After watching only part of the VMAs this year (because to watch all of it would have been the ultimate test of patience), I couldn’t help but wonder how royally we have screwed up the definition of the word “edgy”. Because if we find Miley Cyrus’s awkward, high-school’ish antics or Nicki Minaj’s daring wardrobe “edgy” then we have no concept of where the word originated from or what brought about its existence in the first place.

So let me take you back in time when women kept the “classy” alive and well without the urge to bare it all. Watch how the world’s perception of the word “edgy” has changed and how fashion has evolved over the years.

via Harper’s Bazaar

Simone D’Aillencourt in Lower Manhattan, 1950s

Paris

On the street in Paris, from a shoot that first appeared in Harper’s BAZAAR in the 1950s

New York, 1960

Muriel Oxford Dorville

Models pose in Pierre Cardin looks, 1980

Model Shakira Caine in West London, 1976

London

London, 1971

Jill Leslie and Patricia Donald Smith wear Dior, 1966

House of Worth evening suits, 1969

Christian Dior coats

A woman wearing snakeskin waistcoat, 1971

A woman wearing Chanel, 1980

A model poses in New York, 1952

A Dior hat, 1955

A couple at Penn Station

1972

1958

I wish I could transport some of this fashion back into today’s world!