Stunning black and white photographs taken by film director Ken Russell show teddy boys and girls in the 1950s
Never-before-seen images of youth culture in London are brought together for a new exhibition
HE IS best known as a movie maverick that spent his career pushing boundaries with flamboyant yet controversial films.
But, before his ground-breaking directing work, Ken Russell turned his artistic eye to documenting teddy girls and boys in bombed-out London streets in the 1950s.
Equipped with a Rolleicord camera, the-then 23-year-old freelance photographer wandered around the city capturing this fledgling youth subculture.
Now, fifty of his stunning images have been brought together for the first time for a new exhibition.
The black and white pictures have remained unseen for 50 years, and were only rediscovered in an archive in 2005.
The teddy girls and boys are photographed on East End bombsites, at funfairs, at stage doors and leaning on graffiti-covered brick walls.
They are also captured outside the Seven Feathers Club where they did the popular Ted dance, The Creep.
Teddy boys and girls were a British subculture typified by young men and women that were inspired by the fashion styles worn by aristocrats in the Edwardian period.
Saville Row tailors were at the forefront of pushing the trend into the spotlight after the Second World War.
A uniquely British phenomenon, the teddy boys and girls, known colloquially as Ted, were seen as a rebellious side effect to the introduction of American rock’n’roll music.
The movement started in London before spreading rapidly around the UK.
Ted clothing included drape jackets in dark shades, sometimes with a velvet trim collar and pocket flaps, and high-waisted drainpipe trousers, which exposed the socks.
Many outfits also included high-necked, loose-collared white shirts, a slim tie, a brocade waistcoat and chunky brogues.
Related Articles
The teddy girls rejected post-war feminine fashions, opting instead for a more androgynous look.
Girls customised the look with pencil skirts, straw boater hats, cameo brooches and clutch bags.
The clothes were mostly tailor-made at great expense and paid for through weekly instalments.
The teddy girls tended to be young working women from the poorer districts of the country.
They would typically leave school at the age of 14 or 15 and work in factories or offices.
The distinctive style was taken over in the 1970s by the arrival of punk, promoted by the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.
In the early 1990s, a group of teddy boy revivalists in north London formed The Edwardian Drape Society in bid to reclaim the style and bring it back into fashion.
Ken Russell, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, has been described by film critic Mark Kermode as “someone who thought with his eyes”. He described his photographs as “still films”.
The images, all taken in 1955, are exceptional as they feature mostly girls, often staring directly and defiantly at the camera.
Previously discussing the images, Ken commented: “No one paid much attention to the teddy girls before I did them, though there was plenty on teddy boys.
“They were tough, these kids, they’d been born in the war years… they knew their worth. They just wore what they wore.”
The Southampton-born artist found fame directing films such as Women in Love, The Who’s rock opera Tommy and The Devils.
Ken Russell’s Teddy Girls and Boys will be held at , from 1-18 February 2017. Admission is free.