THE NANCY WILDE EXPERIENCE: 50's

This is one of those movies that, even before I watched it, already knew I was going to enjoy it. Portrayed by Patty McCormack, miniature psychopath Rhoda Penmark, dressing in Shirley Temple-like clothing, presents the perfect image of a well-mannered 1950s schoolgirl. When one of Rhoda's classmates mysteriously drowns at a school picnic, the suspicions begin. The 8 year-old socipath, driven only by her own selfishness, starts to unsettle her mother by behaving coldly towards other human beings.
I love the movie’s disturbing atmosphere. The Bad Seed is often classified as a horror movie because of the killer child at its center, and there’s no denying that Rhoda influenced a legion of creepy kids in cinema - Wednesday Addams, for instance, reminds me of a brunette version of Rhoda.

This thriller is actually very entertaining and you are all aware of my penchant for evil girls, so let's just say that, after watching this movie, I feel like braiding my hair neatly in pigtails and put on my prettiest dresses, while hanging around with a psycho smirk.

Este é um daqueles filmes que, mesmo antes de o visionar, já sei que vou gostar. Interpretada por Patty McCormack, a psicopata em miniatura Rhoda Penmark, vestida com indumentárias que mais lembram a Shirley Temple, representa a imagem perfeita da colegial de boas maneiras da década de 50. Quando uma das colegas d aturma de Rhoda se afoga misteriosamente durante um picnic da escola, levantam-se suspeitas. A sociopata de 8 anos, motivada unicamente pelo seu egoísmo, começa a alarmar a própria mãe por se comportar tão friamente perante outras pessoas.
Eu adoro a atmosfera perturbadora deste filme. The Bad Seed é muitas vezes classificado como filme de terror por ter como protagonista uma criança assassina, e não há como negar que Rhoda influenciou e inspirou uma legião de crianças sinistras no cinema - Wednesday Addams, por exemplo, lembra-me uma versão morena de Rhoda.
Este thriller é bastante entertaining e vocês já estão a par da minha queda por pré-adolescentes com instintos de malvadez portanto, digamos que, após ter assistido a este filme, apeteceu-me entrançar o cabelo e enfiar-me em vestidinhos bonitos, e andar por aí com um esgar maquiavélico na cara.

“We weren’t bad girls. We were all right. We got slung out of the picture house for jiving up the aisles once, but we never broke the law. We weren’t drinkers. We’d go to milk bars, have a peach melba and nod to the music, but you weren’t allowed to dance. It was just showing off: ‘Look at us!’ We called the police ‘the bluebottles’ – you’d see them come round in a Black Maria to catch people playing dice on the corner. But we’d just sit on each other’s doorsteps and play music.” - Rose Shine (Teddy Girl)

Teddy girls (also known as Judies) wore drape jackets, pencil skirts, hobble skirts, long plaits, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars, straw boater hats, cameo brooches, espadrilles, coolie hats and long, elegant clutch bags. Later they adopted the American fashions of toreador pants, voluminouscircle skirts, and hair in ponytails.

Their choice of clothes wasn’t only for aesthetic effect: these girls were collectively rejecting post-war austerity. They were young working-class women, often from Irish immigrant families who had settled in the poorer districts of London — Walthamstow, Poplar and North Kensington. They would typically leave school at the age of 14 or 15, and work in factories or offices. Teddy Girls spent much of their free time buying or making their trademark clothes. It was a head-turning, fastidious style from the fashion houses, which had launched haute-couture clothing lines recalling the Edwardian era.

In the 70s, and again in the 80s, rockabilly music and a resurgence of Teddy Boy styles was fueled by the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, who added a little more glam rock to the look. Ted revivalists continue to pay homage to the original trappings of the 1950s style, in some cases driving 1950s cars, wearing only 1950s clothes, and stockpiling 50s-era collectibles.

I find the Teddy Girl style beyond cool! I love the confident statement that the women that wore it were making. Austere but alluring and appealing, plus charisma factor.

Every once in a while, I find myself incorporating and mixing some elements of the Teddy Girl style – studded leather jacket, cat-eyed eyeliner and sunglasses, red lips, houndstooth, tweed, Edwardian hairdo's, wingtips, flamboyant dandy blouses and other classic yet badass styling.

The Teddy Girls of 1950’s London sported Gibson Girl hair and rolled up jeans borrowed from the boys, balancing the look with feminine details like boater hats, ruffled blouses, and bad attitudes and manners - they were not exactly society-friendly, apparently so.
What I love about those ladies is their rough, raw, fearless sense of style. They had a brave concept of aesthetics that I admire passionately. They didn't give a shit about trends, they did their own thing and that is what made them so effortlessly kick-ass!

British subculture and fashion style always steals inspiration from bygone styles - for instance, worn by dandies in the Edwardian period after World War II. So if you want to experience this sort of style, bring on the leather jackets, pencil skirts, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars, boater hats, creepers (the only item I really don't like at all), cameo brooches... and a ponytail is always welcome! This was all about jazz, rock and roll, and being young and rebel. It would have last longer, but after that, it was time for Mods to take place.