dressing a man for 50s themed party?

[Marzena]

I am very sure that this has been asked before, but I would still be grateful for a refresher, especially, that there are a few hitches.
My man and I have been asked to a 1950s themed dance . I am not at all a problem, but I am not sure what he should wear. He will not go for the obvious Greaser, beatnik or Teddy boy styling; my guess is he would prefer to incarnate the conservative 50s. But how do we make it 50s look, rather than your ordinary shirt and tie look? HELP!

 

[Edward]

Have a look at Rebel Without a Cause. NOT Jimmy Dean's red jacket / jeans look, but when he's a bit more dressed up for the school day:

Good Fifties look that shouldn't be too difficult to copy. A lot depends on how much you want to spend, but I've seen a lot of great flecked blazers from the 80s revival of 50s styles that can pass perfectly well with the rest of the outfit.

 

[Marzena]

Trouble is, in Poland that look never went out of use (in a rather dowdy form) - so there are no associations with its being specifically 50s rather than 60s, 70s or indeed nowadays.
I have found my late Father's navy blazer, double breasted, gold buttons. Could that be made to work? At least it would have the virtue of something distinctly vintage. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[Edward]

Trouble is, in Poland that look never went out of use (in a rather dowdy form) - so there are no associations with its being specifically 50s rather than 60s, 70s or indeed nowadays.
I have found my late Father's navy blazer, double breasted, gold buttons. Could that be made to work? At least it would have the virtue of something distinctly vintage. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Ah, yes, gotcha.... Quite likely most people here wouldn't pick up on it either, the trouser cut and so on not being enormously different than it is now. Acessorising (tie clip, narrow tie, cufflinks, etc....) is probably the way to go. Other than that, you fall back on the more obvious youth cult and fashion types you mention in your original post. Everyone will know a Teddy Boy is a 50s thing (well.... apart from the half dozen people who think "Showaddaywaddy"!), but that's a difficult (for difficult read "expensive") one to get right. Absent some several hundred pounds (a few thousand Zloti, I think?), it's all poor quality fancy dress stuff that looks quite awful.
How's his hair? A fair effort at a quiff would be a good way of getting a sense of period quite quickly.

 

[Two Types]

Is the theme 'Poland in the 1950s' or the west in the 1950s? Whenever i see photographs of Poland in 1950s it is all loose fitting suits and quite often very nice looking leather coats.

 

[Marzena]

Mostly things people wore at that time came out of parcels with discarded clothing from USA, Britain, France and Belgium, plus some "Soviet" flavour army fatigues, and whatever survived the war made over by dressmakers and tailors. We were therefore chronically behind Western fashions, but basically following their line. I am not sure if we had any specifically "Polish" 1950s style, except for an indigenous species of Teddy boys called charmingly Bikini boys . That name was not about swimsuits but about ties with handpainted atomic blast over the Bikini.

I see you have not picked up on the navy blazer possibility. A terrible idea?

 

[dhermann1]

As I recall there were anti Soviet riots in Poland in 1953. Maybe a Molotov cocktail would be a good thing to bring.
But seriously, I suppose they're really thinking of America in the 50's. Maybe he could dress up in "Rock-a-Billy" style. RockaBilly was what they called the Country music musicians who became the earliest Rock and Roll stars. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, but there was also Carl Perkins, the Everly Brothers, and many more.
Rock-a-Billy guys wore their hair combed back with a big pompadour, and long sideburns. They wore sport jackets with sparkly material and wide shoulders, and very narrow pegged pants. And they wore very pointy toed black shoes. They wore shirts with bright colors, with the collars sticking out over the lapels of their Jackets.
The girls who hung out with such guys wore their hair in a page boy flip (I'll bet you can find lots of images of that on the web), wide long skirts with a lot of flair. The stereotype, the holy grail, of 50's girls' skirts were the poodle skirts. They actually had images of poodles on the skirts (Google poodle skirt. You'll laugh.) And they wore simple little white blouses with nice sweaters. And some simple pearls around their neck.
If you can come up with outfits like that you'll be the king and queen of the hop.

 

[Edward]

Mostly things people wore at that time came out of parcels with discarded clothing from USA, Britain, France and Belgium, plus some "Soviet" flavour army fatigues, and whatever survived the war made over by dressmakers and tailors. We were therefore chronically behind Western fashions, but basically following their line. I am not sure if we had any specifically "Polish" 1950s style, except for an indigenous species of Teddy boys called charmingly Bikini boys . That name was not about swimsuits but about ties with handpainted atomic blast over the Bikini.

This is a new one on me - I'd be interested in seeing more about that. any photos?

I see you have not picked up on the navy blazer possibility. A terrible idea?

Not really, if it's what people wore.... Thing is, reality rarely conforms to nostalgia. Put it this way.... see that couple on the news with the "Fifties home!" that's all neon, chrome, and generally has been done to look like the diner set in Happy Days? That's nostalgia. Historical fact is a fifties home for the average person looked much the same as it had in the Forties, with probably even a lot of Thirties bits hanging around. Same thing carries over.... my own flat, I moved in in 2001 - probably most of my furniture was designed in the 1990s. It's not a 2012 look, but it's reality, and that's how it is for most people these days. So in the 50s, you'd have seen a lot of people - especially older gentlemen - sporting looks that were more like what we think of as late forties, or even thirties. Heck, in Fifties Britain a lot of cars on the road were from the Thirties; many standard car designs here survived from the Fifties to the early Seventies. Anyhow, my point is.... it would be an entirely period-correct look, especially for a man in his Thirties already by 1950, it just won't be a stereotypical, nostalgic "Fifites" look. Depends what you want, really.

As I recall there were anti Soviet riots in Poland in 1953. Maybe a Molotov cocktail would be a good thing to bring.
But seriously, I suppose they're really thinking of America in the 50's. Maybe he could dress up in "Rock-a-Billy" style. RockaBilly was what they called the Country music musicians who became the earliest Rock and Roll stars. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, but there was also Carl Perkins, the Everly Brothers, and many more.
Rock-a-Billy guys wore their hair combed back with a big pompadour, and long sideburns. They wore sport jackets with sparkly material and wide shoulders, and very narrow pegged pants. And they wore very pointy toed black shoes. They wore shirts with bright colors, with the collars sticking out over the lapels of their Jackets.
The girls who hung out with such guys wore their hair in a page boy flip (I'll bet you can find lots of images of that on the web), wide long skirts with a lot of flair. The stereotype, the holy grail, of 50's girls' skirts were the poodle skirts. They actually had images of poodles on the skirts (Google poodle skirt. You'll laugh.) And they wore simple little white blouses with nice sweaters. And some simple pearls around their neck.
If you can come up with outfits like that you'll be the king and queen of the hop.

That's more along the lines of a "Fifties" look that people will immediately recognise as period, yes.

 

[Marzena]

Yes! Elvis impersonation plus Molotov's cockatils! We shall kill them on the spot and go home!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I should think that an instantly recognizable '50s style would be the baggy-looking "Khruschev" suit.

 

[Marzena]

I appreciate the point about reality vs nostalgia and will give it another thought. I shall have it easy myself - have a very proper black polka dot dress with miles of a chiffon petticoat. Still, since my life partner will not be seen dead in those iconic looks, what's a girl to do? Think preppy, I guess.

I now think this is between a salt and pepper jacket, khakis, dark open neck shirt, no tie - like Gene Kelly in american in Paris (if not exactly him, there are others in that vein) and the blazer, khakis, narrow tie with tie clip, colourful socks look.

 

[Marzena]

Mostly things people wore at that time came out of parcels with discarded clothing from USA, Britain, France and Belgium, plus some "Soviet" flavour army fatigues, and whatever survived the war made over by dressmakers and tailors. We were therefore chronically behind Western fashions, but basically following their line. I am not sure if we had any specifically "Polish" 1950s style, except for an indigenous species of Teddy boys called charmingly Bikini boys . That name was not about swimsuits but about ties with handpainted atomic blast over the Bikini.

This is a new one on me - I'd be interested in seeing more about that. any photos?

I shall try my best and publish some. This is quite a subject BTW, keeping fashionable behing the iron curtain

 

[Marzena]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Uj_imUe2E&feature=related

This is a modern Russian nostalgia movie actually, but I think it is the very essence of what you are curious about: the awful drabness all around, the rebellion expressing itself through the colourful and the fanciful and the whole underground industry that serviced those desires.