20 Fascinating Vintage Photos of Katharine Hepburn Wearing Wide-Leg Pants

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003)

When Katharine Hepburn shunned the girdles, petticoats, stockings, garter belts, and high heels considered “normal” for women of her time, she was brazenly defying fashion and social convention. Hepburn wore pants. She even wore sneakers. The American actress preferred comfort, opting instead for easy tailored trousers which became as well-remembered as her roles in Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen.

For a woman to be wearing trousers in the 1930s was a sure sign of rebellion. Speaking of her lifelong love of the trouser suit in 1986, she told The New York Times: “In England I’m sure they didn’t think anything at all… In California I think they just thought I was queer.”

Hepburn had her suits made by Eddie Schmidt, the Beverly Hills tailor who also stitched for Clark Gable and Spencer Tracey, Hepburn’s long-term partner. She was impartial to a neat dolman shoulder, and when in London, she stopped by H. Huntsman and Sons on Saville Row, where one tailor joked that she liked trousers three sizes too big, so they “billowed like ship’s sails as she walked”.

In older age, Hepburn wore men’s turtlenecks, starched white shirts, suede clogs and occasionally, Nike trainers – always achieving that enviable feat of comfort and poise combined. That’s not forgetting her love of slacks – a collection of her clothes, donated to Kent State University, Ohio after her death in 2003 contains 30 pairs of custom-made pairs in various shades of tan.

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20 Amazing Black and White Self-Portraits by Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present a dizzying kaleidoscopic mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. She was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine. “Under this mask, another mask,” the artist famously said. “I will never be finished removing all these faces.”

Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France on October 25, 1894 to a prominent Jewish family, she would later attend the University of Paris, Sorbonne. Her first recorded self-portraits are dated as early as 1912, when the artist was about 18. In the early 1920s, she would change her name to the gender neutral Claude Cahun, which would be the third and last time the artist changed her name.

Along with step-sister and lover Marcel Moor, she moved to Paris and fell into the milieu of the Surrealist art scene. The artist went on to collaborate with Man Ray, as well as founding the left-wing group Contre Attaque alongside Georges Bataille.

In the late 1930s, Moore and Cahun moved to Jersey, an island off the coast of Normandy, where they, disguised as non-Jews, they produced and distributed anti-Nazi propaganda. After being caught, imprisoned, and sentenced to death, they successfully escaped such a fate when Jersey was liberated by allies in 1945.

Cahun is considered to be a ground-breaking artist who fully embraced her gender fluidity long before the term came into use. Tragically, she never fully recovered from her maltreatment in prison and died on December 8, 1954 in Jersey, United Kingdom. Her work left a huge impression on photography and directly influenced contemporary photographers Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing, and Nan Goldin. Today, her works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.

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Vintage Black-and-White Photos Capture Life in Stockholm From the 1940s to 1950s

Karl Werner Edmund (KW) Gullers (1916-1988) was a renowned Swedish photographer. After working and studying with portrait photographer Jan de Meyere, in 1938 he started his own company, which he operated for forty years. In addition to numerous pictures and articles he contributed to a series of Swedish and foreign journals such as Picture Post, Se, Vi, Allers, Gullers made 100 photobooks in both colour and black-and-white. He was the first Swedish photojournalist to have a solo exhibition in Sweden, following international exhibitions in major cities including London, New York, and Chicago.

A young couple at a cafe table.

Below are 35 black-and-white photographs capture people and their life in Stockholm from the 1940s to 1950s, courtesy of the Nordic Museum:

Taxi drivers outside the Grand Hotel.

The window of Sturehof restaurant decorated with a large crayfish.

A man sitting on a bollard and reading a newspaper. Stockholm City Hall and Riddarfjärden in the background.

Housewife gymnastics at Zinkensdamm's sports ground, Södermalm.

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Beautiful Life of Portugal in 1977 Through Fascinating Photos

The oldest nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, Portugal is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe, being bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The official and national language is Portuguese.

Portugal in 1977 by Eric Huybrechts

Portugal has left a profound cultural, architectural and linguistic influence across the globe, with a legacy of around 250 million Portuguese speakers, and many Portuguese-based creoles. It is a developed country with an advanced economy and high living standards.

Additionally, this country is highly placed in rankings of moral freedom (2nd), peacefulness (3rd), democracy (7th), press freedom (10th), stability (15th), social progress (18th), and prosperity (26th). A member of the United Nations and the European Union, Portugal was also one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

These fascinating photos were captured by Eric Huybrechts that documented everyday life of Portugal in 1977.

Coimbra. Rio Mondego

Figueira da Foz

Foz-do-Arelho

Guarda. A shy little girl

Guarda. Watching the time go by...on a stone

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30 Rare and Candid Photographs Capture Jackie Kennedy on Vacation in Ravello, Italy During the Summer of 1962

It was the legendary summer of 1962 when Jacqueline Kennedy, US’s first lady, chose Ravello for her Italian holiday, wisely recommended by the American writer and distant relative, Gore Vidal. She stayed for three weeks, from the 8th to 31st of August in “Palazzo Episcopio”, an ancient building owned by the Dukes of Sangro and former residence of King Vittorio Emanuele III. Jackie arrived with her son John John, her daughter Caroline and her sister and brother in law.

Despite White House instructions that the stay should be low key, the holiday inevitably attracted huge interest. On arrival Jackie was met by the mayor of Ravello, a band and a decorated town. For three weeks, the First Lady was snapped by the paparazzi while sailing, dining, swimming, water skiing, barefoot dancing the twist and cha cha, experiencing the sites of the area and generally epitomizing La Dolce Vita.

During the stay, she was hosted by L’Avvocato, the equally stylish, famously wealthy and wildly promiscuous Gianni Agnelli. When she left, she said she would return with her husband; a promise never fulfilled due to his murder a year later.

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Portraits of the Children of Tsar Nicholas II After Having Their Heads Shaved, 1917

Early in January 1917, Grand Duchess Olga and Tsarevich Alexei were outside playing in the snow with a young cadet, who unknowingly had measles himself. The siblings had the misfortune to contract this disease. It later spread to the rest of the sisters.

After recovering from this illness, the medicine (primitive compared to today) used for treatment caused their hair to slowly fall out. Eventually, in the late Spring of 1917, they decided to shave all of their head in order to help it regrow faster. The girls’ hair grew to reach their shoulders by the time they were killed in July 1918.

50 Beautiful Photos of Dany Saval in the Late 1950s and ’60s

Born 1942 as Danielle Nadine Suzanne Savalle in Paris, former French actress Dany Saval began as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge and had her first film role in Les tricheurs (Young Sinners), a film by Marcel Carné released in 1958.

Saval’s career flourished during the late 1950s and 1960s. Best known in America as one of a trio of airline stewardesses being shuffled around by Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis in the slapstick comedy Boeing Boeing, in which she played alongside Thelma Ritter, Christiane Schmidtmer, and Suzanna Leigh.

Dany Saval retired from the film and entertainment business in the late 1980s. She has a daughter named Stephanie Jarre (daughter of Maurice Jarre, her first husband), and currently resides in Paris with her second husband, Michel Drucker.

Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portrait of young Dany Saval in the late 1950s and 1960s.

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43 Vintage Posters Promoting Americans During the Great Depression and WWII

A set of interesting photos from Britt Fuller that show vintage posters from the Works Progress Administration which was an agency of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Vintage posters promoting Americans during the Great Depression and WWII

WPA artists designed and produced these posters to promote New Deal initiatives during the Great Depression and continued to produce posters during WWII to contribute to the war effort.

A WPA poster promoting New Deal Art programs, circa 1937

A Works Progress Administration Poster for statewide Library Project, 1937

Make It Safe: A safety poster created by the Works Progress Administration, circa 1938

Poster for Federal Music Project announcing free instruction in music, 1938

Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation of “Myra Kinch and Group” in a concert of modern dance at the Hollywood Playhouse, showing a dancer flinging her skirt wide, 1938

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25 Fascinating Retro Photos of the Roxette in the 1980s and 1990s

Roxette was a Swedish pop rock duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson (1958 – 2019, vocals and keyboards) and Per Gessle (1959, vocals and guitar). Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act in the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough album Look Sharp! Their third album Joyride, which was released in 1991, became just as successful as its predecessor. Roxette went on to achieve nineteen UK Top 40 hits and several US Hot 100 hits, including four US number-ones with “The Look”, “Listen to Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love”, featured on the soundtrack of Pretty Woman, and “Joyride”.

Before coming together to form the duo, Fredriksson and Gessle were already established artists in Sweden, she having released a number of solo albums and he being the lead singer and songwriter of Gyllene Tider, a band that had three No. 1 albums. On the advice of the managing director of their record label, the two came together to record “Neverending Love”, which became a hit single in Sweden.

After the release of Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, a greatest hits record, the duo took a hiatus before returning with the albums Have a Nice Day (1999) and Room Service (2001). They continued to chart in other territories, mainly in Europe and Latin America, where they earned various Gold and Platinum awards until the beginning of the new millennium. In 2002, the duo took a break from recording and touring when Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Gessle went on to release solo albums and reunited with Gyllene Tider before Roxette took to the stage together again for the first time in eight years, in 2009, during Gessle’s European Party Crasher tour. In 2011, they released Charm School, their first studio album in ten years, which was followed by Travelling in 2012. Their final studio album, Good Karma, was released in 2016.

Their songs “It Must Have Been Love” and “Listen to Your Heart” continue to receive wide radio airplay, with both singles recently receiving awards from BMI for achieving five million radio plays. They have sold an estimated 75 million records worldwide, with over 10 million in certified units from Germany, the US and the UK, achieving gold and platinum certifications for Joyride and Look Sharp! in all three regions. They are Sweden’s second-best-selling music act after ABBA.