Today's Sepia Saturday Suggestion has a group of girls gathered in what is apparently a dormitory bedroom, with posters and pennants on the wall. I looked through LOST GALLERY for things involving beds and came up with a few of sleeping people, a few half dressed people and a few of just an empty bedroom. There was one video I made some years back in an attempt to describe the stages and reasons for a bit of enhancement to old photographs. I'll include that at the end of the page, just for fun.
But what really caught my eye in the Sepia Saturday Suggestion today was that each of the girls in the photograph has a bow in her hair. A BIG bow.
It was a very popular fashion for a long period. LOST GALLERY has a collection of photographs featuring BIG BOWS.
It's the second from the right.
Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's two.
Yes, yes I know. You've seen this one before. It's kind of unforgettable.
This is a BOW isn't it?
I wish sincerely that the snapshot on the right and the RPPC on the left could be the of same girl. It would be only the second time I have found photographs of the same people in different places.
It’s not the same girl, however. The two photographs were found only about 160 miles apart. The RPPC portrait is from Nacogdoches, Texas. The 2.25 X 3.25 snapshot was found in West Monroe, Louisiana.
According to Playle’s invaluable examples, the RPPC could be little later than 1918 and probably earlier. The snapshot at best guess is from around 1925-1930.
The pose and attitude and the bow in the hair seem the same though. It was enough to make me get them together for comparison.
Now, are they related? Meh. Perhaps.
Three girls, three bows
Five girls, one bow
Well, it's a bow!
Stay Tuned. This was a very popular fashion.
There's probably more.
Now, as promised, here is a video made for the purpose of demonstrating the details revealed by a little enhancement of an old snapshot.
No bows, but there certainly is a bed.
Okay loop on back to the Sepia Saturday home page to find more beds and bows and pictures and pennants and such.
Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE
There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery. Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEXThe most popular photographs 
Area 51 and a Half 
Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! 
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THE KIDS 
Dee and the Business School 
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
You always have a multitude of the most delightful photos fitting your theme! Big bows were a big thing back then - obviously the bigger, the better. :)) I have old pictures of my family & my husband's featuring big bows.
ReplyDeleteThanks La Nightingale. It's a category I have sought for some time now, so there are lots of examples. Some even a bit over the top. (no pun intended ... well maybe a little.)
DeleteI thought only younger girls wore big bows, but it looks like I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteThanks Postcardy. I can only remember personally seeing younger children with them but there sure are plenty of photographs to show it was a major style for at least 20 years.
DeleteI bow to you ladies superior knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob Scotney. They seem to know what they're doing. I'd be all tied up in knots.
DeleteThis is one tangled knot of bows! It was quite interesting to see the variety - top, back, double, black, white, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhen do you suppose the fashion stopped? Must have caused a crash in the ribbon industry.
I remember that last photo and it was a good example to use for a demonstration.
Thanks Mike Brubaker. Hair bows must have been a strong fashion feature at one time for there are certainly a lot of photographs of them. I am not sure when the bow fashion faded but I am glad it did; they seem kind of a nuisance to me.
DeleteI never even noticed the bows! I wonder if that fashion will recycle. I hope not.
ReplyDeleteThanks Boobook. I agree with that! I probably would not have noticed them either but within the span of a few days I found the three portraits with huge bows shown in the second row above. Then I started watching for them. I was really amazed at how many I found. I hope they don't make a come-back either.
DeleteThat is a lot of bows! I think I'm glad the fashion faded. It wasn't everybody's best look.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristin. You are right. Some of these look sort of clown-like. I can't understand what made them so popular.
DeleteClearly I need to look more closely at the prompt photos, before thinking I have nothing to match! Bows are fine for pigtails or on little girls, but in a lot of those photographs those big ones just look odd, perching as they are either on top, behind or to the side of the subjects' heads!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo Featherston. I almost skipped it too. Then I noticed that ALL of the girls in the prompt had bows. Yes, I thought some on my page were very odd, overstated. Some looked more like their heads had sprouted wings.
DeleteI have a large collection of photos but I don't think I have any at all with bows like these. I must go and look now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jackie van Bergen. I bet you find some. It was an unexplainable fashion for a long time. (As if fashions in general were explainable.)
DeleteWhen I chose the prompt picture a few weeks ago I wondered if the big bows would feature in any posts, but I think yours is the only one, and a fine collection it is. I enjoyed the video too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Little Nell. It was an easy one for me. I already have a page in the gallery for big bows. Glad you enjoyed the vid.
DeleteI have a few photos of girls with big bows, but there are some CHAMPION-size bows in your collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy. When I found some of those photographs of girls with those huge bows I was really puzzled. I wondered if it were a joke or some stage costume like Baby Snooks (Fanny Brice) but as more and more photographs accumulated I realized it was a bonafide fashion. Some of them must have been really awkward.
Delete