Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday Video: A Fashionable Stroll Down Fifth Avenue, New York City, c 1910
Friday, January 27, 2012
Susan reporting:
After Loretta's recent post on the proper way to walk along a Parisian street, I thought I'd offer video proof of how stylish New Yorkers strolled the streets of Manhattan c 1910. (The YouTube caption says 1900, but from the clothes, I'm guessing closer to the years directly prior to Word War I. Take note, Downton Abbey fans!) At this time, Fifth Avenue was still the grandest street in New York, the address of choice for Vanderbilts and Astors. There's a glimpse of city traffic – a confusing mix of trolley cars, bicycles, and horse-drawn carriages – followed by scores of beautifully dressed men and women strolling along the sidewalk in the sunshine in their Sunday best.
Not only are the women wearing spectacular hats, but the men, too, all sport a variety of top-hats and bowlers. True, this is an affluent neighborhood, but I'm still impressed by how everyone, young and old, is dressed with an elegant formality that's impossible to imagine in our modern t-shirts-jeans-and-sweats world.
This is a very short film clip, and completely silent, so please feel free to imagine whatever music you please.
Above: New York City Street Scene Easter 1900 Clip posted to YouTube by historycomestolife.
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7 comments:
"Two Nerdy History Girls" has been included in this weeks Sites To See. I hope this helps to attract many new visitors here.
http://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2012/01/sites-to-see_27.html
Big hats, small handbags! :D Great posture too. No ladies slouching over 20 pound hobo bags then! ;)
Love it. Interesting how even back then you had annoying groups of people who would stand in the middle of the sidewalk chatting so everyone else had to walk around them.
What a great video! Sometimes when I see costume dramas part of me thinks they've made it up, people didn't *really* dress like that. But they did! Thanks so much for sharing.
I really wish people dressed up more today. I get tired of people looking as if they've stumbled out of bed and then onto the street. Thank you for sharing. That was a lot of fun.
This was great. I loved the clothes and the mix of traffic. Just watching this, I could imagine their lives.
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