In June 1955 the Sunday Dispatch headline was a typically sensationalist tabloid style with following headline: More tales of teenage violence followed, luridly reported and no doubt exaggerated in press. When teenager John Beckley was murdered in july 1953 by Teddy Boys, the Daily Mirror’s headline ” Flick Knives, Dance Music and Edwardian Suits’ linked criminality to clothes. Teddy Boys were the first real high profile rebel teenagers, who flaunted their clothes and attitude like a badge, It comes as no surprise then that the media was quick to paint them as a menace and violent based on a single incident. It has been widely acknowledged that in Britain, Teddy Boys were the first group whose style was self-created. Then that look was customised the drapes with collar, cuff and pocket trimmings, even narrower trousers, crepe soled shoes or beetle crushers and hairstyle heavily greased into a quiff and shaped into DA, or as it was popularly called, a ducks arse as it resembled one. In the beginning there were drapes and drainpipe trousers. Teddy Boys date back to the late 1940s and early 1950s, when, following the war, a generation of youngsters with money to burn appropriated Edwardian (Teddy) clothing style currently in fashion on Saville Row and cranked it uo a notch. – Teddy Boy definition by The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English Teddy boys referred to themselves as Teds. A member of a youth cult of the mid to late 1950s, characterised by a style of dress loosely inspired by fashions of the Edwardian era (1901–10).
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