The Dockside Dandies of Lowestoft. Three of the four Dandies lining up in their fantastic fashions from the 1950s and 1960s are Steve Leach, Colin Bean and Ray Damerall. PICTURE: Supplied

It was a fashion craze in Lowestoft that allowed fishermen to show off their creative and colourful streaks.

Back in the late fifties and sixties, men working in Lowestoft’s fishing industry took to wearing specially-tailored suits in red, blue, lime green and tartan that helped to illuminate the town’s nightlife.

The colourful garb earned the fashionable fishermen the nickname the Dockside Dandies.

London-based artist Peter Wylie, who grew up in a Lowestoft fishing family, began researching the fashion craze five-and-a-half years ago, inspired by his own memories of the flamboyant local styles.

After gaining Arts Council funding, he brought together a Dockside Dandies exhibition in July 2010 highlighting the men who created it.

The project also involved some of the pubs that were favourite haunts of the town’s fishermen, Lowestoft College and Burtons menswear, which displayed one of the colourful suits in the window of its shop in London Road North.

Now Mr Wylie has returned to the project by making a short documentary video called The Dockside Dandies of Lowestoft.

Mr Wylie said: “I’ve returned to the Dandies again and, having just finished a short documentary video, I also have plans to create a website so that all the documentary evidence, interviews and photographs can be accessed by all.”

He is now seeking more funding to set up the dedicated website.

Mr Wylie said: “There is something like 30 hours of research uncovered and now I’d like to create a place where it can be shared. I would like people in Lowestoft to see it and see the link for themselves, but the website won’t be up and running until the funding is in place.”

“I’m also looking for people to come forward with their ideas and people to become involved – the project has not been completed. This could be a great educational tool and a local history link about the town.

“We should be proud of where we came from and must not forget the town’s past.”

If you would like to become involved in the next phase of the Dockside Dandies project or have any ideas about how it might be developed, email Mr Wylie at eastofwylie@yahoo.com

The Dockside Dandies of Lowestoft documentary can be seen on-line at www.peter-wylie.com/dockside.htm