Two Women in Cat-Eye Sunglasses on a River Boat, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Two Women in Cat-Eye Sunglasses on a River Boat, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Two Women in Cat-Eye Sunglasses on a River Boat, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-ED3694

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Somewhere on a slow American river in the 1950s, two women have dressed for a boat outing the way the decade required: headscarves knotted against the wind, cat-eye sunglasses with white frames that managed to be simultaneously practical and glamorous, and enough saturated color — red-striped slacks, a purple satin jacket — to establish that roughing it was a relative term. The 1950s woman did not go outdoors without being put together, and being put together outdoors meant approximating the look of a sportswear catalog even when no one had consulted one.

The cat-eye frame was the defining eyewear silhouette of the decade, and both women are wearing nearly identical pairs, which suggests either that they shopped together or that the style had achieved the kind of cultural saturation where independent convergence was inevitable. Their expressions carry the mild patience of people who have agreed to be photographed and are now waiting for it to be over so they can get back to not rowing.

The wooded riverbank behind them places this somewhere in a warm-climate state — the vegetation reads subtropical — and the whole scene is a precise record of what leisure looked like when Americans had just discovered that they were entitled to it and were going to do it correctly.

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