If you think the fashion trends of today are pretty wild, you had better take a moment to check out the weird shit they called fashion back in the early 1900s.
1. Shark Bone Canes
Canes were all the rage back in the early 1900s, and everyone, men and women, walked about the towns and cities holding their canes. After a short while, people became more creative with their canes. Sometimes women would hang their change purses from the top of their canes, called a cane purse, and other times people would decorate their canes with paint.
In 1916, a new cane fad hit the scene. It was the shark bone cane. For this rather ugly looking cane, a shark’s back bone was cleaned and made into a “novel” cane for men and women. Thank goodness this fashion never took off.
2. Forehead Watch
Someone must have gotten really bored one day and decided to come up with a fashion fad that made next to no sense.
In 1915, newspapers announced that the forehead watch was all the rage. It was simply a clock pendant attached to a headband. Of course, the wearer could not exactly read the time. She would have to seek out a mirror to see the clock face. If no mirror was readily available, she would have to ask a stranger to check the time for her, which defeated the whole purpose of wearing a watch in the first place.
3. Taking a Bird Cage for a Walk
Think you have heard it all? Not quite.
While heading outside to take a walk was always a popular thing to do in the early 1900s, some people went a little crazy with all the fresh air and it soon became a fashion trend to be seen walking around with a little bird cage.
“Real live birds” were being bought small, fashionable cages so that their ladies could plunk them inside and take them on a walk through the city.
4. Frame Your Face with Pearls
Back in 1916, an actress got rather bored with wearing her pearls around her neck like everyone else did, so she decided to try something different and it sadly became a fashion fad for awhile.
The whole idea involved wearing a pearl necklace around your face so that it framed it. The necklace, of course, had to be pinned in place and was no doubt annoying if one was trying to eat a meal, but it was all in the name of being unique and original. Never mind that wearing a necklace around your face looked stupid.
5. Fine Feathered Shoes
While ladies enjoyed wearing large feathers in their hats, another trend quickly followed: feathered shoes.
Women would attach large feathers to their shoes and as long as these ladies stayed indoors, the feathers looked rather peculiar. Stepping outside meant ruin to the feathers and, of course, fashion dictated that if you wore feathers on your shoes, you were not allowed to wear any feathers in your hat. They had to draw the line somewhere.
6. Wrist Pets
Unlike today where children carry around stuffed animals and have electronic “pets” attached to their fingers, women of the past preferred to carry around real pets.
Called “wrist pets,” it was the fashion in 1915 for women to carry around living small animals. Sure, monkeys were a common social pet to wear with your outfit, but in New York City, women preferred to “wear” kittens and baby bunnies.
7. Pet Armadillo
By 1920, regular wrist pets were out of style, but a new fad hit the scene in New York City: The Armadillo.
A silver screen actress picked one up in Florida and began carrying it around with her on the streets of New York. Soon, everyone wanted an armadillo, and they were carried around, while shopping, as a status symbol and a form of personal decoration.
8. Beau Under Your Eye
Keeping a picture of a boyfriend in a locket or watch was considered dull back in 1915. Instead, with the popularity of photography, women started doing something a tad bit different.
They would cut out pictures of their boyfriends and paste the pictures under their eyes so that the whole world could see who they were dating. It was said that the trend was “spreading like an epidemic,” but fortunately for us women today, the fad has long since faded from memory. On the other hand, it might have been a rather nifty way to see if anyone else was wearing your man on their face.
9. Paper Bows for Children
They did not have Etsy and Pinterest to gather some decent fashion ideas back in 1920, but they did have plenty of time on their hands and, apparently, plenty of newspaper.
The large paper bows photographed here were a trend that started in Washington, D.C. The girls were looking to start a trend for themselves (because starting trends was trendy) and came up with the idea of putting silly, large paper bows on the tops of their heads.
10. Painted Legs at the Beach
This old fashion trend was not too bad if you did not mind getting a weird suntan tattoo on your legs.
In 1916, newspapers announced that the latest fad among young women was to paint on their legs before heading to the beach. There was apparently a lot of rivalry among the girls over who could paint the best designs on their legs, but after going into the water, it all washed off.
