Dressed To Impress The Anonymous Project

This captivating glimpse of real-life mid- century fashion features vintage color photographs taken by amateurs from the past seventy years.

In 2017 filmmaker Lee Shulman bought a random box of Kodachrome slides and was so taken by the people and stories he discovered that he decided to create an ongoing archive, which he has called The Anonymous Project.

Dressed to Impress, the most recent book to have come out of that endeavor, aims to preserve the collective memory of the way we lived in an increasingly distant past. It features more than two hundred vibrant, candid color slides, presented in stunning full-page spreads, that reflect how people dressed in all kinds of settings— at home and on vacation, playing and working, partying and hanging out.

The images have, for the most part, never been printed or published and their raw, unpolished quality makes them all the more fascinating and arresting. In turns funny, startling, and touching, this collection provides a unique and intimate glimpse into the fashion and everyday experiences of real people during a transformative period in our common history.

LEE SHULMAN is the founder and creative director of The Anonymous Project. For the last two decades he has worked as an award-winning filmmaker both in the UK and France. Previous Anonymous Project books include Midcentury Memories, On the Road, The House, and collaborations with artists such as Martin Parr and Omar Victor Diop.