In reply to <a href="https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2016/10/26/fashion-for-the-grave/#comment-98129">Kathie Wilson</a>. I believe the dated nature of those styles might have reflected the most common age group of women that undertakers dressed. Persons who could afford a new dress for their loved one to wear in the casket might have been older, financially established husbands who selected styles they recalled admiring on their wives 10 years before.