Judies

Hello loves, I was by the seaside this weekend for my uncles wedding, it was beautiful as all weddings tend to be. Made me crave to live by the sea also. 

But possibly the coolest thing was my uncle. . . he was dressed as a teddy boy!! With a pin stripe drape jacket and chunky shoes:) So that led me to do a little research, especially on Teddy girls, or Judies as they were known. 

'The teddy girls left school at 14 or 15, worked in factories or offices, and spent their free time buying or making their trademark clothes – pencil skirts, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars, coolie hats and long, elegant clutch bags. It was head-turning, fastidious dressing, taken from the fashion houses of the time, which had launched haute-couture clothing lines recalling the Edwardian era. Soon the fashion had leapt across the class barrier, and young working-class men and women in London picked up the trend. . . .The teddy girls didn’t care that their outfits shocked their families, as long as they were noticed among their peers. “We got dressed up because it was always the teddy boys who got the look-in. We weren’t being noticed by them,” says Rose Shine. She is now a 66-year-old grandmother and proud to have been one of the first teddy girls. “It was our fashion that we made up.They were pretty feisty, independent women at 16, and now they’re nearly 70 they are still very strong and very sure of their own identity. It’s easy for us now to choose different styles of dress and mix and match our clothes – but at that time, 50 years ago, you were really seen as a complete outsider” - Article

Ken Russell Took a series of photos of the girls in east London in 1955, how great do they look?! 

And in the A/W 11 trends you can see the Teddy Boy influence, even now 50 years on :

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So I think I will be digging out my Pencil skirt and brogues this week!

PS. On a solemner note, keep safe all you fellow Londoners. X