I just posted about Irene and Vernon Castle on my jazz dance blog, and couldn’t help but post a few photos of Irene Castle here also. She was a fashion visionary and trend setter in the 1910s. She wore cutting edge designs, and – as a dancer’s convenience – shortened her skirts and even bobbed her hair in 1915, long before it became de rigueur.

If you aren’t familiar with Irene and Vernon Castle, here’s a compilation I put together, with footage of the Castles, as well as clips from Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers’ tribute to them, the 1940s film, The Vernon & Irene Castle Story.