Jan 22, 2014 03:18 PM EST
It's Still 1950 Here: 'Rockabilly' People Adopt Retro Lifestyle

If you have an affinity for pencil skirts and retro furniture, you may be a member of the Rockabilly community.

Jennifer Greenburg, 36, an assistant professor of photography at Indiana University Northwest, has been photographing Rockabilly people around the country for more than a decade, the Daily Mail reported.

A community of sorts that comprises pockets of people throughout America, Rockabilly signifies people who drive perfectly preserved Cadillacs, decorate with "Mad Men"-esque furniture and otherwise live as if it's the 1950s.

Despite the beehive hairdos, leather jackets and high-waisted pants, the Rockabilly lifestyle isn't just about clothing.

"At first I thought the culture was about fashion," Greenburg told MailOnline. "Then I realized it was much, much, more than that. I realized that this was a culture of people who functioned as a community."

Rockabilly people, who hold diverse jobs and vary in their dedication to 1950s trends, exhibit a particular "joyous" quality modern life is sometimes missing, Greenburg said.

"Some participants make their living inside the culture, but most have the same gamut of jobs that all people have. There is no trend," Greenburg told MailOnline. "Some dress at work to blend into the general culture, some do not. Some have a hybrid way of dressing that is just toned down and not necessarily identifiable as 1950s."

What Rockabilly community members in all walks of life have in common is a desire for quality, expressed in "joyous" design and "beautiful" functionality.

"The middle of the 20th century in the United States was a time when design was in its heyday," Greeburg said. "Everything Americans owned at that time was designed, and made by, an industrial designer who labored over not only how things should function, but also over how things should look."

Back then, people purchased items carefully and mended things that were broken instead of instantly replacing them, Greenburg noted.

"We did not have a disposable 'Made in China' culture like we do now," she told MailOnline. "When you bought a toaster, it worked for decades, and it looked good just as long. If it broke, you had it repaired. You did not simply toss it into a landfill and head out to a big box store to buy another. . . Yes, even the toaster was joyous in its design."

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