This would not go over well today

Interesting historical photos post over at Retronaut. Hard to imagine this being acceptable today.

“I?ve been the owner of these swimsuits since 1950. It was a fashion show held by the manufacturer in their showroom in Manhattan to present their new line, entitled ?the autograph suit.? It could be drawn on or signed and would not erase in the water.?

17 thoughts on “This would not go over well today

  1. In the age of neo-burlesque, paint-on bikinis, and models-as-sushi-plates, why wouldn’t this go over well today? Maybe I’m just jaded, but this doesn’t look all that bad to me.

    The only reason I don’t see this working today is that modern bikinis don’t offer that much surface area to work with. You’d probably just have to paint on the model herself (or himself; I’m all about egalitarianism).

  2. Eric, I would love to give it the old college try… had I gone to college… Get a girl in a thong and I’ll give it the old “Trade School Try”….

  3. I’m with Jules Rivera here.

    I wonder why it wouldn’t go over well?

    Actually, it may have not go too well back then, the women had probably no choice in doing it.

    Today, if a woman wants to have something drawn on her body, it’s kinda of her choice.

    Hey, I’m available anytime girls!

  4. I can imagine this being all the rage nowdays…with what people wear (Lady Gaga) this is as tame as anything going…but I agree with some of the others there wouldn’t be anywhere as much material in anything made today…

  5. What — no one else has been in a bar and observed a VERY FAMOUS cartoonist draw little Jeffy on a woman’s body (sans swimsuit, though otherwise attired nonetheless)?

  6. If this was America, not Saudi Arabia, in the ’50s, then the women had plenty of choice – they weren’t living in bondage and these women on America in the ’50s had vastly more freedom than most of the rest of the world… Not that women weren’t repressed on multiple levels nor could women sue their employer for sexual harassment, but they could leave their job and get another same as anybody in the USA…

  7. These comments! I see no female has piped up, so here’s my take: these type of jolly photos are a wonderful record of what a hermetically-sealed boys’ club cartooning was until just a couple of decades ago. Whenever I see old programs from NCS gatherings, etc, it almost makes me choke. I’m thrilled that things are very different now.

  8. Wasn’t it Lady Gaga who showed up somewhere in a dress made of meat? You’d have to use a branding iron to draw on that sucker. “Fifty Shades of Sirloin” anyone?

Comments are closed.

Top