Thursday Postcard Hunt: Streetwear
Streetwear
My grandfather on a postcard! There used to be photographers taking candid photos in San Francisco's high pedestrian traffic areas. The cameras were worn in harnesses on the photographers' chests, and numbered tickets were dispensed in hopes the subjects would pay 50¢ for a postcard later sent to them by mail. There are around a million negatives, most unseen, in archives. Only a few were ever printed.
I have a street photo of my grandmother (ex-wife of the grandfather) too, but not a postcard. She saw the photographer and was smiling.
Tourist streetwear in Old Sacramento. Streetwear became much more casual than in my grandfather's day!
Next week is Formal or Fancy.
How cool is the first postcard? Your grandfather would qualify also for next week theme!
ReplyDeleteTo us now it would seem like dressy clothes! However, that's how my father dressed every day to go to work in San Francisco in the 1960s, hat and all! Every day street wear for The City! My parents would be SO dressed up when they went out to eat there!
DeleteWhat a beautiful picture, the one of your grandfather! And now I remember I may have some photo/postcards of my own in my old photo box. Darn it!
ReplyDeleteI might too, I only remembered that one!
DeleteReally interesting. I've never heard of photographers doing that. Wonderful that you still have the postcard!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I came to have it.
DeleteYour grandfather looks quite dapper! He might have been a little exasperated with the fashion sense of those in the Sacramento card.
ReplyDeleteHe definitely would have been! He was quite fussy.
DeleteI can remember those old dressing standards. I could wish for that kind of photo. That picture reminds me so much of my Dad and those felt hats the men of his generation wore. I remember going to a men's clothing store with him in my childhood several times, waiting for him to be fitted with a new suit. Certainly, those were different times.
ReplyDeleteMy father wore a hat to work in San Francisco in the 1960s. I have some photos of my father with a vest too, but I'm not sure that was the regular daily wear.
DeleteIs that 2nd postcard from the '60s?
ReplyDeleteThe postmark is 1981, but the postcard itself looks older. The ruffled edges were popular in the 50s and 60s, so it's possible. It's Old Sacramento, so we can only go by clothing, not buildings or the trolley.
DeleteWhat a fascinating piece of history, and nice to have a candid shot of your grandfather beautifully dressed complete with shiny shoes.
ReplyDelete