Sartorial Color Photos From 1940 - A Look Back

Shameless repost of a story on Fark (at least Edmorel is a regular there) - but immediately thought of SF for reasons that will be obvious in a moment. An Alumni of Indiana University and amateur photographer gave his picture collection to the university. They in turn published it on the web.

These shots are noteworthy not for their composition, but that they're in color. The slice of life photos combined with familiar muted shades, grants the scenes a shockingly modern quality in their rendition.

I find I have a swell of nostalgia for a time well before my own. Perhaps seeing the images as timeless makes them more personal, endearing me to them more than I had expected.

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp

The description dates the picture from 1940, with the added notation of "3 Bums...". Okay, so the shoes need some polish, but whoa, bums?!




This guy would get many +1's on WAYWT




How often do you see this many well dressed men in one spot?




So from this to orange skin and spiked hair? Whatever it takes to impress the ladies I suppose...




And this one because I love the notation: "Athletic girl with generous bosoms’’".

+100 Bravo!!! Love those photos...my how times have changed!

Those are pretty cool.

Great photos!!!!!!!!

Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

+100 to the last photo

I've had that gallery bookmarked for years and have spent many hours looking through it. I was always struck by how well-dressed the bums were. I recommend the Chicago section.
Oh, to be able to re-wind the clock. The 60's is where everything started to go wrong, in every way.

Wonderful photos.

The derelicts are better-dressed than what one would find at a modern wedding or funeral.

Jesus, the guy in the back could possibly be a bum, but the 2 in the foreground as well? that's amazing...

Looking at the guy's short biography, he was quoted as "intolerant of ignorance". Maybe "bum" meant "guy who does nothing but smoke all day". Sort of like "guy who does nothing but go on SF all day"

I browsed through a bunch of the clothing tagged photos, there's a high proportion of girls in swimsuits, have fun kids.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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The derelicts are better-dressed than what one would find at a modern wedding or funeral.

I can only imagine how well turned out people would be to a bum funeral in 1940.

These are fantastic. Thanks so much for posting them.

Take a careful look at the "bum" on the far left and how the shoulder of his coat is cut.

The shoulder seam appears angled backwards like this:



This is a feature found today only on high end bespoke items. You will see it on a Rubinacci but not on an Attolini, Kiton, Brioni, Oxxford, or Borelli. It is a sign that the arm scye has been cut as a backwardly angled oval shape, to help make the scye depth as shallow as possible. It is also thought to make the collar snugger and improves the fit around the neck-shoulder area.

I found this a really nice example of a sack suit: