Old Montreal style

Montreal is a stylish city, that's for sure. OK so it's not Milan or Paris, but it's still lively and great. I keep getting pleasantly surprised and inspired by the way women (and men!) dress on the street. I would say it's usually more about being put together than it is about originality, but that's an awesome start already.

I'm not going to start posting pics here, but rather use that as a detour to present my absolute favorite Instagram feed: oldmontreal, which publishes archive photos from The Gazette (the local daily English paper) of the city in times past. Each one of them is a true gem, whether of streets and places that don't exist anymore, of the daily life (trams! kids playing in large mounds of debris!), of the construction of landmarks and buildings which are now part of our landscape...

There's also the people, and, by extension, the fashion. Which is just fascinating. I guess it's always been a stylish city.

1905

1910s

1920

1930

1940

(This is Victoria bridge, which we take every day. It's a railway bridge, which back then had a walkway on a each side of the tracks... Now it's a narrow and somewhat awkward lane for cars.)

1940s

Ste-Catherine St. in 1942

1955

1961 (A sultry belly dancer who was arrested for obscenity)

Ms. Taylor arriving at the Montreal airport in 1964

1960s

1967 was an extremely important year for Montreal, because of the Expo.

The Queen visited...

And so did Petula Clark.

And finally, the hostesses.

Let's not forget about them! 1969