The teddy boy style’s original inspiration was the New-Edwardian style that appeared at the end of the 1940s which was simply termed ‘Edwardian’ at the time. But how reflective of men’s Edwardian fashion was the ‘Neo-Edwardian’ style of the late 1940s and early 1950s? What was – or were – the original Edwardian styles in the years preceding 1914? I can’t pretend to answer that question properly as I can’t claim to have conducted methodical research on the question, so what follows are gleanings from certain sources I have come across here and there …
It appears that the ‘New-Edwardian’ style of the 1940s latched onto a particular look of the Edwardian era which included a bowler hat worn at a sloping angle, a slightly curtailed frock-coat, pinched at the waist and with a velvet notch collar, as well as an umbrella as an important accessory. I can do no better than show, on the right, a 1909 catalogue illustration of an Edwardian style from the tailoring company John J. Mitchell of New York that most closely approximates the later ‘Neo-Edwardian’ look.
The ancestor of the drape jacket was the Victorian frock coat.
Part 4 missing.
The bowler hat distinguishes the New Edwardians from the Teddy Boys, but a colorised film from 1910 of three Edwardian gentlemen sightseeing near Stratford-on-Avon shows the lead man bare-headed and the resemblance between him and a 1950s Teddy Boy is uncanny, especially as he sports the makings of a quiff. Only the walking stick jars.
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