Voices of Postwar England

Terry Rimmer was born in Liverpool in 1937 and grew up in Sherdley Street, in the Paddington area of the inner city. In the extract that follows, listen to Terry talk about how he was able to afford to keep up with the latest fashions for young men.

Length of audio clip 1 min 02 secs.

“And then the Teddy boy era came along then. And that was the first things where an identity, couldn’t afford anything like that. So we had called what’s a clothing club, where you pay the woman five shilling a week, a Jewish lady again, and you used to go to this place and get your clothing. Now there was a famous singer in those days, nineteen fifty-two, called Frankie Laine and he wore a mohair suit. But the nearest we could get to mohair as a young kid would be gabardine. So all these guys were buying midnight blue gabardine. And when I went to buy mine at the age of sixteen, they’d done out of gaber, midnight blue, so I ended up with bottle green. But I had dark auburn hair and I, it clicked. I was the only one who was different and that was my, that was my ticket. And I suddenly became err a magnet for all the girls, you know. And guys were saying ‘where’d you get that suit, where’d you get that suit?’”