Edward
Bartender
- Messages
- 25,081
- Location
- London, UK
I'm not surprised by that. I suspect had I been a Ted back then I'd have been about as impressed with him as Showadabloodywaddy. :eusa_doh:
Educated crowd!
It originated with Guards Officers based in London in the early Fifties - it is often said that those who opted for the look were specifically the gay contingent among the Guards Officers, although given that was long before the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England in 1967, it's difficult to evidence that. Probably a air assumption as so many fashion trends then as now originated within he gay community as I understand it, but nonetheless unproven to my knowledge. Anyhow, it didn't remain their preserve or long: working class kids soon got in on the act and that is when it became a 'street' thing. While so often associated with the rock and roll boom of the mid Fifties, it actually predates the arrival of rock and roll by a good couple of years, though once that arrived it did become an integral part of the Ted scene.
Rocketeer could tell us better having been there, but my understanding is that, as with the punk rock that arrived a generation later, it was never the mainstream trend that popular history would have it, always very much a subculture - and, of course, one that continues to this day. Just last month I was sitting outside a cafe on the Strand when a Ted family (looked to me like three generations, and I'm certain Grandpa was the right age to have been there in 54) walked across the road from the Savoy and got in a cab. Proper, old-school Fifties look on the lot of them - pinstripes, half velvet collars, not a sniff of late Seventies Dayglo about them. Sharp as razors. I'd have asked if I could take their photo had I not been slightly in awe of them. Certainly wouldn't have crossed them. Big guys. I've got a couple of drapes myself (one more psychobilly, really), both shawl collared. I love the look. I'd adore to have a proper Colin Taub drape suit, but as of yet I don't know I'd get the wear out of it. Ironic that Teds and punks ended up facing off in 77 - they were really so alike in so many ways.
I've never seen it anywhere on sale.... I wodner has it even come out on DVD (you'd assume so, given the names in it, but...).
Stove pipes.... that what they call the drainpipe trews round your way? Took me a minute to twig, I thought you were talking hats... ha.... The one snag for me, Teds are all about the hair, not hats... I tend to reach for a porkpie with the drape, but it's not an original part of the look.
As memory serves, Lennon was a bit of a Ted, George was too young, Macartney was too "nice"... Ringo might have been, I'm not sure. He was certainly older than the others.
