They say fashion never goes away. It always comes back a decade or two later. That might be true for some clothes and accessories, but today’s selection may be an exception.

We’ve often looked at the fantastic dresses of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. She poses for us again here in 1909. I can’t quite make out what is perched on her arm, but I remember an earlier picture where she posed with a parrot. Mrs. Whitney had a decided liking for a dramatic spectacle. I must admit, I love the sleeves of her dress.

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Portrait of photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf in 1898.

National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution

This 1919 photograph features Norma Talmadge in an extra-large velvet beret and a jacket with a beautiful trim.

Bygonely

The practical perils of fashion! This young woman was standing outside a savings bank in 1908. She looks lovely in her long white dress and tremendous feathered hat, but where to keep the money she withdrew? The solution was to insert her $5 in her gartered stocking!

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