freedoms meant genders swapped roles a bit. Men wore make up for fist time and women had short hair

Check out the "Bright Young Things".

I really like 1940s style, read an interesting book about the Land Girls and their uniform recently. Wide legged trousers are so comfy.

"They got stuff done in the 1940s- they invented the NHS and had a nice cup of tea."- Mark from Peep Show

where are we now in terms of women's fashions?

Mossleybrow that looks like a Biba jacket

Long skirts still around as we are in a recession

Oversized silhouette, waistline back in fashion. It’s been concealed by skinny jeans and long tops for ages. The fact that these 2 are going off at the same time is normal.

The main thing is the calf length skirts/dresses. This started creeping in about 5 years ago. Brexit, recession....

yes these are Biba. The book by Martin pel on Biba is full of wonderful pictures

I love that book😍

Do you need some distance on an era to understand it’s fashions properly? In the moment is there a danger of getting caught up in what might only be fleeting trends rather than the bigger picture?

What do you think of trainers? Women didn’t wear them 10 years ago except for sport despite frequently reading that they are fashion staples. Converse were ok but that was it.

Yeah, you do need some space from an era to get it properly.

I think women have always worn trainers. I used to wear them during the rave scene in the 80’s.

Trainers as a shoe indicate the increasing informality of society. I’ve taught entire lessons on trainers!

They really took off with the Michael Jordan Air in the 89’s, when he wouldn’t conform to the footwear rules of a certain colour when he was playing. And Nike supported it.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow this is fascinating! What is the reason behind longer hemlines in recession/depression if you don't mind explaining please? I'd have thought shorter = less fabric = cheaper so more common when people and businesses have less to spend. Or is there a particular book or site you'd recommend me to read up on to find out? Thank you.

What do you think of trainers? Women didn’t wear them 10 years ago except for sport despite frequently reading that they are fashion staples. Converse were ok but that was it.

Women certainly wore them for comfort (not necessarily sport') way before that. But not for fashion - women would wear them to walk to office work and change into heels when they arrived.

Google the Hemline cycle, there’s loads on it.

I think short skirts are fun, so when the country booms there is more fun to be had. When they drop they are more sombre.
They were really high just before the Wall Street Crash and then dropped after it.

It doesn’t happen straight away, there’s a lag of a few years or so.

The 80’s had the rara, the mini crin, puffball, and plain mini skirt, the city short, hot pants, lots of different styles After this come the Grunge droopy look of the early 90’s when the dropped again.

Ignore typos🙄

They dropped in the early 90’s..

medicalexecutivepost.com/2019/12/12/the-hemline-index/

I think women did wear trainers as fashion.

I remember long dresses in the 90’s were worn with trainers, and they were always worn with hideous shell suits.

This is quite a good website

fashion-era.com/

The other thing is technological advances affect style. So Lycra was invented in the late 60’s and started filtering into clothes in late 70’s/early 80’s. Hence the rise of exercise wear and Aerobics.

In the 60’s new oil based fabrics were being invented. This is what gave 60’s clothes that sharp outline. That couldn’t have been achievable with natural fabrics. The plastic Mac appeared in this era

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

That’s what l dressed like in the 1980’s

Rolled up jeans, hair in a quiff, brothel creepers and boot lace tie. It was very much an ‘alternative 80’s look.

Androgyny was for the masses!

Yes, the second hand clothes shops were full of early to mid 20th century jackets and suits which we'd wear with sleeves turned back to show the lining, and accessorised with costume jewellery like the girl in the photo. They were very cheap and the cut and fabrics were amazing.

I wore trainers for fashion in the 80s. It was part of the football casuals era.

These ones in particular

Dialsquare did you wear a Fred Perry or Lacoste polo shirt with them?!😉😁

Once listened to older female relatives’ conversation about ‘teddy boys’ - including a couple of members of their family - often being sexist! Eg if women dressed that way, did similar things.

I wore Fred Perry in the late 70s ArseInTheCoOpWindow during a wannabe skinhead/mod phase!

I wore Fila/Aquascutem/Pringle/Kappa etc during the early 80s. I was quite a tomboy! Always knew I was female though.