Skinny
ties, skinny trousers: The hip
Teddy Boys of
1950s London
Image: Joseph McKeown/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In the 1950s, a hip new subculture emerged in Britain in which young men would adopt the fashions of the Edwardian era, which had ended four decades earlier.
Newspaper trend pieces called these men “Teddy Boys.”
Favoring a*coiffed*hairstyle, long suit jackets, snazzy waistcoats,
skinny ties and narrow*trousers, the
Teddy Boy aesthetic was in part a reaction against the austerity and frugality of the postwar environment — some young, working-class
Teddy Boys would spend more than two weeks’ wages on a good suit.
Some
Teddy Boys joined gangs and developed a reputation for hooliganism and delinquency. After a 17-year-old was fatally stabbed by a gang of
Teddy Boys in 1953, many clubs posted bans on Edwardian clothing.
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