r/OnlyHereforthefun

This wonderfully chaotic hand-colored etching, “We Have the Exhibition to Examine,” captures a crowded art exhibition where the paintings almost seem secondary to the enormous bonnets, elaborate dresses, and fashionable spectators packed into the gallery.

Created by British caricaturist William Heath (also known as “Paul Pry”) and dated 1810–1840, the scene pokes fun at fashionable society and the spectacle of attending exhibitions. One of the captions even jokes about seeing a “Revolution among the Bonnets.”

Apparently, struggling to see over someone’s giant hat at a public event is a problem with a very long history.

I came across this fantastic 1955 piece called “Color Crazy” in the Science History Institute collection, and I’ve been digging into the people behind it.

The photographs were taken by Leslie Gill (1908–1958), a well-known commercial and fashion photographer. The text on the second page is credited to Nancy Wieler.

Wieler turns out to have been a fashion writer/editor associated with McCall’s magazine in the early 1950s. She had fashion articles published there by at least 1952, and by 1954 she was actually listed on the magazine’s fashion staff. One of her other credited pieces was a 1954 fashion feature called “She Chooses Water Colors.”

“Color Crazy” itself focuses on the explosion of color in mid-century fashion—particularly hosiery, nylon, synthetic textiles, and coordinating clothing colors. It’s a great little snapshot of how synthetic materials and increasingly bold colors were being marketed to women in the 1950s.

The Science History Institute dates the piece to 1955 and preserves it as a two-page advertising/fashion work. I haven’t yet found definitive proof of which magazine originally published “Color Crazy,” although Wieler’s connection to McCall’s makes that an interesting possibility.

There also seems to be surprisingly little biographical information online about Nancy Wieler beyond her fashion work, so I’d love to hear from anyone who recognizes the name or knows more about her career.