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Clothes & shoes of yesteryear

I remember the Teddy boy suits long coats and Nuru collarless jackets, Stovepipe bags. Brylcream on the hair. Aviator sunglasses with Polaroid lens. Duffle coats with hoods and the pegs to fasten like in the Navy, There was an Army and Navy shop downtown Brum that had all kind of smshing kit for sale. John Crump OldBrit in Parker, Co USA p.s. Anyone watch the USA vs Japan Womens match? I picked Japan!
 
yes i think we have all been there at some point in our lives
myself i started as a rocker and became a mod; then the good old carnaby street fashion came into fashion very slowly in brum ;
a little carnaby street openend up on the aston rd north just up past the shops on the oppersite to the astoria picture where our aunt maud worked in the cash kiosk and selling the ice creams i bought the striped butchers trousers the hipsters the fur coats you name it i bought it as soon it came to the shop
i would walk along the aston rd north every sunday afternoon ; and se whats inthe window and when i first started to wear these clothes i got alot of looks and he the stones came out and grew my hair long ; and the boots cuban and the bel bottoms you name it i wore it ;
they was the days along with the dave clarke five ; whom i knew very well and his shirts ; astonian;;
 
Hobnailed boots,heavy serge suit in a funny colour,gaiters,a beret (colours various),itchy shirts and an overcoat 7 sizes too big...
 
The only photo I've got of me wearing 1950's gear. Taken in 1953 and I'm wearing my drainpipes but they don't look so tight as I remember them. A mate and me bought matching sweaters from a shop called Zissmans. I'm wearing a tie and it's done up !
Happy memories...
Wedns_Night_Notts_Ice_.jpg
 
God weren't we all so COOl! My daughter finds it hard to believe that I was once quite radical. But YEAH, I can do radical and fashionable. Viv.
 
I was a teenager on the cusp of the turn of the decade. I had the benefit looking back on the 50's rebellion in clothes and music going on in my background, but thoroughly enjoyed the laid back 'anything goes' of the 1960s. I certainly realise how lucky I was to have grown up in such a changing fashion and music world. It has definitely influenced my own style since then. I think mainly because it allowed me to experiment and find what I really liked and what suited me etc. I still have a penchant for certain prominent 1960s textiles like velvet, crepe de chine, silk ..... but I am definitely not a fan of the 1960s crimplenes, nylons, and polyesters. Viv.
 
Hula hoops gosh now we eat them...

There was shift dresses, empire dresses and what I considered to be great which was tights.
 
Knitted cardis with bobbles on Carolina - my mum knitted these for me. I had a very special one which was knitted especially to take on holiday. This was for wearing over cotton dresses on cooler nights. That's brought back some lovely memories for me. My mum loved knitting and I was always amazed at what she could produce. Viv.
 
I loved empire line dresses -I am short and therefore my waist is just under my armpits, so empire suits me just fine! Tights I was not keen on for years, because they did not make them for those with very short legs, hence the reason I looked like Norah Batty for a very long time. LOL
 
In the early 1960's my husband wanted a pair of drainpipe trousers but his mother either did not want to pay the general price for them or perhaps had not got any spare cash at the time. She was out shopping one day and saw a pair of cavalry twill trousers which she thought she could taper, so bought them - I think they cost half a crown. By the time my husband got home from school she had tapered them - and guess what? They were never worn because she had tapered them from the knees down and they looked like jodpurs (spelling??). Given us many a laugh over the years
 
Jim, I am sure they will, especially given as a lot of clothes today are what I can only describe as 'raggy'. I would rather die than wear clothes like some of the kids go out in today. Midriffs bare, builder's bums - of course they will have a laugh, and I am sure a lot will be embarrassed.
 
Well Jim, I never buy anything made of wool as I am allergic to it, but whatever you buy, cheap or expensive, nearly always balls. I bought several M&S cardigans during the winter, only worn them about twice each and they are rubbing up already. They were not expensive, but it's very disappointing. When things wer made in England you did not get this!!!!! The cost of good quality is galling, I have to agree, but I have found a way around it, at least in part. I use web sites, quality ones such as Alexon, Minuet, Country Casuals, etc, and when their new ranges come out, I identify what I like best and wait until they are reduced in the sale. I have had many a bargain that way - dresses which were £110 reduced to £33 (plus postage) but even with postage I have got 'good for little'. I don't know if this would work for mens clothes, but it works well for me. As for men's shoes, my husband's best pair are Barker, which have gone up hugely lately, and yes, mortgage is required, or a long save-up.

I was not only referring to quality, some of the younger styles today seem more like bits of rag stuck together than garments, and the quality is hopeless. I hope that one day England will return to manufacturing once more and we will not only have quality, we will have reasonable prices, although I do realise they won't be actually cheap. I much prefer home-grown.
 
When i started work back in 1966, i went to a gents outfitters in small heath with my mom to 'get a suit'. Can't imagine todays youngsters going with mom to buy an outfit.

The suit i chose was known as an italian style, whatever that was, and we had a debate about having the trousers tapered.

After some arguing with both the tailor and my mother she gave in and the trousers were altered to 131/2" bottoms, the fellow in the shop

was right they looked totally ridiculous and ruined the cut of the suit. But i had to wear it every day for work until i had saved enough to

buy something a bit more sensible. It's only now some 50 years later that i feel comfortable in a suit.
 
Neville a suit for me in the 60`s were Levi/Wranglersi jeans and jacket,even now unlike you i dont feel at home in a suit my late wife used to say i could ruin any suit just by wearing it and she was right
 
When I started work in 1968, I had a new duffle coat which was brown with plastic horn toggles. I scrounged the old "fur" collar from Mum's coat and sewed it around the hood.

I bought some culottes with my own money!! (They were shorts which looked like a skirt, above the knee in length).

I had a suedette skirt with a zip down the front, but had to take it back to C&A because Mum said it was too short, but it was only a few inches above my knees.
 
Wow! what a wide scope, 50's and 60's Fashion. At the turn of the 50's we were all wearing pretty much the same as Mom and Dad then we had the Teds and/or the Beatnicks followed by the Mods and Rockers. Then the Carnaby Street explosion of Flower Power then the Hippies then the Skinhead/suedehead it certainly was a varied and somewhat colourful 20 years wasn't it?
I fall into the latter period, The Skinhead. I had the doc's, brogues and loafers. Red or Lime green socks, Levi jeans with 1" turn up, the bottle green levi stapressed trousers both worn with 1" red bracers. Ben sherman check shirt. The harrington jacket and the crombie with the mandatory hankey attached to cardboard in the top pocket and nearly everything was purchased from Nelson House or Oswold Baileys. Trouble is, I still wear most of the same stuff now and the hair has naturally returned to the style
 
My husband in the early 60's wore a suit jacket with pale blue jeans - his father used to call it his 'cowboy outfit'. He started work in August 1963 - an apprenticeship, but one where he had to wear a suit, although for his college days it was back to the jeans, etc. He still feels happier in a suit now, but I don't do too much casual either, so we are at least a matching pair!
 
The 'off duty' clothes the nurses wear in the Midwife porgramme on TV are so feminine - fullish skirts with unpressed pleats, a blouse and a cardigan. As it was the 50s mini skirts had not come in. I remember my mother wearing clothes of this type in the 1950s. A retro fashion shop has opened in Solihull but the skirts are all too short for me now.
 
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