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.?
This is my illusions of what might happen when I go to a Comic Convention
I’m hoping for a Lio on my long johns.
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).
Yep, I agree – I see comic con all over this.
Hard to autograph a thong though haha
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”….
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!
I have a baseball cap with a Nancy drawn by Guy Gilchrist on its bill. Just sayin’.
John, please don’t tell us that’s all you were wearing when he drew it.
It’d go over pretty well with me. The NCS really knew how to throw a party back then.
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…
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)?
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…
I would respectfully disagree that it would not go over well today:
http://kungfoox.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fe02c8f88330115714cf23f970c-pi
Right, the only difference today is that they wouldn’t be drawing on her clothing, they’d be drawing on her skin.
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.
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?