Monday,
April 3, 2017
9:30am
Whether wearing starched collars, handlebar mustaches or plaid, the people of Worthington have always been stylish. Lace up your boots for a stroll through a gallery of fashions from decades past.
Although 19th century life in Worthington was rugged, its residents nonetheless posed for photographs and portraits in the dapper fashions of the day. An 1840 portrait of Olive Loring shows her wearing a fine dress and sporting a hairstyle known as "Victoria loops.” It is at about this time that milliners arrived in Worthington, freeing women to purchase their own clothes rather than make them.
Later years saw hemlines and hairstyles rise and fall. A sweeping group portrait from about 1900 shows 16 young women in lacy dresses with their hair styled into Gibson Girl bouffants. A couple of decades later, members of the girls’ high school basketball team sport Jazz Age bob hairdos.
Men’s fashion has also undergone some dramatic changes over the years. From the horn-rimmed glasses and buzz haircuts of the 1950s to the plaid jackets and loud ties of the 1970s, Worthington’s gentlemen have kept up with the latest styles.
As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, what striking new fashions await us? Perhaps it’s time to revive some of the looks of bygone decades—minus the corsets!