Vintage Fashion
Fashion styles and vintage clothing throughout the decades that will inspire you, make you wish for those times again, or may make you ask "What were they thinking"?
Read more ☞
Clothing styles have obviously changed dramatically over the years. Some fashion trends like tight corsets to create teeny tiny waists are mainly out of favor now, while other fads return decade after decade. Hats for daily wear were in favor for centuries - now, the fanciest hat for most men and women is a baseball cap. And not only do styles change: the amount of clothing that we wear has changed over the centuries!
Modern media has a lot to do with the speed with which fads change today. In past centuries, the style of clothing was bound by what you could make at home - what materials you could weave and how you could sew those materials into durable everyday clothing. Until the mass production of clothing - beginning in the mid 1800's - fashion for the common person was defined by your own creativity and what you saw your neighbors wear. Today, celebrities and manufacturers create the trends and our choice can be limitless - we can follow the fad or we can wear vintage.
Some of the most elegant clothing styles - especially for evening wear - evolved in the movie environment of the 1920's through 1940's. These clothes, or parts of them, still look "modern" and "stylish" and you can see versions on them on the red carpet today. The evening tuxedo for men has its roots as far back as the 1800's and women's evening dresses became the rage around the same time. But as usual, the evening dress has had more iterations than men's fashions - while evening dresses are usually long, plunging necklines and the level of "bling" has changed.
Daywear has enjoyed even more extreme change. Hemlines above the knee? Shocking in the early 1900's - de riguer in the 1970's. "Bling" during the day? A real lady didn't wear anything bright or eye-catching - other than her wedding ring - during the day in the early 20th century. Now, rhinestones and big fake jewelry are everywhere. Real fur? Out! Real bird feathers in your hat? Out! Big hats? Too much trouble! Layers of underclothing? Too cumbersome! Scratchy fabrics - thank goodness we don't have to wear the materials of the past. But some styles keep reappearing: Sweetheart necklines, turtlenecks, dresses (mini or maxi), capris, shorts . . . the iterations may change but the basics don't.
Enjoy some photos of the fashions of the past centuries - and perhaps you can become your own fashion guru with their inspiration!
☜ Read less
Eva Brandt - found in a house in Volga IA.
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Jun 18, 2013 by: Lloydster Lloyd
Lloydster Lloyd
10 favorites
Topics:
Rachel Frankensztejn
Nationality: French (Jewish)
Residence: Paris, France
Death: 1942
Cause: Murdered (listed in Shoah memorial)
Age: 12 years
People in this photo:
Dec 6, 1930 - Aug 21, 1942
Added
May 29, 2013 by: Alyssa McIntosh
Alyssa McIntosh
1.03k+ favorites
Topics:
James Winfred Copeland, son of Fred Copeland. Early 1900s?
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Jan 31, 2013 by: Beatrice Huth
Beatrice Huth
45 favorites
Topics:
Mabel Lamb was born in Iowa Feb 9,1895 in Iowa. She was a daughter of William James Lamb and Lida Kelly. Mabel grew up in Stafford, Stafford County Kansas and was involved in the theatre in Chicago. This photo was taken March 12, 1946. It was given to her childhood friend Ethel Johnson, also from Stafford.
People in this photo:
Feb 9, 1895 - Unknown
Added
Jan 24, 2013 by: Karen Weir
Karen Weir
6 favorites
Topics:
This photo of a woman dressed as a carousel may have been a costume for Halloween - or it may have been just a fanciful costume for a photo shoot. The name of the woman is unknown, as is the date and place of the photo, but it's looks to be from the 1910's - and she looks like she has a lampshade on her head!
Added
Oct 26, 2012 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Famous silent film actress Theda Bara posing as Cleopatra in the 1917 film Cleopatra directed by J. Gordon Edwards.
Cleopatra 1917 was one of the first big budget Hollywood movies - costing over $500,000 and employing 2,000 people during the filming in 1916 - 1917. Of course Theda Bara was a famous actress in the early days of silent film, best known for her femme fatale roles and risqué clothing. Unfortunately, this film has been lost to time as less than one minute of footage lasts today.
People in this photo:
Jul 29, 1885 - Unknown
Added
May 14, 2012 by: Daniel Pinna
Daniel Pinna
6.29k+ favorites
Topics:
Unknown photo of a fashionable couple enjoying a Kentucky Derby. Not sure when this was taken - perhaps 1930's? The Kentucky Derby race has occurred every year since it's inception in 1875.
Added
May 6, 2012 by: Daniel Pinna
Daniel Pinna
6.29k+ favorites
Topics:
Edward Harrison Bell, conducting business in London, England in 1900.
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Feb 16, 2012 by: Roger Bell
Roger Bell
3 favorites
Topics:
Portrait of Regina M. Goellz, age 13 years, taken in 1917.
People in this photo:
1917 - Unknown
Orville Wright, Katherine Wright (sister of Orville), and William Wright in 1909.
Orville Wright, of course, was one of the "Wright Brothers." His sister took care of him throughout his life but when she decided to marry at age 51 (in 1926), he wouldn't speak to her. (Presumably, because she was "leaving him.") He didn't speak to her until over 2 years after her marriage when she contracted pneumonia and died. He was at her deathbed.
William Wright is not identified but there was a famous British aviator of this name and about the right age. This may be that man.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection
Added
Nov 22, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Stanley Kubrick took this photo for Look Magazine in 1949. A model is standing in an office, in bra and girdle, smoking a cigarette while a secretary looks on.
I really don't know the point of the photo since there is no mention of the article with which it was associated. Make up your own caption!
Photo courtesy of the the Library of Congress, Stanley Kubrick photographer.
Added
Oct 28, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Lithograph of hats designed in the Paris atelier of Madame Carlier in 1897. I know that shoes are the new hats but I kind of miss the days when hats were so much fun and so ubiquitous. The joke in the first half of the 20th century was when a woman was depressed, you could cheer her up by hat shopping.
The litho says that the models are Jane Harding, Baronne de Carlsberg, and Suzanne, actresses at the Gymnase theater (a theater in Paris that also trained young actors).
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, litho appeared in the Millinery Trade Review. New York
Added
Oct 28, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Born in the Netherlands in 1876, Grietje Zelle reinvented herself as Mata Hari in Paris in 1905. She began as a circus horse rider (and artist's model) in 1903 and moved on to become a famous exotic dancer. Many people believed that she wore a body stocking so she did not actually appear nude but the impression was that she was nude. She was also rather promiscuous and lost custody of her daughter because of her behavior.
People in this photo:
Aug 7, 1876 - Oct 15, 1917
Added
Oct 6, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
A postcard from around 1900 featuring a costume from the Folies Bergere in Paris. I can't figure out what the box sticking out from her bust is? Part of her act? I'm sure that this was a scandalous costume at the time!
Added
Oct 6, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Edna Loftus was a British music hall actress who died penniless of TB. (An obituary in The New York Times - June 17 1916 - said that if not for the intervention of friends, she would have been buried in Potter's Field.)
She was a colorful lady: The obit also said that she moved to the U.S. after divorcing her first husband (an American jockey, Winnie O'Connor) and married Harry A Rheinstrom in 1910. This was after she got a writ of habeas corpus to get him out of a sanitarium. When she died in 1916, she was rumored to be engaged to Lord Dunbarton.
Her life was a music hall play!
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Oct 6, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
This is just such a handsome family - not beautiful, just distinguished - in this family group photo. They were probably well-known in their day since this photo is by Harris & Ewing, a news organization in its day. They often took photos of politicians, so the father/husband could have been a politician or judge. No date for the photo was given but it looks to be 1908 - 1910 to me.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Harris & Ewing.
Added
Oct 4, 2011 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
3.04k+ favorites
Topics:
Amanda Elisabeth Snow-Selders
(1864–1892)
People in this photo:
Dec 31, 1864 - Dec 2, 1892
This is a photo of Nitza Vernille added by Shay Tobias on December 11, 2020.
People in this photo:
Sep 14, 1902 - July 1985
Added
Dec 11, 2020 by: Shay Tobias
Shay Tobias
28 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of René Eugène Hubert and Gloria Swanson added by Amanda S. Stevenson on December 10, 2020.
Added
Dec 10, 2020 by: Amanda S. Stevenson
Amanda S. Stevenson
11.4k+ favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of René Eugène Hubert added by Amanda S. Stevenson on December 10, 2020.
People in this photo:
Oct 7, 1895 - May 31, 1976
Added
Dec 10, 2020 by: Amanda S. Stevenson
Amanda S. Stevenson
11.4k+ favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Coco Chanel added by Amanda S. Stevenson on December 5, 2020.
People in this photo:
Aug 19, 1883 - Jan 10, 1971
Added
Dec 5, 2020 by: Amanda S. Stevenson
Amanda S. Stevenson
11.4k+ favorites
Topics:
Added
Nov 26, 2020 by: Marlene Hontz
Marlene Hontz
74 favorites
Topics:
Agness Belle Weir
People in this photo:
February 1842 - May 6, 1907
Added
Nov 26, 2020 by: Marlene Hontz
Marlene Hontz
74 favorites
Topics:
Photograph taken at a professional photographic studio.
People in this photo:
Feb 19, 1870 - Nov 20, 1955
This is a photo of Mildred Mable (Phelps) Berry added by Danney Palleschi Donovan on October 26, 2020.
People in this photo:
Jun 8, 1909 - Jun 8, 1995
Added
Oct 26, 2020 by: Danney Palleschi Donovan
Danney Palleschi Donovan
64 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Rose (Friedman) Frank added by Ellen Terry Friedman on September 25, 2020.
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Sep 25, 2020 by: Ellen Terry Friedman
Ellen Terry Friedman
34 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 23, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 18, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of 1891 Young Boy Portrait added by Jesse Dean Williams on September 17, 2020.
Added
Sep 17, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 17, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Unidentified British Band added by Jesse Dean Williams on September 11, 2020.
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
Added
Sep 11, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Clara M (Houser) Walicki added by Angie Geneloni on September 8, 2020.
People in this photo:
Oct 25, 1917 - Dec 16, 2012
Added
Sep 8, 2020 by: Angie Geneloni
Angie Geneloni
30 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Unknown Laughing Woman added by Jesse Dean Williams on September 5, 2020.
Added
Sep 5, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Bert Okla Williams added by Jesse Dean Williams on September 2, 2020.
People in this photo:
Oct 31, 1902 - Jan 30, 2000
Added
Sep 2, 2020 by: Jesse Dean Williams
Jesse Dean Williams
302 favorites
Topics:
A 1954 photo of Grace Kelly in one of her costumes for the movie "Rear Window". The movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and also starred Jimmy Stewart.
People in this photo:
Nov 12, 1929 - Sep 14, 1982
Added
Sep 1, 2020 by: Kathy Pinna
Kathy Pinna
27.2k+ favorites
Topics:
Her picture she took for my grandpa, she said he needed a “pin up” photo so he wouldn’t forget her.
People in this photo:
Dec 25, 1921 - Aug 10, 1998
Added
Aug 26, 2020 by: Amanda Peaden
Amanda Peaden
4 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Deborah C. (Meeker) Rulison added by Brigette Meeker on July 25, 2020.
People in this photo:
Jun 8, 1835 - Aug 28, 1910
Added
Jul 25, 2020 by: Brigette Meeker
Brigette Meeker
3.82k+ favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Carolyn Gargano added by Craig Gargano on July 25, 2020.
People in this photo:
Aug 23, 1938 - January 1977
Added
Jul 25, 2020 by: Craig Gargano
Craig Gargano
4 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of on the left Alyce M (Patenaude) Chase on the right her twin sister Bertha M. (Patenaude) Meade added by Brigette Meeker on June 18, 2020.
Added
Jun 18, 2020 by: Brigette Meeker
Brigette Meeker
3.82k+ favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Dora O. (Patenaude) Mahoney added by Brigette Meeker on June 18, 2020.
People in this photo:
Apr 3, 1900 - Apr 11, 2003
Added
Jun 18, 2020 by: Brigette Meeker
Brigette Meeker
3.82k+ favorites
Topics:
Portrait of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley - the dressmaker to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Born into slavery in 1818, in November 1855 she purchased her and her son's freedom in St. Louis Missouri.
She later moved to Washington D.C. where she began a dressmaking business employing 20 seamstresses who provided fashion to the wives of elite politicians including Varina Davis (wife of Jefferson Davis), Mary Anna Custis Lee (wife of Robert E. Lee) and of course the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
People in this photo:
February 1818 - May 26, 1907
Added
Jun 17, 2020 by: Daniel Pinna
Daniel Pinna
6.29k+ favorites
Topics:
Elizabeth Keckley- dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. She was born into slavery and became a successful seamstress, civil activist, author and dressmaker to the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
People in this photo:
February 1818 - May 26, 1907
Added
Jun 17, 2020 by: Daniel Pinna
Daniel Pinna
6.29k+ favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Lida Hennacy Drummond added by Andrea Fazio Fox on May 28, 2020.
People in this photo:
1907 - 1985
Added
May 28, 2020 by: Andrea Fazio Fox
Andrea Fazio Fox
103 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Diane Fazio added by Andrea Fazio Fox on May 27, 2020.
People in this photo:
1936 - Jan 5, 1999
Added
May 27, 2020 by: Andrea Fazio Fox
Andrea Fazio Fox
103 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Alfreda Elizabeth (Lowman) Corbett added by Yasmin Finlay on March 27, 2020.
People in this photo:
1888 - 1941
Added
Mar 27, 2020 by: Yasmin Finlay
Yasmin Finlay
20 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Elizabeth Wasilok added by Michael De Mat on March 23, 2020.
People in this photo:
Unknown - Unknown
Added
Mar 23, 2020 by: Michael De Mat
Michael De Mat
24 favorites
Topics:
This is a photo of Therdra L Stonemetz added by Paul Cook on February 21, 2020.
Added
Jan 27, 2020 by: Roxy Triebel
Roxy Triebel
1.32k+ favorites
Topics:
Added
Jan 27, 2020 by: Roxy Triebel
Roxy Triebel
1.32k+ favorites
Topics:
Unidentified photo found in an antique store - seated woman with parasol and handbag.
Added
Jan 27, 2020 by: Roxy Triebel
Roxy Triebel
1.32k+ favorites
Topics:
Added
Jan 27, 2020 by: Roxy Triebel
Roxy Triebel
1.32k+ favorites
Topics:
