The Dockside Dandies were 1960s young fishermen who had created their own stylish fashion, unique to the seaside town. For fifty years this piece of cultural history had remained hidden until artist Peter Wylie researched the phenomenon and brought together a town wide exhibition of the fashion and the men who created it.
What enthuses me about this endeavour is that it has involved so many people in Lowestoft, from students and staff at Lowestoft College to Burtons Menswear, who have a new reproduction of one of the Dandies colourful suits in their High Street window.
The exhibition can be found across seven locations in the seaside town – from the Library and Tourist Information Centre, to the Maritme Museum and Lowestoft College. Photography, art work, accompanying texts, the remade suits, a film and audio recordings of the fisherman today build an entire picture of youth culture in this once busy port town.
Peter Wylie's exhibition, funded by an Arts Council Lottery grant, shows the value of our history as an artistic, cultural and educational source to explore in the present.
Paul Hobb's created a short film of the Dandies, which was showing in the Library on my visit. Two gentlemen were hot in discussion about Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers on the East Coast in the early 1960s as they watched the film. As the loud colours and feminine lines of the Dandies' suits flickered in front of them, one said: “Of course, you'd never pick a fight with a Dandy. They were tough.”
The exhibition continues until 31 July.
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