The poster's grandmother & mine must have been running the streets of Birmingham at the same time! My profile picture is from the same era. She referred to it as a "rotogravure" picture. My grandmother came to town on scholarship to Alverson's Business College and ended up married here.

How great these young women look in their stylish dresses in this and the preceding photo. They are so comfortable in their outfits, not "dressed up," because they were used to wearing such clothing. There were wonderful fabrics used in the construction of dresses and ladies clothing. Fabrics with names like bengaline and shantung and batiste, challis, surah, plisse, georgette are some that I remember. And lots of detail like tucks and darts and cutting the fabric on the bias to make the clothing hang nicely.

And yes, women were that slender in that era. (The era of Carole Lombard.) I have photos of my own mother from that era, and she looks like these ladies. I'm probably about the age of the little girl in the photo.