Last edited by The_Shooman (2007-07-21 08:21:20)

^ ummmmm, is Kelly Clarkson a "real rocker"??

Since you've been gone...indeed.

Hey just joined do i could comment, read that someone posted that they didn't look smart. check this out....

http://youtu.be/MOyo_SPRbMM

i know this thread is old...

other recommended reading

http://www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au/cbc/?IS.9780980759488

it is true 70's sharpies did't look as cool

Last edited by Eathad (2012-03-21 10:01:05)

Hi, fxh.

I'm still lurking. I was TSC. Didn't realise how long ago it was I started this thread. Terry Lean as well. What ever happened to him?

In Sydney "sharpies" was a term broadly applied to city kids (i.e. from Redfern, Glebe, other inner-west) as opposed to the "surfies" who hung out by the beaches. Yeah there was a bit of gang-related stuff but mostly it was just convenient adolescent pigeonholing from what I understand.

http://forums.filmnoirbuff.com/viewtopic.php?id=8054

There you go. Perhaps we should try to get thers threads together.

The cardigans tend to be held onto by old blokes still "livin tha dream" I've never seen repros.

Some were very tasty in the early days prior to the slide into shrunken washed look flavoured by yobs.

I used to have way back, a very nice maroon long sleeved cresknit polo witha broad stripe across the front chest. Some of this side of sharpies made its way to adults in the suburbs. Still a good look if you ask me.

Flags were wide straight legged high waisted pants worn by original sharpies. What made them different was that in the early days you could only get them by going to a tailor and getting a pair made. Later on there were small shops that sold some ready to wear and many of the tailors saw an opening and had a bunch of ready to wear in their shops.
Toward the end a few small chains and menswear shops stocked a variation of flags. Trouble was they weren't as well made, had inferior materials and lacked the spiffy details like back buckles belts and pocket flaps etc that real clothes nerds appreciate. The fashion soon died out as people grew up and moved on and especially as it was devalued by the violence of the younger yobs in jeans coming through and their ignorance about clothes.

As you can imagine many of those truly interested in clothes to go to tailors and spec up a pair of pants, plus go to a shoemaker and order their own design shoes, plus go to the cresknit factory and get a one off cardigan , are likely to carry on to suits and other stuff and not remain stuck in a youth culture forever.

What also made than different was they were always made out of heavy good quality suiting material. Im pretty sure it would be from standard tailors books at the time Holland and Sherry etc.

The most common and classic was a mid or charcoal grey witha chalk stripe. They were fitted around the bum, hips and waist and high waisted. They were straight down in that French manner. I can't find any reference but I'd guess the bottom cuff opening was 12 inches or even more. They flapped around as you walked hence "flags"

They were always cuff less and would have a slight break.

Worn with custom made square toed shoes from Venus or some other blokes. Shoes most often, but not always, had a platform sole. Nearly always the shoes had a high ish heel.

I was never a sharpie but I did have a pair of dark grey chalk striped flags made. Not too high waisted and not too wide. You can imagine it looks good with a dark maroon long sleeved polo with one broad chest stripe plus custom made shoes witha heel. Dressy and smarter than most people but with a fashion edge.

Last edited by fxh (2012-03-21 20:06:50)

Meet The Seagull, a 10 year old workingclass Italian boy who moves from semi-rural Bankstown to the city suburb of Waterloo in 1961. It is difficult to make good friends and the Seagull soon realises his only chance of combating the threat of isolation is to try and fit in with the inner city gangs called Sharpies. Their world both captivates and frightens him, but if he is to survive he must learn how to tread a careful path through the maze of rules and codes the Sharpies follow. He must also learn how to deny his ethnic identity to become one of the boys. Explore this fascinating world where the musical tastes, fashion, sexuality and morality of the Sharpies clash with the dominant ideas of what it is to be a 'man' in the 60s.

Book just out.
OUT WITH THE BOYS. The Sharpie Days.

Warning, it is about Sydney, not the Melbourne scene. Sharpie there was a different beast.

http://www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au/cbc/?IS.9781921775796