Associative clothing 1: my Florentine skirt

I am going to start a new series of posts in which a particular garment will have a specific association with a person, place or thing. Sometimes I see a piece of clothing and think immediately of somebody who might have worn it. I begin with the skirt I bought at a market on Piazza San Spirito in Florence Italy. I wasn't able to photograph a woman who had walked by that morning wearing more or less the same style skirt, a classic style that is tight at the waist and wide at the bottom, and my memory of the colors is probably distorted, but I seem to recall that she was wearing an ochre color skirt and a lime green top.

I wasn't able to photograph myself in the skirt when I was still in Italy, so I did a sort of reenactment.  I remembered a photograph taken in the 1950s of a woman wearing something of a similar length and simplicity. It was easy to find by Googling key words "1950s woman Florence photo." It turns out to be by Ruth Orkin from 1951. It is a wonderful photograph, and this blog by her daughter explains some of the context. I want to know more of course: was the photo staged (it seems to be)? How was it to be a woman walking the streets of Florence in 1951? Where exactly was the photo taken?

I find that each city in Italy has its preferred summer look: in Florence, it was the longish puffy skirts and short sleeve blouses, in Milan, long tent dresses seemed more popular. 

Meanwhile, my favorite fashion blog, the sartorialist, posted this image of Georgio Armani. I especially love what the model in the background is wearing... I realize that this is a non sequitur, but I wanted to post it anyway.