The 1920’s, also
known as The Roaring 20’s, was a great time in the US. It brought with it Speakeasies,
Al Capone, Babe Ruth, and Flappers. But one of the most important changes that
occurred in the 20’s was the style. It was like the US just started taking
leaps and bounds over the line of what was considered normal in previous time periods;
it was entering the modern era of fashion. A huge thing was the flapper. These
were women who wore shorter skirts, wore makeup, smoked, drank, and treated sex
as a non-issue. They were going against the entire sexual norm that was
previously placed. These women brought a lot of the popular trend that all the
younger women were wearing.
Some of the
popular styles consisted of shorter skirts with pleats and slits in them.
Younger women also tended to wear more sporty and functional clothing. A huge
style was the flapper dress; it was a very functional dress that flattened the
bust line. There was also the Cloche hat which was extremely popular, with the
hat came the Bob haircut. The design of the hat was meant to be worn low on the
forehead so that the eyes were just below the brim. What the Bob haircut allowed
was for women to tuck their hair under the hat so that the focus would be on
your eyes.
As for men’s
fashion, they faced the same transformation into modern fashion. The roaring
20’s gave a much edgier take on the world. Suits and ties have never gone out
of fashion but in the 20’s the design of the whole three part suit changed. The
suit jackets were slimmed to give men a more boyish looks, ties were much more
casual, and bow ties were very in. Trousers on the other hand were wider. By
designing them this way a man’s overall shape was emphasized. Along with this,
normal waist slimming belts and cuffs were added to the bottom of pants so that
attention could be drawn to the shoes. This style was incredibly sharp and
slick. With this style came the Fedora. In the 20’s if you had any class at all
you would never be out in public without a hat. In the colder seasons a felt
fedora was what everyone wore. Although commonly worn by gangsters it was
extremely common among all men.
Over the ten years
that where the 1920’s there were quite a few influential designers,
actors/actresses and models. An extremely important designer is Coco Chanel.
All throughout her career she was very successful, but in the 20’s she brought
about some very popular trends. Two of the most popular trends were the Bob
haircut and wearing trousers for more sporty and casual occasions. She was also
known for the iconic little black dress that could be multipurpose, being
dressed up or down for any occasion and the dress could be paired with Chanel
No5, one of the most famous and copied perfumes on the market.
However,
Coco had her rivals, Elsa Schiaparelli was considered Chanel’s greatest
competitor in the design world. Elsa designed clothing that exemplified the
surrealist art movement that was occurring at the time. She blended the style
into intricate clothing that was an expression of the growing individualism of
the time and self-expressionism. However, Elsa wasn't able to keep up with the
changing fashion of post WWI times.
In
a time of flourishing female designers, there were still the traditionalist
male designers like Jean Patou. Patou was a French designer that was most
influential to trying to change the flapper look by lengthening skirts and
started producing women’s sportswear to change the more racy styles. Also,
producing knit underwear and the first of their kind women’s tennis shorts.
With
all these designers making style changing clothing lines, there were many new
trends that were seen during the roaring 20’s. The “flapper” and clothing that
came with the look was popular among young woman showing their new found
expressive freedom. The dress was more functional than its predecessors,
flattened the women’s bust making it less predominant, showing off the boyish
figure that was made so popular by Chanel. The cloche Hat was a tight fitting
hat that flattened the head (more manly)and gave rise to the bob tuck, allowing
woman to completely obscure their bob haircuts under the cloche hat.
In
men’s fashion the fedora become the hat of choice that was widely worn by the
middle class man and again could be worn with anything whether its casual for
formal. The fedora was also accompanied by the Bow Tie, which was widely
accepted as an equal to the tie and was generally matched with an tuxedo.
And
to make these major trends more widely seen by the public, many actors trying
to popular wore the latest trends to boost their popularity and often making a
certain style widely accepted as well. Such Actresses were Mary Louise Brooks,
who represented the more liberal side of woman that the 20’s society was known
for and actors such as Douglas Fairbank.
However,
even with the freedom that most people felt from the 20’s, the changing styles
were closely tied with cultural and social issues of the time. The flapper and
rapidly changing styles of woman’s clothing was seen in woman’s fight for equal
rights. The new styles empowered the women of the twenties and gave them the
courage they needed to fight American tradition for the rights that was
guaranteed by the American constitution. And already mentioned was fashions
close relationship with the surrealist art movement. These two emulated each
other and grew together through the twenties influencing both fashion and art
still today.
Ethical Questions
1. Did
the style of a flapper affect her societies view on woman? If so was it a
positive or negative effect and does this effect still influence fashion today?
2. Did
the style of dress influence the status of men and woman, or change the social
scheme in society?
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