The article discusses the origins and evolution of the rockabilly style from its beginnings in the 1950s to its revival and modern adaptations.
Rockabilly music began in the 1950s with artists like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis but was short lived. The style was revived in the 1970s and grew more popular, being adapted for modern tastes. It has now become mainstream.
The author is drawn to the 'bad girl/bad guy' rockabilly style depicted in 1950s B-movies and characterized by tight clothes, cigarettes, fast cars and rebelling against parents.
The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters
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How did the rockabilly craze begin? Rockabilly music as a genre never really took off, but there are a few very famous exceptions, namely Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. But even their rockabilly heyday only lasted for a few years. In this interview from Collectors Weekly, vintage lover and lifestyle expert Kim Casamassima discusses the rockabilly fashions of the 1950s and explains how the vintage rockabilly look has been revived and adapted over the years. She also discusses the stylistic http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (27 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters clichs and misperception that often stand in the way of an accurate understanding of the decade, a time when even tough guys wore penny loafers and pompadours were the exception rather than the rule. How did your appreciation for vintage begin? My parents were hippies who refinished and sold Art Deco furniture. So Ive had an appreciation for old things since I was a kid. Ive been around antiques and vintage pieces my whole life. I think the first classic 1950s movie I sawI was maybe 17was Where the Boys Are. I loved the campiness and the clothes. It struck me like, Oh God, I love those dresses. It was a relatively short hop from wearing them to eventually selling them. So I quit my real job in retail and started selling online fulltime. When you first start out, you assume the thrift stores are going to be a goldmine for vintage, but you end up buying things that dont sell. So you move on. Im at the point now where I place newspaper ads to buy vintage. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (28 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters What styles are you particularly drawn to within 1950s fashion? I love the rockabilly bad girl/bad guy thing. It starts with the B-movies, the rock n roll movies, the hot rod and juvenile delinquent movies from the 50s. The characters are always teenagers. They listen to rock n roll and tick off their parents by driving fast, smoking cigarettes, and wearing their clothes a little too tight. It wasnt called rockabilly in the 50s. It wasnt even necessarily a lifestyle. The word rockabilly describes the lifestyle as we see it now. Back then, it was just teens being teens. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (29 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters When was the term rockabilly coined? It comes from the combination of rock n roll and hillbilly music. I think the first time it showed up in a song was around 1955 with Rockabilly Boogie by Johnny Burnette. It wasnt really a word that was thrown around a lot back then. The word was revived in the 70s. People were reacting against disco and some of the other musical genres of that time. They just wanted to get back to classic rock n roll. There was a 50s revival then, and a lot of rockabilly bands startedLevi Dexter, the Polecats. In the 80s, of course, we had the Stray Cats. Theyre probably the most famous rockabilly-revival band. The look really blew up again in the 90s. Its not even a subculture anymore because its pretty much everywhere. You can go and buy a strapless dress with cherries on it, and its called rockabilly. The terme has really been bastardized when you start selling the clichd 50s looks like the cherries and flames. Its sort of a mockery of what 50s fashion really was. Fifties purists arent into the clichs like driving a pink Cadillac and sipping a milkshake at a diner. Theyd much rather just wear their 50s clothes, drive their 50s cars, and listen to the original bands over any neo-rockabilly group. I dont really want to put a label on anyone, but theres the modern rockabilly crowd thats all about the flames, cherries, and buying repro bowling shirts. Then theres group B, who are into the classic, pure 50s vintage gear and music. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (30 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters So do 50s purists collect the cars? Absolutely. They definitely go after the classic 50s cars. They want a Mid-Century Modern home built in the 1950s or 60s, and theyll completely redecorate their house period-correct 1950s. Some people wont buy microwaves or cell phones. I think thats pushing it. But the purists are very much about getting back to this romanticized, classic era of living. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (31 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters What are some of the key clothes for the classic rockabilly look? Nobody really walked around looking like the Fonz or one of the T-Birds from Grease. Thats a clich. The leatherjacket and cuffed jeans were born not so much as a fashion statement, but out of necessity with the emergence of the California hot-rod culture. It was a blend of that and Southern moonshine runners. The black leather jackets and engineer boots were almost like their uniform. They served a purpose. Cuffed Levis jeans have always been the choice for anybody on the rockabilly scene. But these werent worn to make a statement either. Clothes were passed down in families from one brother to the next. A lot of times if the jeans didnt fit, you cuffed them up. The modern rockabilly guy, http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (32 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters though, wears the leather jacket, the cuffed jeans, and Converse sneakers. They were worn to play basketball, too, in gym, but somehow thats also been bastardized over the years as the uniform of the rockabilly guy. For shoes, believe it or not, a lot of men wore penny loafers. We always assume it was either engineer boots or a pair of Converse, a pair of Chucks. But they wore penny loafers or dress shoes because thats what they had and because they were leather. Like a leather jacket, they took a beating and lasted a long time. Its kind of funny to think of a tough guy wearing penny loafers. For women, pencil skirts and cardigan sweaters, always on the tight side. You see that classic outfit in just about every 50s juvenile-delinquent movie; the tighter the better. Towards the end of the era, when the country was starting to see more beatniks, the women were wearing oversized cowl-neck sweaters and tight, black stirrup pants. Thats almost an entirely different subculture than the bad girls and guys. The good girls wore the full skirts and full dresses. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (33 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters
Where did the Fonz style come from? There was a lot of 50s nostalgia in the 70s. I think the creators of Happy Days took the Fonz character from Marlon Brando in The Wild Onethe bad-guy biker wearing a black leather jacket, white T-shirt, and jeans. After the shows first couple of seasonsthe Fonzs original persona was deemed too threatening for 70s audienceshe became less tough, more like a buddy, and a little more lighthearted. In the 50s, bikers were portrayed as booze hounds. They started fights. They were threatening. They were scary in the 50s movies. By the early 60s, all the campy beach movies like Beach Blanket Bingo also had a biker gang in them, but they werent tough and threatening. They were goofy. They were like bikers on Gilligans Island. Everything was a lot more lighthearted at that time. Of course, by the late 60s, things got much more serious. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (34 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters What patterns and colors are prominent in the rockabilly look? Pink and black shirts for men seem to be coveted. Its funny because real men didnt wear pink in the 50s. A man was a man and a woman was a woman. They wore cotton, button-down leisure shirts. Labels like Campus and McGregor came out with a lot of plaids. In the 50s, most teenagers and men in their 20s dressed the same waya pair of dress slacks and a plaid shirt. Guys didnt walk around with a pompadour and sideburns and cuffed jeans and a leather jacket. There was a strong dress policy in most schools. They wouldve been kicked out. To show that you were a tough guy, youd do little things like roll up your sleeve cuffs, turn your belt to the left and the buckle over to the side, peg your pants, roll them up and cuff the bottoms. That was their way of saying, Dont confuse me with Joe Schmo the football player. It wasnt pompadours and sideburns, no way. Did women and girls have different looks? It really was the tighter clothing. A girl would cause a sensation by showing up at school wearing a tight sweater with a bullet bra underneath. A bad girl who wanted to get by without causing a stir in school would go along and wear button-down shirt dresses, full-circle skirts with a blouse and maybe a patent leather belt to go with it. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (35 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters Rock n roll was seen as a threat in a lot of areas. You saw a little bit of it in Great Balls of Fire, that movie about Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis came on screen, did his dance, and it was mayhem. So I think a lot of teenagers knew better than to go to school dressed a certain way. I think most of them stuck to the rules. The tight stuff came out after school and on weekends. Thats when they really rebelled. Where these clothes were worn varied across the country. For example, the hot rod clubs of the 50s originated in California, not so much here in the northeast. Here, going to drive-ins or the clich diners was the thing to do. Maybe out West or in the South youd go drag racing, kind of like what you see in Rebel Without a Cause. That movie created a spike in the Hanes white T-shirt sales because James Dean wore one. Who wouldve thought? http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (36 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters Did the fashion differ regionally? I think it was pretty much the same across the U.S. The fashion, music, movies, and whole subculture also made it to England. England is kind of like our sister country when it comes to interest in the 50s, even with the resurgence in the 70s of the Teddy Boys, or the Teds. The Teds were into rock and roll and that whole scene, but their fashion was completely different. Thats one major difference among the 50s subcultures of the U.S. and England. Here, a guy might wear his buttoned-down shirt rolled up and his jeans cuffed. The Teddy Boys were a lot more polished. They had their clothes tailored, and they were pricey. They wore long, draped jackets with a velvet collar and high-waisted trousers, or drainpipe trousers as they were called. Thats also where creepers were born. They were actually leftover military surplus from World War II. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (37 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters So designers werent a big part of rockabilly? Not at all, heck no. The rockabilly scene was working class. The guys would have to get an after-school job, maybe working with a local mechanic. A lot of the teenagers in the 50s drove cars from the 40s or earlier because they had to work for it. Thats partly where the engineer boots and cuffed jeans come from. Youre not going to wear your dress pants and penny loafers when you had to work on your old car. Hairstyles for women also changed between the beginning of the decade and the end. Towards the end of the 1950s you saw a lot of backcombing, and the beehive came along by the early 60s. If you were to open up a high school yearbook and look at a picture of a guy from 1945, he wouldnt look any different than a guy from 1955. Hairstyles for men really didnt start changing until the late 60s http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (38 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters when longer hair came in vogue, thanks to the Beatles. The pompadour with sideburns is also a clich. Sideburns werent allowed in high schools in the 50s. That was not something your average 18-year-old would be wearing to high school. Thats more like the outfit of the modern rockabilly guy. Its like tattoos now. A 50s purist would know that you dont get a sleeve of tattoos. That was not at all common. Returning sailors from World War II would come back with an anchor tattoo. So tattoos are definitely a modern spin on the 50s. Tattoos were generally reserved for military men. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (39 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters How did the pompadour become a part of rockabilly in he first place? Elvis had a pompadour, of sorts. It wasnt a big quiff like the Teddy Boys wore. It wasnt all hair-sprayed, backcombed, and teased. Elvis had a very conservative pompadour and slight sideburns if you look at a lot of photographs from the 50s. Tony Curtis was Elviss inspiration more than James Dean. The huge, pork chop sideburns were Elviss fashion in the 70s. I think the sideburns of the 70s rockabilly revival took their cue from Elviss sideburns at the time. Its important to remember that the amin audience for all of this were 14- to 20-year olds. That was the dominant age group. They were the ones who went to see the cheesy sci-fi movies or the rock n roll flicks with Little Richard and Bill Haley. Actually, Bill Haleys Rock Around the Clock is the first rock and roll song ever heard in a movie, Blackboard Jungle from 1955. Thats really what started it. These days, rockabilly seems to keep getting trendier and trendier. Its never really gone away since the 80s. The newer generations are maybe in their early 20s. A lot of them get started with the repro stuff, but they eventually get into vintage. The cool thing about vintage is that you can like any era. You can wear something from the 70s with something from the 50s and make it look modern and really cool. You can mix it up. http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (40 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters http://denimhunters.com/2012/07/rockabillyculture/ (41 of 52)02/06/2014 23:02:11 The Exaggeration of the Rockabilly Culture | Denimhunters | #denimhunters Since this was a youth-driven fashion, what were other people wearing in the 50s? For older men, professional men, towards the end of the 50s and into the 60s, theyd wear clothes like what we see on Mad Men. In general, the standard suit of the working businessman included a skinny lapel, skinny tie, cufflinks, and a skinny belt. The common housewife would wear a cotton button- down day dress. The difference between, say, a 30-year-old housewifes cotton dress and a 15-year- olds would be the cutesy things like ballerinas and poodles on the teen dresses. By the end of the 40s and into the 50s, consumerism was booming. There was no shortage of fabrics. It was a happier and lighter time. People were getting jobs and making money. Womens fashion during the war years tended to be a little more masculine, as seen in the jackets with big shoulders. Womens clothing became more feminine in the 50s. For more inspiring articles visit Kim Casamassimas vintage-clothing blog, The Girl Cant Help It. 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