History's Runway: A Gentleman's "Teddy Boy" Ensemble, 1951

Suit, 1951
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This three piece suit is made up of a single-breasted jacket, waistcoat and pants of dark grey herring bone wool. The jacket features three buttons, and an inside pocket. It is lined in dark gray twill rayon. The trousers taper to turn up and have buttons for braces. The waistcoat is single breasted with six buttons, stepped lapels and four pockets. It is lined with striped silk and has a dark gray silk back. It was meant to be worn with a bowler hat and waisted overcoat with a velvet collar. This was the epitome of men’s fashion in England in the early 1950s and was adopted as the preferred style of dress by a particular group of fashion-conscious men known as “The Edwardians” because of this throwback to the styles of the early Twentieth Century when Edward VII was reigning. These fashionable men were also known as “Teddy Boys.”


This particular suit was made for a young man in 1951 who ordered it to be an exact copy of one worn by Winston Churchill in 1911 at the end of the Edwardian Era and the accession of King George V.