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Saturday, August 14, 2021
Sports
It's sports day on the blog, and we begin with two outdoor handball players.
I played both handball and racquetball when I was younger, and while it might have been fun to do it naked...I took a few in the nuts that REALLY would have been awful without a jock. They were bad enough with a strap.
I've found some clothing! The sandals... These, in soft leather - often goatskin - were originally with light, narrow straps plaited over the ankles to the calf and were inspired by Greek illustrations of athletes. With growing education, the mid- to late-Victorian period underwent what was known as the Classical Revival, and with growing urbanization and prosperity, towns as well as universities and colleges built gymnasia imitating the Greeks, and where Classical clothing also informed early gymnastic sportswear. I would put quite an early date on this photograph, despite its quality. The above game would have been an unsurprising sight up until perhaps the Great War. It looks like an outdoor court and so I would hazard it is perhaps part of a military complex or, alternatively, a health spa.
Thank you so very much. I'm glad you appreciated it. More years ago than I prefer to remember, I did some brand marketing for a well-known international sportswear manufacturer which ran a full series on the history of sportswear - including the development of materials. It turned out to be a vast undertaking, mostly for social reasons. I ploded through THOUSANDS of photographs to establish the narrative and so I got a lot of practice at analysing and dating them - although of course I made mistakes.
Jerry, the hairstyles are the final clincher. Hair went shorter circa the turn of the century, but didn't become anything we would call short until WWI with the Prussian Cut, as a result of vermin in the trenches. Hairstyles changed but by and large remained very cropped until the 1960s, but that "full" look only came back into fashion in the mid-1970s with the "executive cut" which allowed corporate executives to look as if they didn't just listen to Andy Williams.
10 comments:
I played both handball and racquetball when I was younger, and while it might have been fun to do it naked...I took a few in the nuts that REALLY would have been awful without a jock. They were bad enough with a strap.
I've found some clothing! The sandals... These, in soft leather - often goatskin - were originally with light, narrow straps plaited over the ankles to the calf and were inspired by Greek illustrations of athletes. With growing education, the mid- to late-Victorian period underwent what was known as the Classical Revival, and with growing urbanization and prosperity, towns as well as universities and colleges built gymnasia imitating the Greeks, and where Classical clothing also informed early gymnastic sportswear. I would put quite an early date on this photograph, despite its quality. The above game would have been an unsurprising sight up until perhaps the Great War. It looks like an outdoor court and so I would hazard it is perhaps part of a military complex or, alternatively, a health spa.
True, that.
I hadn't noticed the sandals, and thought the photo was mid-20th C. Thanks for clarification and interesting details.
Calorman, thanks for your interesting & highly credible analysis.
I always wear a hard cup playing any projectile sport.
Thank you so very much. I'm glad you appreciated it. More years ago than I prefer to remember, I did some brand marketing for a well-known international sportswear manufacturer which ran a full series on the history of sportswear - including the development of materials. It turned out to be a vast undertaking, mostly for social reasons. I ploded through THOUSANDS of photographs to establish the narrative and so I got a lot of practice at analysing and dating them - although of course I made mistakes.
A wise precaution.
Jerry, the hairstyles are the final clincher. Hair went shorter circa the turn of the century, but didn't become anything we would call short until WWI with the Prussian Cut, as a result of vermin in the trenches. Hairstyles changed but by and large remained very cropped until the 1960s, but that "full" look only came back into fashion in the mid-1970s with the "executive cut" which allowed corporate executives to look as if they didn't just listen to Andy Williams.
It may have been the hair (along with the tech quality) that threw me off. Thanks!
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