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- Freeze Frame
- Texas Flyer wanted
- Just a Year Too Soon
- WWII -- Replacing men with women at the railroad crossing.
- Yes, Icing
- You kids drive me nuts!
- NOT An Easy Job
- I wonder
- Just add window boxes
- Icing Platform?
- Indiana Harbor Belt abides
- Freezing haze
- Corrections (for those who care)
- C&NW at Nelson
- Fallen Flags
- A dangerous job made worse
- Water Stop
- Passenger trains have right of way over freights?
- Coal
- Never ceases to amaze me.
- Still chuggin' (in model form)
- Great shot
- Westerly Breeze
- For the men, a trapeze
- Tickled
- Sense of loneliness ...
- 2 cents
- Charm City
- What an Outrage
- Brighton Park
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Print Emporium
Loving Cup Lovelies: 1921
Lansburgh Girls Win Style Prize
Five Models Gain Cup at
Tidal Bathing Beach Costume Show.
With five models displaying the most modern bathing costumes, Lansburgh & Brother won the prize cup at the first annual style show, held yesterday afternoon at the Tidal bathing beach. The models who represented Lansburgh's -- all local girls -- were Mary Lee, Iola Swinnerton, Thelma Spencer, Hattie Spencer and Julia Cunningham. The suits which they wore were special importations, brought to Washington for exhibition at this show ...
-- Washington Post, 6/26/1921Washington, D.C., 1921. "Bathing Beach costume contest." At left we have Iola Swinnerton, First Lady of Shorpy in perpetuum; the others are plebeian ciphers spared total invisibility only by the grace of her luminous beauty. View full size.
I agree with Alan_Flor
Agree with his post up to a point. Viewing past Shorpy images I am so happy to be living in the "here and now". I am 74 and I belonged to the generation that changed a woman's view of who we were and what we wanted to change, starting with what we wore. My mother took my older sister and me shopping in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What I noticed was the uncomfortable clothing that was required, hat, high heels, gloves, as acceptable. I was a tomboy to the "umpth" degree and wore jeans when in my home and the little town we lived in. I now live in Texas and just viewing the heavy clothing women wore back in the time makes me break out in sweat. I do believe I got my attitude from my mother, who was a trendsetter in her generation.
What a nice surprise!
The bathing beauty pictures are among my favorites, here on Shorpy and it's SO nice to see a new one! Iola looks beautiful! The one "model" needs a lesson in posture, but the rest look pretty good!
What, no Kardashians?
What gets me is women were allowed to look "normal" back then. No Pilates, yoga, Zumba, endless diets, botox, spa treatments, etc. They look like the women I see at the supermarket with two kids in tow, standing in line at the bank, the doctor's office. This is what the vast majority of women look like.
Krazy Kat
Looks like a doll version of a beloved comics character in the arms of babe #1.
Semantic Suits
Back then they were "bathing" rather than "swimming".
But Jantzen was working to change that with "The Suit That Changed Bathing to Swimming" introduced around 1920.
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Johnny Depp line of bathing suits looks nice on the first contestant (and winner) on the left.
Reverse nostalgia
A lot of times I think I was born too late. This is not one of those times.
Not Permanent Press
Normal appearance back then was that everything still needed ironing.
Wet stockings?
It looks like all these ladies are wearing some type of hose. Would have been common for swimming? Or was it just for the sake of the competition?
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