MARIETTA - Fashionistas and history buffs alike will likely fall head over heels for the Marietta Museum of History's newest exhibit featuring women's fashions from every decade in the 20th century.

Opened on March 26, the exhibit, Fun, Flirty and Fashionable: A Century of Classics, contains many dresses from Cobb County and Marietta women, including Jane Glover Hawkins, Marvina Northcutt, Elizabeth Moor Tomlinson and Myrtie Frey Gant. The colorful display of about 27 dresses traces women's fashions from 1900 to the 1990s, incorporating an array of fabrics, patterns, cuts and hemlines.

"The neat thing about this is that a grandmother can come with her grandchild and they can both relate to the styles," said Museum Curator Amy Reed.

Each decade features a few dresses from the time and a plaque explaining how the fashions related to the political and social happenings of that era. Dresses from the 1920s include a silk flapper-style dress and a longer, more modest cotton house dress that looks like it would have been worn by a less affluent everyday housewife working in the kitchen.

The plaque from the 20s reads: "As the economy boomed, hem lines went up and when the stock market crashed in 1929, they went back down."

One of the exhibit's featured dresses is a striking, floor-skimming, red velvet dress worn in 1965 by Marietta's Jane Glover Hawkins. Hawkins got the dress made for prom, but never went to the dance and only ended up wearing it for prom pictures.

Mary Koronkowski, museum spokeswoman, said that the red dress and a long, polyester baby blue and white polka-dotted dress with a crochet top from 1975 are the two most popular dresses with visitors.

"A lot of people say they had that dress," Koronkowski said of the blue '70s dress.

The exhibit doesn't just highlight lavish evening gowns, it also includes everyday wear, such as a long, white walking dress suit with a white overcoat from 1905 and even a parachute pantsuit from the 1990s.

Reed lamented about how difficult it was to choose dresses for the exhibit, since the museum received so many through donations. She said they hope to switch out the dresses, but don't know if there will be enough time since the exhibit will only run until the end of October.

The 20th century dresses aren't the museum's only fashion exhibit, it also has a large textile collection and has displayed 19th century fashion items and wedding dresses before as well. Reed said the museum conducted a survey on its Web site to ask the public what it wanted to see next and fashion ended up being high on the request list.

Moving through the decades, it's clear that hemlines get higher, necklines get lower and colors and patterns get brighter. But some dresses, especially from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, might even be fashionable by today's standards.

"Today vintage fashion is so in," Reed said. But through her own research of the century she said didn't start seeing much fashion recycling until the '80s.

"Strong lines and big hair were key elements in eighties fashion," the plaque in front of the '80s outfits reads. And the one beside the '90s parachute pantsuit and velour off the shoulder dress says, "The Rachel haircut and hair scrunchies were common during the mid 1990s. Tattoos and body piercing also became increasingly popular."

"This exhibit kind of rounds us out," Koronkowski said. "Because we have this extensive military exhibit ... and then we have these dresses."

The Marietta Museum of History is located on the second floor of the Kennesaw House, just off the Square. It's open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is $5 for adults; $3 for seniors and students; and free for children younger than 6. For more information, visit the museum Web site at www.marietta history.org or call (770) 794-5710.