Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

This paper is the second part of a series of the research about the Teddy boy style which is to examine various fashion changes in subcultural styles in 1900s. The main concern of this research is to investigate the creation and meaning of the Teddy boy style, how it interacted with the elements of ...

This paper is the second part of a series of the research about the Teddy boy style which is to examine various fashion changes in subcultural styles in 1900s. The main concern of this research is to investigate the creation and meaning of the Teddy boy style, how it interacted with the elements of class and generation and how the materials needed by the group constructed and appropriated into the visible systematic cultural form of correspondence. The Teddy Boys are the first recognized members of the British youth culture, which is known as the new Edwardian because of their dress. They had created the concept of the "teenagers," which forms the basis of the sense of a "generation" in the 20th century. The Teds set the style that would be used and modified in the following generations. They adopted the Edwardian style of the upper class, and changed it into their own style by modifying it and adding to it some other elements. The Teddy boys style is a special version of the sartorial appropriation encountered in the sphere of the fashion history. It actually began immediately after the war by the upper class youth far from the working class neighborhood. In the late 1953, the elitist aura surrounding the Edwardian suit was suddenly shattered. Within just a few months, the Edwardian suit became a source of social anxiety and the focus of a symbolic battle. Although the Edwardian look had initially went back to the upper class root, it became a symbol of rootlessness. In appropriation of this image, The Teddy boys were also rejecting the sartorial conformism of the English working class with its modest tradition. In this respect, the Teds effected the ascent or fall of the working class in the area of fashion. The Teds dress was not a merely borrowed fashion, but was a bastard fashion in the form of American trends, the Zoot suit. At this time members of the working class possessed only work dress for the week and waist suits for the Sunday outings. Teds broke this pattern, and developed the working class dandyism of wearing clothes simply to show off. The results were that they succeeded in opening the teen market, and popularizing a working class style for the first time in British history. The Teds became the first British street style with ties music, and remain as an symbol of the rising of a new age of values and styles.f values and styles.