Gianni Versace once said: “Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live.”
The fashions and lifestyles of the past decades are quite different from our own in many ways, but some people just exuded class and style no matter the time or the place. Check out some pictures of effortless style from everyday people as well as iconic celebrities below.
Fashion, Costume picture of chansonette Paula Worm (Photo Credit: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
This woman from 1901 is bound to catch the eye of everyone at the party.
1906 Argyll (Photo Credit: National Motor Museum/Heritage Images via Getty Images)
Car fashion has moved on from this very stylish yet prim picture from 1906…
Simca 1000 coupe. 1963. (Photo Credit: Touring Club Italiano/Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
…to this rather more laid-back (but still stylish) picture from 1963.
Queen Mother With Princess Margaret And Lady Sarah Armstrong-jones At Badminton Horse Trials 15-18 April 1975 (Photo Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
You might be the mother of the queen and sister to the queen, but that’s no reason you can’t sit on the grass and enjoy the Badminton Horse Trials just like everyone else in April 1975.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, perches on the roof of a Land Rover but Queen Elizabeth II prefers a ground-level view of competitors during the Horse Trials at Badminton, Gloucestershire. (Photo Credit: PA/PA Images via Getty Images)
Although if you’re married to the queen, you can have a much better seat, as demonstrated by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1968. Just look at that pose.
English actor Michael Caine takes a tea break on the set of ‘Zulu’, 1964. (Photo Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
What’s more British than Michael Caine in an army uniform with a cup of tea?
Women Skating In England (Photo CreditL Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
If you were ice-skating in England, then the ultimate accessory was apparently a car.
The Supremes (left to right): Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, and Mary Wilson (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
Hats off to the Supremes for this incredible photo from 1965.
British film star Roger Moore wearing a grey tank top in his modeling days, before he found fame as The Saint and James Bond. (Photo Credit: Chaloner Woods/Getty Images)
If anyone can make a vest look stylish, it’s got to be Roger Moore in the 1950s.
Raquel Welch star of One Million Years BC makes an entrance by sliding down the stair rail at the Odeon Leicester Square during a rehearsal for the appearance at the Royal Film Performance. (Photo Credit: PA Images via Getty Images)
Raquel Welch makes a memorable entrance by sliding down the stair rail at the Odeon Leicester Square in 1966.
Couple skating in a New York City roller rink, circa 1910. (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
Rollerskating in New York in 1910 was a mixture of poise and style.
September 1969: British singer-songwriter Roy Harper. (Photo Credit: Doug McKenzie/Getty Images)
Music was serious business for singer-songwriter Roy Harper in 1969.
(Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
This is quite a scene in the desert! Here’s American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet for his wife during a visit to the pyramids at Giza in 1961.
Director Steven Spielberg and american actor Harrison Ford. “E.T.” by Spielberg was introduced at the festival out of competition. (Photo Credit: Pool GARCIA/URLI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
A young Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford define “suave” at the Cannes Film Festival.
1940s SMILING BOY & GIRL HOLDING SCHOOL BOOKS BY DOORS (Photo Credit: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)
School was clearly a lot more fun in the 1940s, judging by the smile on these kids’ faces.
Derek Jacobi appears in an Ambassadors Theatre production of: ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous’. (Photo Credit: robbie jack/Corbis via Getty Images)
Nobody lounges quite like a thespian, as demonstrated by Derek Jacobi in a 1992 production of Mad, Bad and Dangerous.
Vintage photograph of young women wearing 1920s dresses (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
Fashion in the 1920s meant that it was unlikely you’d find yourself at a party wearing the exact same dress as your friend.
A beautiful family portrait of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy with her children riding in the woods. Jackie Kennedy holding on tightly to her youngest son, John as she rides on her horse with eldest daughter, Caroline, riding on her own little pony. (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
Jackie Kennedy ensures her son John doesn’t get left out while she takes her eldest daughter, Caroline, out riding.
John Kennedy listens to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. explain how the plane flies from Los Angeles to Boston as they return home from the Democratic National Convention. (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
Entertaining the kids is also top of the list for John F. Kennedy when he takes time to sit and listen to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. on a flight to Boston in July 1960.
English actor and singer Tim Curry, UK, 3rd September 1975. (Photo Credit: Wood/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
He might be best remembered for his corset in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but here Tim Curry proves he exudes style and charm even just sitting at home.
Little Claire Worwell and her dancing partner take part in the Empire Pool Youth Dance Festival. (Photo Credit: R. McPhedran/Express/Getty Images)
If kids practice enough at it, they might make it to the Empire Pool Youth Dance Festival, like this couple from March 1966.
Quite a festive touch is lent to the majestic skyline of New York City, by Ramon and Rosita, internationally known dance artists, as they demonstrate the Southampton Hop, new Terpsichorean number, atop of the Chanin Building. The awe-inspiring and modernistic spire of the Chrysler Building looms in the background. (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
And if they keep practicing and practicing, maybe one day they’ll be able to dance atop the Chanin Building in New York, just like international dance artists Ramon and Rosita did in July 1930.
Dolly Parton 1977 during Dolly Parton File Photos in London, California. (Photo Credit: Chris Walter/WireImage)
Dolly Parton looking effortlessly stylish in 1977.
Australian-born American actor Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959) on the set of ‘Captain Blood’, directed by Michael Curtiz, 1934. (Photo Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
No one has ever managed to top Errol Flynn’s style when it comes to swordplay.
Actress Jane Seymour, England. (Photo Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images)
British actress Jane Seymour ”“ who played Solitaire in the James Bond film Live and Let Die ”“ gives the camera a look that would warn even Bond against messing her around.
British singer, pianist and composer Elton John with British rock singer and songwriter Rod Stewart at the Olympia, London, UK, 22nd December 1978. (Photo Credit: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Elton John, posing alongside Rod Stewart in 1978, proves that tweed flat caps can be as trendy as any leopard-print outfit.
Bridal fashion around 1905, bride in wedding dress with tulle veil – (Photo Credit: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
A bride from 1905 might choose a wedding look something like this.
CIRCA 1754: Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-Swiss mathematician. Einstein sailing. (Photo Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Albert Einstein taking a break from all those calculations to chill out and go sailing.
Marvin Gaye (Photo Credit: Jim Britt/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
Soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye at Golden West Studios in 1973 in Los Angeles, California.
So laid back. Here’s singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye photographed in 1973 in Los Angeles, California.
Princess Elizabeth and The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh enjoying a walk during their honeymoon at Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire. (Photo Credit: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
When you’re a member of a royal family, the paparazzi are everywhere. Here, a newly-married Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth look both laidback and happy on a walk during their honeymoon.
Portrait of Belgian-born American actress Audrey Hepburn (1929 – 1993) as she wears a peculiar hat and sleeveless blouse and holds a pool cleaning net beside a dry swimming pool, early 1950s. (Photo Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Audrey Hepburn, star of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, proves that she can make any hat look good.
CIRCA 1966: English singer-songwriter and actor David Bowie (then known as Davie or Davy Jones) poses for a portrait at home circa 1966 in London, England. (Photo Credit: Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
David Bowie showing that style is a way of life as he poses in his own home in the 1960s.
This “campus” appears to be just what the doctor ordered during the heat wave plaguing most of the U.S. these days. Keystone of the intense “study” group is San Francisco’s Clint Eastwood. On his right shoulder is Olive Sturges of Ocean Falls, British Columbia, and on his left is Deni Crayne who hails from Minneapolis. (Photo Credit: Bettmann / Contributor)
This photo from 1954 shows what Clint Eastwood got up to while he was still at film school.
Men’s fashion Men in pinstripe suits and hats in different designs (Photo Credit: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Some men in 1933 with a dashing array of hats.
Fashion, knitwear fashion for children: – a little girl wearing a knitted swimsuit (Photo Credit: Atelier Blum/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Kids look great whatever you dress them in, as demonstrated by a young girl in 1951 rocking a knitted swimsuit.
1950s beach (Photo Credit: Harold M. Lambert / Contributor)
Luckily, swimsuit fashion for everyone else in the 1950s was more elegant.
Dorothy Dandridge (1923 – 1965) (Photo Credit: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
American actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge strikes a pose while standing on a radiator in a bay window in 1956.
The Viscount’s older sister Diana became the Princess of Wales. (Photo Credit: Ian Tyas/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
Thirteen-year-old Charles Spencer, the younger brother of Princess Diana, with his beach buggy outside his home in 1977.
(Photo Credit: Tom Stoddart Archive
/ Contributor)
This pair are still not done celebrating the morning after the annual Cowes Week Ball in the Isle of Wight in August 1986.
A high stepping dance line is performed by a group of Germans in the mid-20 century. (Photo Credit: Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images)
These young Germans from 1938 prove that you don’t need a dance hall to get a conga-line going ”“ any field will do.
(Photo Credit: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)
Fun and style are combined with this woman waterskiing in Florida in the 1950s.
Scottish actor Sean Connery relaxing in his ground floor basement flat in NW5. (Photo Credit: Keystone Features/Getty Images)
Sean Connery, perhaps the most popular James Bond ever, can’t even read a book without giving off that “star quality” that made him such a successful actor.