 No teenager would be complete without her bobby socks and saddle shoes. Whether worn with cuffed-up denim jeans or with poofy poodle skirts, saddle shoes were second to none. Saddle shoes were first created by Spalding sports in 1906, made for the foot-active sports of tennis and squash. The ‘saddle’ of the shoe was a reinforced instep that worked as a girdle to hold the foot tight against the shoe during fast sprints of running. The first athletic shoe with technological wizardry (decades before Air Jordans), the saddle shoe failed to win over the players, but it did find eventual approval from golfers before it appeared on the feet of adolescents. The two-tone style of the oxford shoe with colored ‘saddle’ became a part of the Ivy League craze of college kids. Adolescents of the 40’s adopted the shoe of their big brothers and sisters, pairing it with their new jeans and white bobby socks. The saddle shoe became inexorably linked with the new term that was being coined for the large masses of fashionable adolescents: teenagers. This new phenomenon shook up parents and left them speechless as to the crazy ways their children were expressing themselves. Conformity was hailed during the early days of the Cold War, but this new teenage uniform was something very different from the identical outfits of yesteryear. Every teen girl wore her saddle shoes, cuffed jeans, and white shirttails like all of her friends, and their friends, and friends of their friends. Maybe they were still conforming to the peers, but teenagers wore saddle shoes as a proud uniform that separated them from their parents and adults of authority.
|  The white anklets known as bobby socks rocked the conservative world when teenagers began wearing the socks with saddle shoes as a form of adolescent rebellion in the late 40’s. During the war years, rationing of silk and nylon prohibited women from wearing their stockings. Improvising, the British made a short ankle sock to replace nylons, and the bobby sock was born.
American women preferred either to go barelegged or to paint their legs with makeup the color of ‘suntan’ stockings (complete with back seam painted on), so young girls were left to adopt the short sock for themselves. They called it the ‘bobby’ sock, after the British slang for police officers.
Bobby socks started as a rebellious fad, but soon became the quintessential teen fashion of the 50’s. Girls who couldn’t get the original anklet made their own bobby socks by folding down a white calf sock into a thick cuff. The short socks were made visible by cuffing up the denim pantleg to mid-calf height. The girls who wore these anklets were dubbed ‘bobby soxers’, and the trend spread to high school girls across the country.
The socks received even more attention when they starred in ‘sock hops,’ dance gatherings wherein the kids would take off their shoes and dance in their socks. While dancing in socks might have seemed rebellious, it was actually to prevent the polished gymnasium floor from being scuffed by the black soles of the popular saddle shoes.
Innocent as they seemed, these white socks set teens on the path of rebellion, or at least that was what parents believed. While the bobby sock was not necessarily responsible for teenage angst and rebellion, it was a strong expression of it, commonly linked with the real plague against conservativism: rock and roll. Parents didn’t stand a chance.
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 No 50’s girl’s afternoon would have been complete without hours of sitting on the floor, her skirt pooling around her in a big circle, dreamily listening to Bobby Darin records. This activity was as important as hanging upside down on a chair while talking on the phone, or custom crafting a poodle skirt for the weekend sock hop.
Circle skirts were giant circles of fabric with a center space for your waist. Once enshrouded in the large ring, the skirt could be worn softly draped, or with layers of crinolines underneath for a full look. They were mid-calf length, and always secured with a wide belt to showcase the smallness of the waist.
They were perfect for all that sock-hopping going on: poodle skirts were circle skirts with the addition of felt or embroidered decorations (most commonly poodles). To achieve this full look, layers of petticoats or crinolines were worn underneath to make the skirt stand out from the body.
The swoosh of a circle skirt rustling up against crinoline was the most recognizable sound of the 50’s—if it wasn’t drowned out by the shrill cries of the girls when Bobby sang.
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 Bill Haley and the Comets' pioneering rock and roll got the screaming teenagers off the auditorium chairs and out onto the floor, where the jitterbug was the latest dance craze. This new style of swinging music put saddle shoes and socks to work, and turned the simple circle skirt into a work of art. You could say goodbye to the plain jane sock hoppers when the poodle skirt hit the floor.
No, the poodle skirt was not fashion for pooches, but it was a canvas for burgeoning artists. No bobby soxer would be complete without her wool felt skirt with a customized poodle appliqué. The poodle skirt was usually fashioned out of stiff wool felt, so that with the additional lift of net crinolines, the skirt would poof out to display the creative designs on the front. The main objective was to have the fullest skirt possible, so that your appliqué would be almost flat and seen clearly. Were parents responsible for this clever separation device? With such full skirts, boys and girls couldn’t get close enough to engage in that yet-to-be-discovered ‘dirty dancing.’
The poodle skirt was a great way to showcase your artistic talents, and girls stitched more than just the curly-haired pooch onto their skirts. Competition was fierce for title of the keenest skirt, and weeks were spent cutting felt and pasting sequins. Cats, fish, dice, flamingos, cars, and even Scotty dogs in tartan plaid sweaters and sequined leashes walked across the skirt. Just don’t pair your poodle skirt with your cat-eye glasses unless you want a rock’em sock’em hopping good time.
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 Crinolines and petticoats were last seen on the likes of Scarlett O’Hara when corsets and sausage curls were in style, but never count out a good poofy skirt. Old petticoats made of whalebone or metal hoops made maneuverability almost impossible, and when class lines became blurred and mass manufacturing brought stylish dress to the average man, the bulky crinoline dress that necessitated a servant’s help went out of style.
But half a century later, the petticoat returned as an absolutely necessary accessory for the wide sweeps of ‘whirly’ skirts. After the restrictions of the War years, fabric-excessive circle skirts were a luxury for the newly opulent 50's. Layers of fabric circled the legs is wide fluid waves, and petticoats provided the 'pouf' desired of such full skirts.
The new petticoats of the 50's utilized modern fabrics like the wash-and-wear lightweight nylon, and were more comfortable than their predecessors. Simple cotton petticoats gave enough flounce for the delicate 'swish' desired by conservative ladies, but ruffled petticoats for poodle skirts mimicked the excesses of yesteryear.
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 Meow, meow. If boys don’t make passes at girls that wear glasses, then maybe they were blind to the hypnotic stare of the feline frame.
Cat-eye style frames are slightly pointed with upturned ends, much like the slanted eyes of a Siamese cat. The 50’s style cat-eyes are severely styled, usually decorated with jewels or fancy etchings at the sides, with tops like slightly oblonged ovals, or extreme, pointy peaks. Nothing was as sassy as a gum-snapping bobby soxer in her cat-eye glasses and poodle skirt.
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 It all started, as these things often do, with a simple request. ‘All-American look’ fashion designer Claire McCardell commissioned dance shoe manufacturer Capezio to create a comfortable, yet fashion-savvy shoe for her new line of casual sportswear. Taking up the challenge, Capezio made the round-toe, flat-sole style of a dancer’s ballet slipper into a stylish street shoe that epitomized the new leisure look of the 50's.
Ballet slippers, or ballerina flats as they were also called, were a much more comfortable alternative to the pointy-toed stiletto, and they complemented the slim silhouette of the 50's. The simple style was a big hit when teamed with sweet ballerina skirt dresses and short capri pants. |
 By the 1950’s, Italy had already influenced the short pincurl cut, the stand up collar on crisp cotton shirts, and now the slim calf-length pants known as capris made their way to the American shores. Italy’s island of Capri was a popular tourist spot during the 50’s, and the traditional mid-calf style pants worn by the shapely Italian gals drove the guys and the girls capri crazy.
Pants on women were still considered shocking after their arrival in the 1930’s, but became acceptable casual wear for girls in the 50’s. Capri pants followed the slim, body-conscious silhouette of the 50’s, but offered ladies more freedom from the constrictive waists of dresses and poofy, crinolined skirts. The capri pant was slim and sophisticated, and back in the days when smoking was considered chic, the longer, ankle-length version was dubbed the ‘cigarette pant.’
The perfect pant length for riding that bike, pedal pushers were high enough that the cuff wouldn’t get caught in the chain of your Windstar cruiser. No more tucking the loose pantleg into your sock, or even banding it tight to your leg with a rubber band. Nope. With the new pedal pusher pant, you could pedal from coast to coast and not worry about taking a terrible tumble.
Short pants were already in vogue, as girls and boys would roll up the pantleg of their jeans into a wide cuff above the ankle. Now manufactures saved them that extra step. Pedal pusher pants were a shorter version of the popular capris. With straight-cut legs and a more casual fit to just below the knee, pedal pushers were for active gals.
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 Penny loafers were as popular as saddle shoes in the 40’s and 50’s, and they have been an attractive universal fixture for feet throughout the years. |
 With his D.A. pompadour, black leather jacket, white t-shirt, denim jeans and hi-top sneakers, the greaser liked fast cars, loose girls, and rock and roll. The greaser was a fashion conscious suburban kid who felt the angst of teenage years, but didn’t have much to rebel against. James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause was the adolescent emblem of these turbulent years, and gave a voice for the collective confusion. Hormones were going crazy, you were desperate to fit in and yet be an individual, and all you wanted was to understand the world around you. So unlike the bopper, who was raging against broken homes and class injustice, the greaser just wanted to be left alone…at least from his parents’ expectations. The greaser’s dress was a strict uniform: ‘stovepipe’ skinny-legged denim jeans were cuffed up to high ankle, white t-shirts were rolled up to show off the biceps and hold cigarette packs, the black leather jacket guaranteed a tough outer shell to go with the tough-guy attitude, and the comb in the back pocket maintained a perfect coif. Greasers pommaded their pompadours with hearty helpings of Vasoline orBrylcreem hair grease, from which they received their name. Nothing was as slick or sleek as the greaser's hair… just don't touch it. Sometimes a gabardine ‘gasoline’ jacket would replace the leather jacket for casual wear, and hefty black leather engineer boots would replace the Converse All-Star hi-top sneaker when there was a rumble going on. While many carried switchblades, it was more to stab car tires than other greasers, and many times was just a switchblade comb. John Travolta’s Danny Zuko in the 1978 50’s nostalgia movie Grease exemplified the typical Greaser lifestyle: playing bad boy because it was cool, not because you were bad. The greasers’ chicks separated themselves from the “Peggy Sues” with equal extremes. They cut off their prissy ponytails for short pincurl or poodle cuts, and wore neck scarves to hide hickeys. Tight shirts, slim skirts or cigarette pants, and winkle-picker stiletto heels (not the Candies disco slides like Sandy’s bad girl in Grease), these ladies taunted the boys with a constant reminder of what “good girls” in their sweater sets and poodle skirts wouldn’t give them. But while these girls loved to taunt, petting was usually the end of the line. Getting into any kind of real trouble was not for middle class suburban girls, even if they were rebels. Drag racing, late night rumbles and “necking” while Elvis blared from the front seat: it just didn’t get any sweeter than the life of a greaser. |
The teenage angst suffered in Rebel without a Cause was innocent compared to the frightening new lifestyle of the street savvy Bopper. These kids were the ultimate rebels: they had more than angst—they suffered abandonment and rage unlike America had seen before. The safe environment of the nuclear family was broken when fathers didn’t return from the war, or couldn’t re-adjust to their life back home and abandoned their families. Urban ghettos exploded with the new 'fatherless' households. The neglected teens from broken homes banded together into 'gangs' that represented the family many of them lacked. If you weren’t a Bopper, the best you could hope for was that you wouldn’t run into one while invading his ‘turf.’ Marlon Brando's biker style in the 1951 film The Wild One influenced the leather and denim style of the teenage rebel. But while greasers were making fashion statements in the suburbs, the Boppers had already carved a place for themselves in the gritty urban slums. The switchblades they carried were real and bloodstained. Their motorcycle jackets were more than fashion: they helped to protect against knife wounds and falls from their bikes. Their Levis were straight legged and slim in fit, the hems turned up into large cuffs. Tough leather engineer boots and chain belts completed the uniform. Boppers cruised the streets in their hot rods, staking claim to their territory and drag racing with rival gangs. They adopted a slang way of speaking from the new 'bepop' artists found in urban jazz nightclubs, and used the term 'bopping' for fighting. Bopper girls were dubbed 'debs', and wore tight clothes with tousled, sex kitten hair. They gave freely what good girls kept sacred. While sweethearts were looking to get their beau’s class ring, the debs were stashing their man’s “piece” (his weapon). These were the girls and boys your parents warned you about, but darned if they didn’t look sharp. |
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The 50’s wouldn’t have been the same had it not been for the teenage uniform of straight-legged, cuffed hem jeans. Actors like the wild Marlon Brando and James Dean, the definitive rebel without a cause, popularized jeans for fashion’s sake, and teenagers couldn’t wait to slip into a pair of the indigo-dyed denim. Boys paired their straight-legged denim with tight white t-shirts, leather jackets and army boots. Girls put sloppy oversized white oxford shirts, bobby socks and saddle shoes with their jeans. Levis became the symbol of America, its freedom and its strength. Even in the turbulent 60’s and decadent 70’s, the soft cotton comfort of denim was a must for casual wear, and the back leather patch with the Levi logo meant quality and fit, guaranteed. |
The 50’s trend towards teenage rebellion took to the extreme when boys attached metal taps to the bottoms of their shoes. No longer the strong, silent rebel, the tap-shoed ruffian brashly advertised his tough image via taps that would scrape and clack against the road or sidewalk, and even in school halls. This noisy style drove parents and teachers crazy, and were soon outlawed in schools. Boys started attaching metal taps from tap shoes onto their own oxfords, but as the trend grew, other things like bottle caps, pieces of metal, and even pony-size horseshoes were nailed onto the sole of the shoe to produce the clacking sound. The style was most likely borrowed from the young street performers who tap-danced on the sidewalks of urban cities like Harlem. As would happen so many times in the decades to come, teens took the style from the street corner and brought it to suburbia. Shoe repairmen had a booming business with rebel teens who had true metal taps riveted to their soles. A half-moon clip would be nailed to the front toe tip, and a heavy block to the back heel. Kids who couldn’t afford the taps, or who were late to the trend and couldn’t get taps from the shoe store, often made their own. The taps weren't just for sound: letting your metal taps drag along the asphalt while riding your bike produced a spark shower to rival New Year’s Day at midnight. But let’s not kid anybody: sparks were cool, but taps were really just another way to cheese off the man in the new hooliganism of the 50’s. |
 Potentially the most profane haircut name of all time, the slick-backed style of 50’s rebel teens was called the duck’s ass, or D.A. for short. For the coy, the duck tail was an acceptable substitute name.
The D.A. received its name from the characteristic feathered part down the center back of the head, much like the converging feathers of a duck’s behind. This look was achieved by brushing the back sides of the hair towards the center of the head, dragging a comb down the center to part the hair in a slight wave. To achieve this slick style, a generous helping of hair ‘grease’ like Brylcreem or even Vasoline was needed to saturate the hair to prep it for sculpting.
According to lore, the D.A. was created in 1940 by South Philadelphia barber Joe Cirello. It took a while to catch on, but when rock and rollers began sporting the D.A. as part of their loud, flashy musical act, teen boys followed suit. Elvis is credited as being the first rock star to influence the teens with his black pompadour duck tail. Parents blamed rock and roll music for the bad influence, and anyone with a D.A. was targeted as being a ruffian. So naturally, the boys were dying to have one.
Boys were not supposed to care about their hair or how they looked, but when the D.A. walked onto the scene, boys battled their sisters for bathroom time and spent endless hours smoking in the boys’ room while they shared the mirror to re-tame their locks. Wide-toothed metal combs were in the back pockets of every boy’s jeans, and the sight of a greaser running his hand and comb over his slick style was as common as the white t-shirt. Rumbles and fights would mess up the pompadour’s perfection, and the comb guaranteed good grooming should your feathers get ruffled.
Variations of the D.A. were dependent on how the top of the hair was styled, as it was only the back nape part that gave rise to the term D.A. Tony Curtis’ curly-topped cut became a popular variation of the smooth wave pompadour. Other variations of the D.A included the bop, dupe, back sweep and crest. Whatever the name, the back was the same, and a heavy hand of grease guaranteed a motionless mop.
The D.A. is forever linked with the advent of rock and roll and the rebellious kids they called greasers. The slick style has never faded completely into the underground, remaining alive and kicking on the heads of rockabillies and revivalists the world over.
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 Elvis may have been known as ‘The Pelvis,’ but his big pompadour hairdo was just as famous as his swiveling hips (it just didn’t make that neat rhyme). The high-crowned poof of hair brushed straight back off of the forehead was a style officially named in the 18th century by the Marquise de Pompadour, a mistress of Louis XV. Madame Pompadour created the vogue for tremendously high, teased hairdos (and wigs), which became known as pompadours. High, off-the-forehead hairdos were a classic style throughout the centuries, but it took the rock and roll teens of the 50’s to turn them into an unforgettable rebellious style.
The pompadour hairstyle is forever linked to the advent of rock and roll, when rockers like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and even Little Richard swept their hair into the high wave pompadour. Teenagers went crazy for the pomp, emulating their heroes with the ultimate 50’s hairdo, the duck tail. The D.A. (as it was also known) featured an off-the-forehead pompadour front with a feathered back. Some daring girls even attempted the pompadour D.A., but it was mostly considered a boy's style (although women did have their own variations of the pompadour).
The only way to achieve the pomp perfection was with a hearty helping of pomade or actual grease. This gooey, greasy glob saturated the hair so that it could be sculpted with a comb and a careful hand. Achieving balanced heights was more difficult than it might seem, and boys spent much time in front of the bathroom mirror carefully lifting and combing and smoothing. Achieving the perfect shape was as great a pastime as was drag racing.
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 “Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya!
Brylcreem, you look so debonair!
The gals will all pursue ya,
They’ll love to get their fingers in your hair...”
A little dab? Maybe a little dab was good for all those squares, but a big fat dollop was the only thing going to tame your locks into the perfectly coiffed pompadour front and slicked back, ducktail nape.
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