GETTY IMAGES
1935 THE ‘GIRAFFE WOMEN’
A local London bobby comes to the rescue of this group of Kayan Lahwi, from Myanmar, as they explore the city, while trying to ignore the bemused stares of the bowler-wearing men they pass. They have been invited to Britain to star in ever-popular circuses, advertised as ‘giraffe women’. Despite the name, the brass coils they wear – the older the woman, the more rings she has – don’t actually lengthen their necks, but push down on their collar bones.