The weekend is approaching, and I suppose a few of our readers have plans to go out. But what to wear? What about a few suggestions from the past, thanks to these images of sharply dressed folk and their rides in the ’50s and ’60s?
Ok, the attire in these photos may be too overdone for our overtly casual present days. But still, they’re quite something to look at and admire, along with the cars as well.
When I was a kid, 1950s-1960s the long winter coats that ladies wore were called “car coats” I suppose due to the fact that cars of the 1940s didn’t have a heater (optional back then) or they didn’t work all that well. The term carried over to the 1960s. Also the Cadillac lady is dressed fine and the house is quite fine. All great photos.
“Car coat” was a term often used in my family (mostly by my mom) when I was a kid. I believe that it was mostly used to differentiate between a “long coat” and the shorter coat that was better for sliding behind the wheel. Also, the car coat was a style that was generally cut more generous in the shoulders (better for wrangling steering…particularly in pre-power-steering days…and perhaps even gear shifting). Car coats existed for both women and men (and children, as I can attest).
The Cadillac lady may be wearing a car coat. The Queen Elizabeth look-alike next to the red Chevy is wearing the “long coat”.
I too recall my mom referring to shorter coats (just below the knee?) as car coats. But I think only for women’s coats. She also referred to small duffel or gym bags as “airline bags”.
How about those two chickies in the first pic!
Plus all the new suburban houses.
Interesting that Picture #6 has a General Motors Training Center in the background. Those were interesting facilities – I think they were mostly built in the 1950s throughout North America, in brick buildings that all looked relatively similar.
Here’s a picture (from the 1980s) that shows the GM Training Center around here in Fairfax, Virginia:
The closest car to the building, in the “then” pic. is a “Ford” wagon..H’mm
Is this building (at least was it into the “80’s” on “Lee Hwy”, “Fairfax VA”?
Yes, it was at 10355 Lee Hwy. (now Fairfax Blvd.) – the building is now a furniture warehouse. It’s next to Jim McKay Chevrolet.
That’s right ; “Fairfax” would admonish me for calling it “Lee highway”.
In “Arlington”, it’s now referred to as “Langston Blvd”.
t/y
What i’ve noticed thru out a lot of these pictures showing families is that a lot of the cars were 2 doors not 4 doors.Seems unusual for a family not to have a 4 door..
People were ostensibly concerned about kids opening the back doors and falling (or jumping) out, in those pre-seatbelt days.
And, two door hardtops were considered far more stylish than a four door sedan, especially in the early and mid fifties, as four door hardtops didn’t debut until 1956 for most cars. Two doors also dominated the “personal luxury” car segment (T bird, Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, etc.) well into the eighties. Then it seems the public started desiring connivance and utility in their vehicles, and four doors became desirable. Interesting to note that the boom in SUV’s and pickups really got into high gear when they started offering four door versions
Exactly why dad bought two door cars up to the ’63 Rambler, in which he had seatbelts installed for the back seat.
CLOTHING STYLES AND CAR STYLES YOU DON’T SEE NOW. THE PIC WITH TWO BLACK AND WHITE BUICKS, ONE 4-DR ONE 2-DR, I LOVE.
The fur jacket, with the “Corvair” is my fav.
Whatever happened to people attending church? These people are dressed to attend morning mass, Sunday school, and worship services. Often this was a big deal and we wore our best clothes. Yet we did it every week too. We had a camera if we were with a family member that came in from out of town. We’d take them to church. It was expected that when you spent a weekend with distant family, you also attended church on Sunday.
After church, you’d drive to your favorite family restaurant. We’d go to Surma’s, the Red Wheel, Obies, Howard Johnson’s, Ponderosa or Bonanza. We would be dressed for a sit down. During this era, half of the US attended worship services. They provided community, friendship, guidance, education, as well as spiritual support.
It’s kind of sad that we, as a nation, no longer do that to the point where we don’t understand why we have 70 year old photos of people dressed up standing next to their cars on a bright sunny morning.
That jogged a memory, Dutch reformed people never, ever went out for lunch on Sundays. The first time I went for lunch after Church with my Presbyterian friend’s family I thought that I would be struck by lightning!
Which of course was where the term “put on your Sunday best” came from.
Also where the terms “Sunday drive” and “Sunday driver” came from. The first term of course was what you did after that lunch, before heading home. The second of course was about those people out driving with no particular place to go and those timid little old ladies from you know where that “only drove it back and forth to church on Sundays”.
Where I live going to church is the normal thing rather than the exception. However I can sure see a huge change in the way people dress from the way it was when I was a kid. I haven’t seen anyone at our church with a suit and tie on for years unless it is at a wedding or funeral or it’s some older substitute minister. I always dress kind of “business casual” as does my wife. I just can’t bring myself to go full shorts and t-shirt, though.
Someone mentioned above about people buying two door cars for fear the kids might fall out an open door. That really was a concern, I know from experience. When I was 7 the back door to our ’53 Ford flew open going around a corner and I had to grab my younger brother to keep him from falling out. I also grabbed onto that robe rail or whatever they called it. I guess that’s what you call that tubular piece of upholstery that was attached to the back of the front seat. The situation really upset my normally calm dad. All the cars we raised our kids in were two doors with bucket seats and floor shifts. Not for safety, but because that’s what my wife and I like to drive.
#3 reminds me of Grand Old Mrs Downey 🤔 on CHIPS. Ponce referred to her vintage 56 as a CADDY. She indignantly informed him It’s a CADILLAC! Ain’t we glad we had Good Times?
Most fashions recycle after several decades. I think it’s safe to say that ladies hats will NOT recycle. Why would anyone want to carry a dog bowl or a flower garden on her head?
The lady on the left in the first picture has a reasonable enough hat, but her friend all I could think of was that it was a salad bowl with plastic flowers glued on. I guess at least the flowers make look a little more like a hat while the lady with the Cadillac looks like she just grabbed a bowl out of the dining room and put it on her head.
+1, beat me to it.
Pictures like these I can relate to vicariously through my grandparents. In the placid 50s and tumultuous 60s, my WASP family was firmly set in solidly middle class suburbia and largely untouched and unaffected by the scores of changes that were happening: one as a physician and the other a CPA with socially active wives and children in public school and all going on to college, marriage, employment and homeownership. What these pictures show is people like my grandparents living the generic American Dream. Things evolved over the decades mostly from changes like integration and rise of technologies at a faster and faster pace (my grandparents and parents were creatures of habit as mom would describe them, and while my grandparents were retired and faded in the 70s, I’ve noticed how my parents and aunt/uncles didn’t readily adapt well to new generations and differing social values). Pictures like these remind me that I had it really good as a kid, and now as a senior-aged man nearing retirement I still find that being an adult at times really sucks. My mom’s parents were Oldsmobile people, and my dad’s parents were more eclectic with DeSoto, Plymouth, AMC/Rambler, a huge ’75 Cadillac de Ville, and even a MB 220 that my grandfather scored on a mispriced placard. Part of the joy of CC is that the nostalgia resonates with me.
Another great set of photos. My favorites are the lede photo (the lady in the purple hat is stunning…although I’m guessing she wished her eyes weren’t closed in the photo). I also like the fellow in the suit behind the Ford and the last photo of the lady (maybe she was a “girl” then…definitely a lady now 😉 ) in front of the 1967 (66?) Cadillac. Great coat and a classic suburban house from my youth.
While I do appreciate the fact that people dressed more formally back in the day, and that has its charm, I also can’t help but think just how uncomfortable some of that clothing must have been, particularly when you had to wear it regularly (like, perhaps daily, depending on your line of work). The family with the Buick? Looking at that guy’s wool suit and hat makes me itch and sweat, and I’ll bet he felt that way too.
Oh,and the lady in photo #4 definitely looks like she has a lampshade on her head. A small, stylish, lampshade.
Okay, gents and ladies if any of you who commented are of the fair sex, you have me laughing and laughing. I noticed the hats, too. All of our Moms and Aunts wore these pieces de haute couture. Did you notice that the ’66 Caddy (don’t tell Gramma that I called it that!) has no tinted glass? Probably no air conditioning, too. As for “Car Coats,” my father was a clothier in Manhattan. We sold “Car Coats.” They were typically fabricated from synthetic fiber fabric with synthetic liners called “Kapok” and the like. They were for exactly as explained above and are practical. We still wear them, but the terminology changed with the lack of novelty of the style. The two ladies in the first picture could have been an ad for the ’57 Ford. I also like the mom and daughter in front of “The World’s Most Beautifully Proportioned Car” a/k/a the red and white ’59 Ford. I’ll bet that that lady could make some mean Kubbeh.
Interesting – I’d never heard the term “car coat” before reading the comments here. I guess my folks never used the term, and by the time I got older the it was out of use. But the general style of a coat that extends below the hips seems to have endured. Maybe they’re just made of different materials and called parkas now.
I suppose it’s sort of like calling cropped pants “clam diggers” – the pants style is still popular but I doubt many people use the term any longer.
When I was a kid, the only people who wore “parkas” were mountaineers or Eskimos. I know this because I wanted a parka in the early 1970s (adopting an affectation for things related to the outdoors and/or not formal like the car coats and “camel coats” that my mom insisted on purchasing). My mom informed me that unless I was a mountaineer – and I certainly was not an Eskimo – it would be a camel coat for me.
(Yes, in case you’re wondering, they WERE made of real camels! Like I said, so much of this formal stuff was uncomfortable.)
“Clam Diggers” are capri pants, right? Like Laura Petrie wore on the Dick Van Dyke Show.
So true about parkas.
I think clam diggers were the ancestors of capri pants, but I might be off base on that one.
And then about 1974 suddenly everyone was wearing parkas. Even me!
My mom wore car coats but I don’t recall ever seeing her in a hat other than a beret. My dad also only wore berets. After my dad died when my mom was 60, she started wearing baseball caps or even what I would call a fishing hat. After that point I don’t think I ever saw her in a dress except at our wedding. But then we never had an American car …
I want to know why the guy leaning up against the trunk of his Ford left the dam door open when it is clearly parked curbside in town. You can get his license plate frame, or at least one like it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/194493041480
I was thinking it must be a very lightly traveled street. I think “65” was “nice looking”, model year for big “Ford’s”.
The young lady in photo #9 is wearing a “box jacket,” or coat popularized by Jacqueline Kennedy in the early 1960’s. It was popular for driving as it was collarless and didn’t inhibit neck turning, it was hip length so the wearer didn’t sit on it, inhibiting movement, and the 3/4 sleeves eliminated the possibility of the sleeve catching the gearshift selector or the horn ring.
The car is a ‘66 Coupe de Ville in Sandalwood, with a beige Danube Cloth interior with beige leather bolsters. While tinted glass was a $52 option on deVille and Calais, Calais coupe did not offer a split back front seat with armrest, which this car has.
I wonder what these well-dressed people thought of those new-fangled wraparound windshields, with their attendant dogleg A-pillars that restricted entry and exit to/from the front seats? Just like tailfins, they were mostly gone by the dawn of the 60s.
Picture #4 : Lady in front of Cadillac
Suspect this is Xmas time. Note the stand of light under the eves of the house immediately behind the car as well as lights on some bushes several houses back.
Picture #5: Lady & Daughter
The lady is wearing white shoes. Must be after Easter but before Labor Day. Therefore, its chilly, but not ice cold of winter.
Picture #8 :Dude in the brown suite
Getting vibrations this is a banker or savings & loan officer. Well dressed, modest car (not to offend the customer), attention to detail.
If he had been an attorney, I think he would have had a Mercury to impress the client.
Nice pictures, I hated my woolen suits but wish I had one now as they never wore out .
-Nate