What an enjoyable class I attended on Thursday, September 27th! It was one of OLLI’s brown bag lunch talks led by Bette Sherman. She took a large group of us on an enjoyable “car ride” (via a slide of her mother’s 1960 Lincoln Continental convertible) downtown for “a glance back at what we wore and where we shopped” from approximately 1910 to 1960.
Bette, a fashion historian, shared wonderfully amusing and informative stories as she showed the audience vintage clothing, accessories, and other collectibles. Do any of you remember sunglasses that stayed on your face because of chains that wrapped around your ears and were tipped with earrings? Or maybe a large rubber girdle to create your ideal shape and hold up your stockings? Our great-grandmothers might have had a favorite hat with a dead bird on top of it (yes, they wore those) or enjoyed using “flirting fans” that had mirrors on them, allowing a lady to see if any gentlemen were observing her from behind!
Part of the fun for me was hearing Bette mention the downtown department stores, the elevators with operators, and the Camargo Room tearoom – as you all know, those things are right up my alley!
Bette was showing us hairstyle cutouts that women used to experiment with new looks before the era of apps that let you try out different styles.