On the Sunporch, 1959

Midcentury in Color Sunporches—a glassed in or screened in patio—are something I associate with the South. When I lived briefly in Florida as a child, the family TV was on the sunporch. My in-laws in North Carolina had one that wrapped halfway around the house. This one is fitted up like a comfortable room, with rattan furniture and a wall-to-wall carpet. These two women look like they are dressed up for a special occasion. Maybe there was a party going on. The one on the left wears a necklace and earrings. Her dress is low cut enough that it might have been set aside for evenings out. The woman on the right also wears a fancy dress, decorated with clips on the bodice. The only one in an everyday outfit is the collie. By 1959, dress styles were changing. Waistless designs like the chemise and the trapeze shape were coming out of Paris, marking a shift to the boxier looks of the sixties. These two women, however, stuck to the fit and flare silhouette of the fifties, although the dress…