AA-2026-98D85B
On the image
A man in his thirties stands in a suburban driveway wearing a pale yellow sport coat, white dress shirt, and violet wool trousers—a combination that suggests either confident individual taste or the kind of outfit someone assembles by following fashion magazine advice without checking the mirror. The bowler hat and wire-rimmed glasses complete the look of a man who has decided that respectability requires formal accessories even on an ordinary afternoon in the American suburbs. Behind him, a quiet residential street curves past bare trees and neat lawns, the sort of planned community that was spreading across the country in the 1950s with the assumption that every resident would dress to greet their neighbors. He stands at attention for the camera with the expression of someone who has been asked to pose and intends to do it correctly, unaware that the combination of that jacket with those trousers has already made the photograph a document of a particular moment in middle-class self-presentation, when a man might believe that the right clothes in the wrong colors could still add up to looking fine.
Visually related — by likeness
Man in Purple Trousers and Bowler Hat, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-98D85B. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/man-in-purple-trousers-and-bowler-hat-1950s.
@misc{aaAA202698D85B,
title = {Man in Purple Trousers and Bowler Hat, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-98D85B},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/man-in-purple-trousers-and-bowler-hat-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Man in Purple Trousers and Bowler Hat, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-98D85B UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/man-in-purple-trousers-and-bowler-hat-1950s ER -
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