Shelby-Utica News | Published April 20, 2026
SHELBY TOWNSHIP — In this photo, pictured left, from 1925, Josephine Switzer and Ethel Messmore stand outside a barn in the old village of Disco in Shelby Township. They are wearing hats and dresses that are typical of fashion in the 1920s. While not the flamboyant high style usually associated with the Gatsby era, these everyday dresses feature the drop waist, the hemline just below the knee, and the loose top that were considered fashionable back then. Note also the cloche hats, which hug the head and hide much of the wearer’s face.
In the 1930s, women’s fashion shifted to a more feminine style with longer, slimmer dress lines and smaller, more face-revealing hats such as seen in this photo, pictured right, from 1933. Here Mrs. Lucile Vincent, wife of Packard Proving Grounds manager Charles Vincent, models the latest in women’s fashion along with her three daughters in front of the Gate Lodge at the Proving Grounds. Note that the two older Vincent women wear dresses that are in a more feminine style with higher, accentuated waist lines, longer mid-calf hemlines, and rounder necklines. And note the hats that reveal more of the wearer’s face. The four Vincent women are, from left, Lucile, Cornelli, Dorothea, and Roberta (front).
— Hilary Davis, Shelby Township Historical Committee