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Forgotten fashions: rediscovered slides show off everyday flair from the Fifties and beyond


The latest book from artist Lee Shulman, who has created the world’s largest private collection of amateur colour transparencies, has an often startling sartorial focus

When Lee Shulman received the box of vintage slides he had bought from an anonymous seller, the British visual artist and film-maker could not believe the treasure he had accidentally uncovered. Free of formal chapters, the book’s structure instead moves fluidly between sartorial and swimwear, colours and patterns, young and old, couples and groups, holiday and work, male and female, weddings and workwear. Fashion advertisements from the period not only serve as loose markers for each theme, but when paired opposite photographs featuring the promised look they deepen our contextual understanding of these quotidian lifestyle shots.

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Fifties