New Year's Eve Dance at the Hotel Margaret Brooklyn, New York 1914

The description of every woman's gown is incredible. I feel like the writer lived in the neighborhood and knew all of them intimately.

Fashionable men at the time would have been dressed in the striped trousers and cutaway coats described in "Puttin On The Ritz".

But I see these younger folks wearing the slim suits that we usually associate with the 1920s.

While their skirts hadn't risen yet and the corset was still de rigueur, women were enjoying looser-fitting dresses,even in formal wear. You can see the "flapper" look starting to creep in, especially around the waist. 1914 formal wear:

By 1923, the flower was still there,but half of the fabric wasn't.

Sadly, the Hotel Margaret burned down in the 1980s. During the process of converting the hotel to apartments, a contractor left a heater on. The fire burned for ten days. Witnesses describe how the cold the night was and watching the copper trim melt and drip as the building was consumed.