This lovely lady is Vera McCloud.
I often wish the world in general put more effort into looking their best. Then again the world could say the same thing right back to me! At any rate, as much as I love the beautiful old dresses, I could not imagine how much work and preparation these women had to do to pull their look together.
Vera , for instance , is wearing fur, feathers, velvet, gloves, and an excessively buttoned dress! But she looks perfectly sweet. As my aunt likes to say, it’s the finished product that counts!
NYPL
old spirituals 
i’m spoiled. i look forward to the music. vera mccloud’s clothes are beautiful though
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I’m sorry I’ll try to find a good one for you next time
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This photograph is beautiful! I, too, wish people would dress a little better when on the job or just going out in the public. Some of these fashions look so burdensome, but it’s just what a person is used to and easy for them. I always think of Vivian Leigh as Scarlett being laced up by the wonderful Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind. Some of those garments are best left in the past.
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I wore a tie and jacket to school from Kindergarten through 12th Grade, so I appreciate your point about dress. Even in college we wore slacks and oxford shirts. During my early career in corporate America I was expected to report with a dress shirt, tie and jacket. Companies like GM and IBM only allowed white shirts. It was a seismic when both allowed blue, pale yellow and light pink shirts.
When casual dress became the standard of the day I felt like I was half-dressed not wearing a tie and jacket. Many called it progress. I call it decline.
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it’s a lot easier to get more relaxed with our standards, but raising them is another story!
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Scarlett O’Hara wore stays and corsets. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be! Not to mention hoop skirts. Just walking would require so much effort.
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Forgot to mention that the photo of Vera McCloud clearly is marked as a Moffett Studio photograph. Moffett was renowned for taking glamorous portraits, especially those of celebrities that it did without charge to build prestige and status.
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ooh that’s an interesting business strategy!
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