Woman modeling a couple of cars
What it is:
Two photos measuring 2.75 x 4.5 inches each.
What I know about it:
Nothing! Undated and unidentified.
Comments:
Here’s another one I thought would be a quickie post until I noticed something that prompted research. *sigh* Luckily I enjoy looking things up. I’m still in the mood for newer images today, so I pulled out this pair because I think they’re kind of fun. The one on the left is a bit out of focus, but I figured they were worth presenting together (I’m assuming this is the same lady). I guess it shows how little I know about clothing and cars that I thought these were from the 1940s or later. But then I noticed the license plate on the car on the right. I enlarged it so I could read it, and it’s a Georgia license plate dated 1938. According to Wikipedia, from 1910 to 1970 Georgia issued license plates annually, stamped with the year of expiry. So was I wrong? Is the photo on the right really from 1937-38, with the one on the left being of a correspondingly similar vintage, or are these newer photos of a woman modeling vintage cars? It would hardly be the first time I was wrong about a photo. 🙂
Pics of Then 
I would say the one on the right is from 1937-38–I just the other day watched “Stage Door,” which is from the same year, and the clothing lines and shoes are remarkably similar. The one on the left looks to me like it could be from a few years later–that kind of round perchy hat screams “40s” to me (http://www.fashion-era.com/images/HairHats/original_hathair_images/1943hats.jpg). However, I’m not totally certain. The shoes on the left are slingbacks (only visible in the closeup available to subscribers), so that might be a clue.
This makes me think of a recent article I read saying that clothing design has stopped changing as much as it did in the past. If anyone was trying to date pictures of me by the clothing, they could be quite a few years off, since I’m still wearing some pretty old things, like the 10-year-old pants I’m sporting today. I don’t think you could get away with that so easily in the 1900-1960 period.
Thanks for all this info! You bring up something I was overlooking, which is that these photos may not be all that close in date. I think it was the photo on the left, particularly the hat, that made me assume the photos were later, but just because the woman looks the same doesn’t mean the photos aren’t ten years apart or so. She probably just ages well. And you’re absolutely right that one challenge in dating photos is that we don’t all wear up-to-the-minute fashions, we don’t have the most trendy furniture, the newest car, etc.
The car on the left certainly looks like a 1940’s model. I read a similar article about how designs for clothing, architecture, and cars have not dramatically changed in the last two decades or so. I think it was in .
Yeah, see, the cars look of the same vintage to me, which shows my ignorance about cars, and helps explain why I was confused. I guess each time she got a new car she hopped on it and flashed her sexy gams for a photo! 🙂 I guess the last part of your comment didn’t go through. Perhaps in The New Yorker? I’m so behind in reading mine. But the article’s premise makes sense.
Hopping up on a car to have a picture taken seems to have been in vogue. I have several of my mother, late 30s and early 40s, posing in a similar fashion.
What fun! I’ll have to see those sometime.
I wonder if people do the same thing today (pose in front of their new cars). I don’t think I’ve seen such photos from the present day. I hope you get to see your grandmother’s photos soon! How funny that my sentence got cut off. I think I read the piece in Vanity Fair. I know what you mean about being behind in reading The New Yorker! It’s difficult to keep up with weeklies. I don’t even subscribe, but my neighbor sometimes gives me back issues that pile up pretty quickly! ; )
Oh, well, I’m just as behind in my Vanity Fair subscription, too. LOL
: ) It was in the January 2012 issue. I cancelled my subscription, but I bought that issue because of the Joseph Stiglitz article. Having less periodical subscriptions has saved me a lot of time! : )
Thanks for the info, I’ll check it out.
“You bring up something I was overlooking, which is that these photos may not be all that close in date…”
It’s possible, but I actually think the left one is from the early 40’s, and the right one from the late 30’s, just to clarify, so maybe not that different. Also, if I had thought anyone would have cared, I would have mentioned the “Vanity Fair” source for that article in the first place! It kind of goes off into overreaching territory, but I thought its point about clothing and car designs was accurate.
On a related note, today I dropped by a flower show, and noticed that I don’t like the new flower arrangements as much as I did the ones from about ten years ago, which is when I last paid a lot of attention to floral design (because of my wedding). I wonder if floral design fashions have changed at a different rate than everything else! Although I think big ol’ gardenia corsages, like the one in the left photo above, are still available.
Oh, don’t worry about thoroughly citing all your sources, I can always ask. 🙂 That’s interesting, your comments about floral arrangements. I suppose fashions for just about everything change with time. Did I tell you that I finished that Rin Tin Tin book by Susan Orlean? It pointed out that even breeds of dog go in and out of fashion.