At the request of a couple of members I invite you to ask me about my time in the 1950s as a Ted.
Just a brief outline and then it’s over to you.
It was 1956 when I bought my first Teddy Boy regalia, 3 piece suit with drape jacket in powder blue, velvet collars, cuffs and pocket flaps.
2 Shirts, one white the other pink, pair of pink :eek: suede beetle crusher shoes with 2" foam soles, 3 pairs of socks, pink, lime green and bright red.
2 bootlace ties, one with a buffalo head fastener the other with a skull and crossbone.
In our “gang” there were 8 of us and no we were not hooligans altho’ other “gangs” did get a bad reputation.
I’ll probably kill the thread stone dead by telling you why we became Teds but here goes.
Everybody wore grey flannel pants, sensible shoes, black or grey socks and all this was so fucking boring , we wanted to be different and different we were.
Men had sensible haircuts “Short back and sides” all the sodding time…we decided that wasn’t for us and luckily Tony Curtis had the ideal hairstyle so that was it.
A Tony Curtis with a DA (ducks arse) 1½ pounds of Brylcreem® slapped on and boy we were ready to take all that the world could throw at us.
Googling is giving me a vague idea that you’re referring to some kind of fashion trend, but would you mind telling us, in your own words, what it means to be a Teddy Boy? Was this fashion choice associated with any particular kind of behavior? Did you, personally, embody that behavior as well?
As I said in my OP it was a kind of protest against the dull and ever so boring clothing that was considered to be “proper” attire.
Behavior varied from group to group. Most of us were honest hard working guys but as I said there were always the few dipsticks who thought it cool to fight for no reason.
Personally speaking, most of us were more concerned with keeping our clothes clean and our hair nicely combed.
We took a great deal of pride in our appearance unlike the kids today who look so bloody scruffy
Did you and your fellow Teds really dislike Mods, get into fights with them, etc., or was that just the aforementioned dipsticks (I’m sure there were some on both sides)?
I always get a bang out of chowder’s posts, and picturing him in this suit of clothes is causing me to feel serious admiration. Except the shoes, of course!
Though I do have reservations about beetle-crushers, whatever they are…
The coat is about right apart from the fact that mine didn’t have slant pockets, mine were straight …for a reason.
I could have a fake handerchief in the pocket, by fake I mean a piece of stiff cardboard with a bit of material sewn on in 2,3,4 peaks or straight edged.
Effective but fucking useless for blowing your conk on
I’ve been wondering what “Teddy Boys” were ever since hearing The Kinks sing about them, but my curiosity was never enough to impel me to actually look it up or anything. I sorta had the odd mental image of boys dressed up either as teddies (the bear) or in teddies (the lingerie), but neither of those seemed right.
