The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Teddy Boy subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
is typified by young men wearing clothes inspired by the styles of the
Edwardian periodThe Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son, Edward, marked the start of a new century and the end of the Victorian period...
, which
Savile RowSavile Row is a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers...
tailors had tried to re-introduce after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The group got its name after a 1953 newspaper headline shortened
Edward to
Teddy and coined the term
Teddy Boy (also known as
Ted). The subculture started in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in the 1950s and rapidly spread across the UK, soon becoming strongly associated with
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
music of the period.
The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Teddy Boy subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
is typified by young men wearing clothes inspired by the styles of the
Edwardian periodThe Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son, Edward, marked the start of a new century and the end of the Victorian period...
, which
Savile RowSavile Row is a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers...
tailors had tried to re-introduce after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The group got its name after a 1953 newspaper headline shortened
Edward to
Teddy and coined the term
Teddy Boy (also known as
Ted). The subculture started in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in the 1950s and rapidly spread across the UK, soon becoming strongly associated with
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
music of the period. Although there had been youth groups with their own dress codes called "
ScuttlersScuttlers were members of neighbourhood-based youth gangs formed in working-class areas of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding townships during the late-19th century...
" in 19th century
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
and
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Teddy Boys were the first youth group in England to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market.
The US film
Blackboard JungleBlackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.-Synopsis:...
marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown in Elephant and Castle, south London, in 1956 the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema's aisles. After that, riots took place around the country wherever the film was shown.
Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival gangs which were often exaggerated by the popular press. The most notable was the
Notting Hill riot of 1958The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially-motivated riots that took place in London, England over several nights in late August and early September 1958.-Context:The end of World War II had seen a marked increase in Caribbean migrants to Britain...
, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community.
Style
Teddy Boys made it acceptable for young people to care about what they looked like and to dress for show instead of having work or school clothes and Sunday-best. The trend arose as income increased after the war. Teddy Boy clothing was long
drape jacketA frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted style is sometimes called a Prince Albert . The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features...
s, usually in dark shades, sometimes with velvet trim collar and pocket flaps; high-waist "drainpipe" trousers, often showing brightly coloured socks. Favoured footwear was chunky
broguesBrogues, often known as wingtips in the United States, are low-heeled shoes made of heavy leather, originating in Scotland and Ireland as a coarse, usually untanned leather shoe...
, large crepe-soled shoes, often
suedeSuede is a type of leather with a napped finish. However, it can also refer to a similar napped or brushed finish on many kinds of fabrics. The term comes from the French "gants de Suède", which literally means "gloves of Sweden"....
(known as brothel creepers). Plus a high-necked loose collar on a white shirt (known as a
Mr B. collar because it was often worn by
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
musician
Billy EckstineWilliam Clarence “Billy” Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
); a narrow Slim Jim tie, and a brocade
waistcoatA waistcoat , sometimes called a vest or a vestee in Canada and the US, is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear, and as the third piece of the three-piece male business suit...
. The clothes were mostly
tailorA tailor is a person whose occupation is to sew and scissor menswear style jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits,...
-made at great expense and paid for through weekly instalments. Preferred hairstyles included long, strongly-moulded greased-up hair with a
quiffThe quiff is a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 50s flattop, and sometimes a mohawk. The etymology of the word is uncertain but may derive from the French word "coiffe" which can mean either a hairstyle or, going further back, the mail knights wore over their heads and...
at the front and the side combed back to form a
duck's arseThe Duck's Ass is a haircut style that was popular during the 1950s. It is also called the Duck's Tail, the Ducktail, or simply D.A.-History:...
at the rear. Another style was the Boston, in which the hair was greased straight back and cut square across at the nape.
Teddy Girls
Teddy girls wore items drape jackets,
hobble skirtA hobble skirt is a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride, thus earning its name. A knee-long corset is also used to achieve this effect...
s, long plaits,
straw boater hatsA boater is a kind of hat associated with sailing and boating.It is normally made of sennit straw and has a stiff or soft flat crown and brim, typically with a ribbon around the crown, which is often in colours representing a school, rowing crew or similar institution...
, cameo brooches,
espadrillesEspadrilles are casual flat or high-heel fashion sandals originating from the Pyrenees. They usually have a canvas or cotton fabric upper and a flexible sole made of rope or rubber material moulded to look like rope. The jute rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille; the uppers...
and coolie hats. Later they adopted the American fashions of toreador pants, voluminous circle skirts, and hair in
ponytailA ponytail is a hairstyle in which most or all of the hair on the head is pulled away from the face, gathered and secured at the back of the head with a hair tie, clip or similar device, and allowed to hang freely from that point. It gets its name from its resemblance to the undocked tail of a...
s.
Revivals
During the 1970s,
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
music enjoyed a renewed period of popularity and saw a resurgence of interest in Teddy Boy fashions; the look was taken up by
Vivienne WestwoodDame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
and
Malcolm McLarenMalcolm McLaren is a performer, impresario, self-publicist and most famously, former manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls.-Early years:...
through their shop Let it Rock on London's
Kings RoadKing's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street in west London, England...
. This new generation of Teds adopted some aspects of the 1950s but with a large
glam rockGlam rock is a style that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s that was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots." The flamboyant costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of...
influence, including louder colours for drape jackets, brothel creepers and socks. Additionally, rather than grease to style their hair, they were more likely to use hairspray. In the later 1970s, the new generation became the enemies of the Westwood and McLaren-inspired
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
ers.
The early 1990s saw a revival of original Teddy Boy style by a group known as The Edwardian Drape Society (T.E.D.S). Based in the
TottenhamTottenham is an urban area of North London, England in the London Borough of Haringey, situated north-east of Charing Cross.-History:There has been a settlement at Tottenham for over a thousand years...
area of
north LondonNorth London is the northern part of London, England. The area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes.-Boundary Commission:At its widest extent, North London is the part of Greater London that is north of the River Thames...
, they were concerned with reclaiming the style they felt had become bastardised by pop/glam bands such as
ShowaddywaddyShowaddywaddy are a 1970s pop group from Leicester, England. They specialised in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s, and dressed as Teddy Boys.-History:...
and
MudMud were an English glam rock band, formed in 1968, best remembered for their single "Tiger Feet" which was the UK's best-selling single of 1974...
in the 1970s. They have been the subject of a short film,
The Teddy Boys, by Bruce Weber, at the
Cambridge Film FestivalThe Cambridge Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in the UK. Though it has historically taken place annually in early July in Cambridge, since 2008 festival has been held in September....
in July 2006.
See also
- Greasers
- Mods and Rockers
The Mods and Rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early-mid 1960s.Gangs of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youths, and the two groups were seen as folk devils. The rockers adopted a macho biker gang image, wearing clothes such as black...
- Rocker (subculture)
- Raggare
Raggare is a subculture found mostly in Sweden and parts of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Austria....
A similar subculture in Sweden