THE BEST DUDS. As a teenager growing up in Dunedin in the mid to late fifties, I was very fashion conscious. I didnt want to dress like my father, or anyone else, I wanted trendy clothes to mark me as different. I wanted to be like a Teddy Boy! But modern, teenager style clothes were almost impossible to buy in Dunedin. At first I learned to used my mothers old Singer treadle sewing machine and I tapered my standard 22 inch cuff trousers down into snake-like 16 inch cuffs and I was immediately labelled as a trouble-maker. I went to Auckland for a holiday in 1958 and returned with some tight-fitting Ivy League trousers and a pair of suede desert boots and was the envy of my mates. Wearing pink socks was about as daring as mainstream Dunedin teenagers got at that time. But then menswear shops in Dunedin began to catch on. One of the first was London House opposite the Embassy picture theatre — it was a small second shop owned by Charlie Saxton Menswear which was in Rattray Street. Charlie sold tweed sports coat in Rattray Stret, London House sold stuff that was a bit more stylish. But then a breakthrough, Farrys Memswear (from Gore I think) opened a really cool menswear shop in Princes Street South about opposite John Edmond/Century picture theatre. Man, they had good gear. I bought a pair of really tight black trousers with a small red slub through the weave and thought I was really cool.A little narrow red belt set off the ensemble. Farrys later moved into the new State Insurance building on the corner of Princes and Rattray in the Exchange. Before this, we didnt have jeans and when they started to arrive in 1956/57, they were all dark blue and baggy. I gave them the Singer treatment and mine fitted me like a glove. Then light blue jeans arrived and I bought a pair. These marked me as some sort of criminal and I was ordered out of the house of a mate by his father who thought I was a juvenile delinquent! But, in those days, there was a time delay across the world. It took months for movies, music and teenage fashion to reach NZ from the USA (and later Britain) and Auckland always got these things six months or so before us. On the trip to Auckland when I bought the Ivy League gear, I saw Pat Boone in April Love. It came to the Octagon in Dunedin six or seven months later. Ah, it was difficult being a dedicated follower of fashion . . .
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 21:08:57 +0000