Flapper Fashion - 1920s Fashion History
Socio economic changes that occurred during the First World War
1914-18 and became accepted, changed the role of women in a way that no amount
of campaigning by a few liberated ladies could have achieved.
The costume history image in our minds of a woman of the 'Roaring Twenties' is
actually likely to be the image of a flapper. Flappers did not truly emerge until
1926. Flapper fashion embraced all things and styles modern. A fashionable
flapper had short sleek hair, a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, a
chest as flat as a board, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a
long cigarette holder, exposed her limbs and epitomised the spirit of a reckless
rebel who danced the nights away in the Jazz Age.
The French called the
flapper
fashion style the 'garçonne'.
‡‡
High fashion until the twenties had been for the richer women
of society. But because construction of the flapper's dress was less complicated
than earlier fashions, women were much more successful at home dressmaking a
flapper dress which was a straight shift. It was easier to produce up to date plain
flapper fashions quickly using flapper fashion Butterick dress patterns.
Recorded fashion history images after the twenties do reflect what ordinary
women really wore rather than just the clothing of the rich.
The flapper fashion style flourished amid the middle classes
negating differences between themselves and the truly rich, but continuing to
highlight some differences with the really poor. The really rich still continued
to wear beautifully embellished silk garments for evening, but the masses
revelled in their new found sophistication of very fashionable flapper clothes.
Find flapper costumes at the Halloween
Costumes store.
New students of costume history often mistakenly assume that all
dresses day and evening were short in every year of the twenties and that
flappers were the only fashion style of the twenties. Dress and coat lengths were
actually calf length and quite long for most of the decade. Shortness is a
popular misconception reinforced by the availability of moving film of the Charleston
dance which shows very visible knees and legs on the dancing flappers.
Skirts only revealed the knee briefly between 1926 and
1928, and this was the only period when evening dresses were short in line with
day dress lengths. This was the flapper fashion era.
From 1913 the hemline had begun to show a little ankle.
Between 1916 and 1929 hemlines rose steadily, faltered then
rose again.
In 1918 skirt lengths were just below calf length.
Calf length loose dresses
circa 1918 compared with those of 1920 where the waist has shown a definite
drop, but the length remains steady around the calf area.
In 1919 skirt lengths were calf length.
Between 1920 and 1924 skirts remained calf length with
fluctuations of an inch or two according to garment style. Skirts were actually
still rather long, but were designed to confuse.
§
The Elusive Hemline of the 1920s.
Gradually by degrees the skirt lengths on dresses gave
the illusion of being first long and then shorter with dipping, scalloped and
handkerchief hemlines in floating fabrics. It was only in 1925 that skirts rose 14 to 16 inches (45 to 50
cm) from the ground making the shorter hemline we associate with the era.
  
1923-4, 1925, 1926 Here we can see
examples of the most elusive hemline in fashion history in the 1920s.
For more picture and drawing examples scroll to the link list at the
bottom of this page. By 1926 skirts were at their shortest in the Twenties decade
and showed the knee until 1928. The whole leg as far as the kneecap was
revealed this was the height of flapper fashion.
By 1929 uneven hems and asymmetric skirt hemlines again helped
the transition to longer skirts. Longer sheer overskirts and semi sheer top
skirts were worn over shorter linings. By 1930 the hemline was several inches
below the knee.
If you are interested in seeing modern versions of flapper fashion then
look here.
After the first world war (1914-18) when women's dress became more mannish, each
year seemed to get more severe in line which almost emphasised the feminine
woman beneath. Female clothes became looser and more shapeless in fit. The bust
was suppressed, the waist disappeared, the shoulders became broader and hair
shorter and shorter. Narrow boyish hips were preferred. The silhouette
emphasised a flattened chest and womanly curves were eliminated as the line
became more simplified.
The slender flat-chested tanned body and face of a 15 year old
became the desired silhouette of the bright young things of the 1920s. Health
and beauty clubs helped women refine their silhouettes whilst getting fitter and
healthier.
It was a difficult time for the former matrons of Edwardian
society, the previous leaders of fashion whose style of dressing became as
passé as their rounded figures and older faces. More youthful women who could
party all night and carry the boyish fashions well were all the rage.
The bras of the early 20s include home made ones in white
cotton and which were little more than bust bodices with extra separation. Some
purchased bras were like camisoles and they offered no support.
Big busted girls turned to bandaging their breasts flat, but
many adopted the Symington Side
Lacer, a bra that could be laced at both sides
and pulled and pulled in to flatten the chest.
For young ladies with youthful figures a satisfactory bra was
the four sectioned lace bandeau bra, lined in net. None of the bras gave much
shape, but few ladies were seeking anything more than stopping the bust from
wobbling. As long as they looked boyish they looked fashionable.
By the 1930s Triumph, Maidenform, Gossard, Warner Brothers,
Spirella, Twilfit and Symingtons were all making bras that did the job of
separating the breasts. At the same time it was finally acknowledged that women
had differing cup sizes and bra sales doubled with the new designs.
Between 1920 and 1928 corset sales declined by two thirds, but
it adapted to changing needs.
 Fast flappers refused to wear corsets and rolled
their stockings to the knee to enable them to dance easily. Long Corsets
produced the boyish figure, but instead of thick boned corsets many women
preferred thin elastic webbing Lastex girdles that flattened the abdomen. Suspenders were attached to the girdles.
Underwear was minimal, sheer and
lightweight. Women wore cami-bockers (directoire knickers and chemise) or cami-knickers or knickers and a petticoat.
I have seen some searches for these as director knickers so let's be
clear the term is directoire.
Right - 1920's modern underwear
...(v4r)
Although the 1950s are thought of as the first time of the
teenager and the 1960s as the era when the young first led fashion, there is no
doubt that the possession of a youthful body was a prerequisite of twenties
flapper fashion.
The arms were bared not only for evening, but also for day and the legs were
covered in beige stockings visible to the knee which gave an overall more naked
look than ever before. Just as young women of today, a hundred years later go
bare legged in Gladiator sandals, the young and fashionable woman of the 1920s also paid
attention to her legs and footwear. Until the end of World War I she always
wore black wool stockings. Feet, ankles and calves formerly
hidden and encased in black stocking were suddenly on show. The fashion
for wearing black stockings continued until 1918.
By the 1920s stockings with patterns were hot fashion items.
Embroidery snaked around the ankles and up to the knees. Flesh and soft pastel
colours were popular and they were made in either silk or artificial silk known
as art silk later called rayon. The rayon stockings were very shiny so girls
powdered their legs to dull them before venturing out. Names of stocking colours
were Honey Beige, Teatime, Rose Morn, Boulevard and Spanish Brown. Lastex,
a rubber based thread was used in knee highs in bright colours.
The great fashion designer Gabrielle Chanel 1883-1971 self
styled herself to be known as Coco Chanel. By 1920 the silhouette of her
clothing designs have come to be the epitome of 20's style.
 The work of other
famous designers beside hers seemed old fashioned and outmoded belonging as they
did to the pre World War One era.
She promoted the styles we associate with flappers. She worked
in neutral tones of beige, sand, cream, navy and black in soft fluid jersey
fabrics cut with simple shapes that did not require corsetry or waist
definition. They were clothes made for comfort and ease in wear making them
revolutionary and quite modern. She was the Jean Muir or Donna Karan of her day
and the originator of the LBD - that little black dress.
Left - Coco Chanel sporting short hair wearing one
of her simple jersey outfits and revealing bare arms and flesh toned
stockings.
The 1920s saw a universal fashion for short hair a more
radical move beyond the curtain styles of the war era. Hair was first bobbed,
then shingled, then Eton cropped in 1926-7. An Eton crop was considered daring and
shocked some older citizens, since hair had always been thought a woman's
crowning glory. Only maiden aunts and elderly dowagers avoided the severe
shorter styles, but by the 1930s softer waved hairstyles were a refreshing
change. Sketches of the changes to the soft Bobbed
hairstyle of 1922 to the severe Eton Crop of 1926.
See more photographs of 1920s
hairstyles
Hairstyles circa 1922, 1925,1925,1926
Go to this superb book link on Art Deco Hair
Women wore
cloche hats throughout the twenties. A
cloche hat
told everyone that you had short hair. It was only possible to get a close
fitting cloche on the skull if the hair was cropped short and flat. The cloche
hat affected body posture as it was pulled well over the eyes which meant young
women held their heads at a specific angle in order to see where they were
going. Foreheads were unfashionable in the 1920s.
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During the era there was an increased use of make up
and it
was fashionable to perform the rites of make up in public. Instead of
disappearing to the powder room women got out their engraved compact and applied
lipstick and powder in sight of a whole restaurant or nightclub or tearoom. Ox
blood lipstick was used lavishly, but rouge was still used sparingly. Today
compacts from the 1920s are sought after by collectors.
 Coats of the 1920s were mostly long until 1926. They all
seemed to have one thing in common in that almost all illustrations of them show
them as wrap-over whatever the length. Right - 1920's Wrapover coats.
The 1920s coats often wrapped to just one side
fastening which was a feature of the garment. The coat fastening was either a huge button or some
complex tab and buckle.
Many coats had shawl fur collars. A fashion for coordinating
coat linings with dress fabrics started at this time.
T-bar shoes with buckles and bows and straps featured in the 1920s.
The Mary Jane ankle strap button shoe was the style of the twenties.
Footwear was visible beneath short dresses and was selected with more care as a
fashion accessory.
Once shoes began to be mass manufactured in the 1920s
footwear became an essential fashion accessory. Now it was truly visible beneath
shorter dresses it needed to be selected with more care. Heels were over 2
inches high and waisted until the 1930s when they were lower straighter Cuban
shapes. Strapped shoes were called Mary Janes. T-bar shoes or others with
buckles and bows made interesting fashion statements. Sequin or diamante trims
were quite usual.
In the 1930s shoes began to look heavier, but the toes were
less pointed and more rounded, often of peep style. In 1936 Ferragamo the
Italian shoe designer made wedge heel designs and by the 1940s, chunkier wedged
platform shoes with thicker soles made the wearers feel they could walk for
miles if needed.
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For more images on 1920s go to:-
Chanel had introduced the world to the jumper and it was worn
by both men and women. Knitted garments for men really took off in the twenties
and women eagerly wore the same knits too. Fair Isle patterns became very
popular for both sexes.
Free from corsetry and wearing simplified clothing modern
women were able to indulge in sports. Soon swimming, golf and tennis along with
keep fit were the passions of young ladies. Shorts became acceptable wear for
cycling and for skating normal dresses were roomy enough for movement. The
fashionable modern women of the twenties unlike their Edwardian laced and boned
mothers truly belong to the twentieth century. Ebooks
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For more information about the Era 1914-1955 click on the titles below:-
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re-enactment costumes in USA, try the reproduction costume range at:
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