1914 artist: will carrying canes ever go out of style? No, of course not, that’s insane. It’s pants that are a fad.
Don’t forget the great hat! I wouldn’t want to be seen without one.
Or the time consuming up-do
And a pipe, only a buffoon would walk into a museum without one
Ok, but it had to be difficult to imagine in 1914 that basically everyone in the 50s would be smoking cigarettes. The inciting incident for the change had begun (WW1), but it’s “they’re giving the soldiers shitty poor people tobacco so they can at least have some comfort and because it’s more logistically convenient than to give them pipes”. And idk if they had started issuing cigs yet in 14.
This is the equivalent of predicting that in the 2060s wealthy people about town will rather than enjoying a nice whiskey on their nights out or on a lovely night in, they’ll be (like everyone else) maintaining a solid drunkenness on malt liquor the majority of their waking life because the trump administration got so bad that it took free malt liquor to keep people productive in the majority of the developed world and now everyone there is an alcoholic with shit taste.
So imagine this but with a 40% obesity rate.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00404-9
Dozens of new obesity drugs are coming: these are the ones to watch
Next-generation obesity drugs will work differently from Ozempic and Wegovy — aiming to deliver greater weight loss with fewer side effects.
The 1950s can still happen!
Obesity in the 50’s was more like 10-15%, today it’s closer to 35%, but 40 is close enough.
Interestingly, the spike started in the mid-1980’s, timed too closely to the low-fat craze to not make me suspicious, especially since that adds up metabolically.
Yeah, many products had (and still have) reduced fat but added sugar. Sugar belongs in desserts in my opinion. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat.
Pretty sure fat digests pretty easily for humans, while we are omnivores we lean more towards the carnivore side of things. Remember our big evolutionary advantage is our ability to throw things good and just keep walking, persistence hunting was our big fuck you advantage.
Another advantage that we developed later on is our ability to seamlessly shift from small to big team organizations, sometimes working without any apparent hierarchy. Gobleki Tepe is one of the prime examples of prehistoric cities
Too bad the world as a whole kinda stuck with super rigid top down hierarchies for the past 500 years
Eating sugar doesn’t either unless you’re at a calorie surplus but yeah sugar does mess with you hormonally in a way that you’re more likely to put yourself at a calorie surplus vs fats.
You’re just not going to the right clubs.
clearly
It seems like futuristic utopia fashion predictions always feature less clothing. Whether something like this or sci-fi like Star Trek TNG.
Maybe, they’re prescient shades of the coming global warming or people’s imaginations are just unavoidably horny.
Well the first problem is we let the abrahamic religions control the media.
Processed food killed that immediately.
Huh. So, on another timeline, without WWII getting in the way, society just goes straight to Burning Man. I like it.
Nowadays burning man is just like the tech bros corporate retreat, so if it’s today’s burning man we just skipped some steps toward technofeudalism
Its actually surprisingly on par considering the clothing at the time. The bikini came about in the late 40’s and the miniskirt was around by the late fifties although the term had not been coined.
Sort of correct? At least the lady is pretty spot on, summer dress, short skirt. The hair is a bit extravagant but we did have more pompous hair styles in the 50s and 60s. The only thing that seems out of place is the bow but not by a lot
The guy is ridiculous of course. Well at least the outfit. Because looking at today’s rapers with their crazy tattoos …
Rappers. It’s rappers. Two P’s. Please. Rap per.
Its not remotely correct if you compare it to 1950 instead of 2025. In fact that outfit is closer to a 20s flapper outfit than anything, but then the flappers had short hair, not super-updos
The guy is just a straight up quasi-indigenous-esque look, which is pretty spot on for fetishization of that type of stuff that was prevalent at the time this was drawn (and thereafter)
The man’s look reminds me of European court dress from previous centuries, but…less of it.
Why was a cane ever considered essential accessory? Was it related to needing a weapon?
It’s a device that can be made fancy and beautiful that serves as a weapon when needed, and is an assistive device for the disabled. We’re talking 1914, so it’s not the most disabled the men of the western world have been, but four years later will be.
And even without the war, you’re in a time where there’s no joint replacement, and there’s a lot of people with injuries from industrial accidents and people who’ve had diseases of industrialization. You have the beginnings of recreational sport (a good way to get injured if you don’t know how to prevent it) and not much other exercise except walking places. The newfangled “safety bicycle” is still a death trap by modern standards but compared to a pennyfarthing without pneumatic wheels it earns its name. Also there’s no antibiotics so you’ve got a lot more people sporting a single leg than in modern times, especially if you’re in America where veterans of the Civil war are still around at the time.
I think navigating an urban landscape a century ago was just generally more challenging than it is now.
Having a stick to fend off rats, dogs, or livestock would be essential.
Also muddy streets, gutters etcetera, are easier to navigate with a walking stick.
Finally just carrying a cool stick around with you while you conduct your affairs doesn’t seem terrible. I find myself kinda wishing it was still a thing.
Why isn’t a cane considered an essential accessory? We could all use personal lightsabers at all times.
I think I know why we stopped using canes. Also from the depth of my madness I just remembered that Dudley in had a cane in the Harry Potter books.
Weapon, balance wet cobblestone streets, ease on your legs from a long day waiting on the trolley. Pick upreach device. Also, another thing for people to sell, i.e. hat, pocket watch, bracelet, necklace, etc… that’s mostly what “fashion” and “fads” are, a new gimmick to sell and distract people from the horror of everyday life.
Seriously though, a walking stick while hiking is a game changer. I’m not talking ski poles, those are mostly useless outside light balance stuff. I do so much with my walking staff and have never had a fall or trip while on the trail. A third leg can be a godsend sometimes, especially in muddy swampy sections. Creek crossings are a breeze.
At some point in the 19th century and maybe towards the early 20th century a cane was a common accessory for well-to-do individuals even if they never needed it.
The first ever mixed martial arts system, bartitsu, made heavy use of walking canes as weapons specifically because of how often people carried them.
Pretty sure that’s woodstock, so ten years off
19*
Hippies be hippying before the festivities
Spot on the predicted climate change.
They were off by a few decades. The 80’s didn’t want to let this guy down
Egad, a woman smoking? Such depravity does not bode well for 1950.
But no tattoos or body paint on the women that would be too much!
One thing I fucking love about this is the man’s hat. Like it fits so well with his speedo/loincloth thing it is perfect. The artist probably had a lot of fun with that.
