Streetwalkers of a bygone era

These pictures, taken in 1912, show the ladies of the evening of New Orleans. It goes a long way to show how the standards of what is supposed to be provocative has changed in the last century. These ladies dress in completely different ways in different sectors of the industry – these women were photographed in private spaces in their rooms, while women who solicit on the street sometimes dress to signal that they are streetwalkers, as a kind of uniform, and some don’t. The differences often have little to do with societal standards of beauty