Photographer George Hurrell captured the glamour of Old Hollywood styles, that amped up the sex appeal using halter ps and low cut backs. By 1926, most spring and summer dresses were sleeveless or cap sleeved scoopneck lightweight dresses with a lowered waist or no waistline really. Day wear evolved into simple layered suitstyled jackets or cardigans, jersey blouses, and pleated skirts. For a complete and lavishly illustrated guide to the history of ‘makeup’ in the 1920s -Read the History of Make up -The 1920’s or visit Vintage ‘Make up’ Guide.com for downloadable vintage beauty guides! By the way, the major designers in modernist fashions included Chanel, Lanvin and new surrealist designers like Elsa Schiaparelli and Sonia Delauney. I’m sure you heard about this. Now look, the singular evening makeup look of the 1920s was the cupids bow lips, heavily rouged cheeks and kohl shadowed eyes. It was more acceptable for women to apply a little lipstick during daytime inspirational Paris based travelling ballet company Ballet Russes also came to an end after a 20 year run which had helped revolutionize fashion.
It likely to pull look for to pair with it.
You have to be able to pair this dress with heels, flats, a statement necklace or very straightforward gold bracelet. Actually, this shouldn’t be an ensemble that has its very own shoes, hair do, jewelry collection and makeup look. Notice that lingerie fabrics were of silk, crepe de chine, rayon and a really new soft transparent fabric crepe Georgette devised by Chanel contemporary Georgette de la Plante. For the working class girl -the new fabric Rayon -an artificial silk, was the alternative when it came to designing an evening frock. Through the dissemination of haute couture to the streets of ordinary women -thanks to the Paris Patterns, published weekly in magazines just like the Pictorial Review. Plenty of gowns were designed with the new dances in mind so freedom of movement was always important to a party going girl. Expensive interpretation of very straightforward design created from modest materials, Its flattering silhouette suited just about any shape of a woman and it heralded a really new Parisian ‘economy style’ or ‘poverty de luxe’ as Chanel herself described it.
Published in Vogue on October 1st 1926 and immediately dubbed the ‘Ford Dress’ by Vogues editor -a suggestion that it will become as popular as the Ford car.
This again was influenced to a large degree by Hollywood, the 1920s did see a massive increase in cosmetics use.
I know that the new push up lipsticks were to become almost any girls constant companion, most women were conservative in day make up. Talia Felix wrote an interesting study for Glamourdaze, on the illusionary1920s makeup stylesof Hollywood starlets, filmed inhigh contrast ‘orthochromatic’ -to the actual make up used. That is interesting right? The greatest 1920s parody of them all is the truly hilarious PG Wodehouse series of Jeeves and Wooster novels, that captures the spirit of the Jazz Age amongst London’s and New York’s ‘bright young things‘. It is the first half hour of the iconic movie IT and Sears Roebuck and a brand new company called Maidenform -formed in 1922 -who put out a brand new bust uplifting bra which -despite the gamine flat bust fad -began to take hold by the late 1920′ Pre code Hollywood movies of the late 1920’s ok enthusiastically ‘disrobed’ most of their female stars to show off undergarments.
Besides, the real kudos for the ‘sudden’ popularity of the little grey dress goes to Hollywood designer Travis Banton and Clara Bow.
With their short, longer than life young ladies, tubular dresses, cigarettes in long blackish holders, cloche hats, bobbed hair and hands of diamond bracelets.
Until fashion photography ok its place in 1930s film magazines like Hollywood’s Photoplay, the magazines of the period, displayed a simplicity that is striking. Now this sudden exposure of women’s legs in the 1920s, brought about a huge interest in women’s hosiery, and stocking sales went through the roof. I’m sure it sounds familiar.
Not only did the waist drop -but most significantly, the hemlines rose -dangerously! Silk was still the main sought after fabric, and an ordinary colours were beige and dark grey and almost white being the most favoured. Normally, these artists of the Art Decoratifs movement were collectively responsible for breathing their fresh Expressionist colors and flowing graceful lines into the world of fashion throughout the 1920s and on into the 1930s.
In the 1920’s -women’s swimsuit design rapidly evolved from the hideous petticoat affairs to the sleek, body hugging apparel of the Jantzen Swimsuit, an elasticated and revealing skin tight one piece which possibly did more for the emancipation of the female body than any other item of outerwear clothing. Women of a daring disposition could not wait to jump into them. Evening gowns in the first season of 1921 unusual were magnificence, luxurious works of decorative art. Gowns draped on women of impossibly refined silhouettes now declared a brand new ideal of beauty -slenderness. Then, while echoing the influence of Les Arts Decoratifs, just as in the Belle Epoch era of the 1900’s -the curved shapes of Art Nouveau were echoed by the buxom Gibson Girl, the feminine shape was decreed to be straight and angular. Cosmetics counters were fast becoming the norm in ladies departments stores and pharmacies. Read our History of 1920s Makeup for the more detailed illustrated story of how the consumer boom in women’s ‘makeup’ really ok off in the roaring twenties.
With names like Max Factor, beauty became a major business, Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden becoming household names and brands like Maybelline, Tangee and Coty rolling off girls lips.
Iribe, was the original seven the Bracelet Knights -which also included George Barbier, George Lepape, Charles Martin, Andre Marty, Bernard Boutet De Monvel, and Pierre Brissaud -whose divine illustrations graced the pages iconic fashion magazines like Gazette Du Bon Ton, and ‘Art Goût Beauté’.
As early as 1908 -when Paul Poiret produced his Les Robes De Paul Poiret -illustrated by Paul Iribe -a tal break away occurred from the conventional presentation of new lines in clothing. It’s a well as a matter of fact the normal hemline was below the knee and particularly favoured by women as they enjoyed the swishing freedom against their legs of the new softer and more feminine fabrics weighed down with elegant bead work -a particular feature in a 1920s evening dress. Now regarding the aforementioned fact… Silk was the favored fabric in chiffon, velvet and taffeta.
Modern ‘myth’ of the ‘flapper’ party dress is more a relic of the 1960’s revival. In 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts décoratifs et Industriels Modernes Paris -fine art and fashion finely merged and what we can only describe as the Age of Chic was born! 1920’s was a cultural revolution! Needless to say, the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, for a while, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can’t be underestimated, just like Norman Hartnell -who went from catering exclusively to the wealthy upper class in the 1920’s to designing British women’s utility dresses in the early 1940′ there were more factors at work except the whims of clothing designers, as for changes in fashion. For example, the middy blouse, that American women had for some amount of time found practical, had arrived in Europe in 1917 with the American troops. You see, while inspiring practical young designers like Coco Chanel to incorporate jersey and similar traditionally male fabrics, to create the first genuine casual clothing for European women, its impact was considerable.
Believe me if it’s not comfortable you are not preparing to wear it.
No!
You better don’t try to lie to yourself and say you’re intending to for awhile as it is so cute. Picture yourself standing in front of your closet looking for something to wear, an uncomfortable dress is never the one you jump to. It appeared in the weeks following the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 that the Hemline Index theory by economist George Taylor in 1926 was coming to pass with the unveiling of the ChatillonMoulyRousse Autumn Collection, where that intensified the look of ‘shapelessness’. Capes appeared by the start of the 1920’s with gabardine being a favorite fabric, to compliment the newer slimmer silhouettes in evening gowns. That’s a fact, it’s not for a night out on the club in the midst of summer when you need to almost bare it all. It’s for the formal and close to formal occasions that a grey dress should be needed. Why your buying this dress. You don’t look for to fall into the fiasco of is it grey and blue or almost white and gold situation type.
They don’ Make sure your dress is stone cold blackish, you may find this quite obvious for the most part there’re similar to Jean Patou and newer emerging talents like Sonia Delaunay believed that fine art going to be integrated seamlessly into textiles and clothing. It was a battle between the feminine and the modernist. Leaving behind once and for all the ‘ S ‘ bend corset look of the Edwardian age, it was only natural that the modernist influenced lines of the 1920’s should go to a polar opposite of -no curves really, straight figure, flat chests and boyish look.
While producing beautiful pastel mother and daughter wardrobes, she also helped popularisethe ‘garconne look‘ -epitomized by the simple chemise dress in either daywear or evening wear and which was to become the dominant fashion line from 1923 to Coco Chanel was the new favoured young gun for this youthful boyish style, the fashion visionary Jeanne Lanvin was a major exponent of this style.
At the time, when a woman was referred to as a ‘bit of a flapper’ it was generally not kindly meant.
There was indeed a flapper look and it has endured to this day as the defining look of the decade. Actually, the tubular silhouette, the backless chemise dress the lowered waistline, the bobbed hair, for any longer necklines and cigarette holders, the new slang and oodles of art deco influenced faux jewellery.
Surely it’s difficult to say with any accuracy who first created the drop waist look.
For the most part there’re designs by Jeanne Lanvin as far back as 1914 which show these styles -albeit worn by younger girls.
By 1923, the drop waist look was taking hold, and when wearing a skirt was achieved with low hanging belts, and in a frock with a faux drop waist sewn in. Then again, coco Chanel had published a collection of evening gowns in 1916 in Harpers Bazaar which showed a clear move wards a drop waist style,achieved with loose for awhile as guess what, do not buy the grey dress that is different so in style this season, come next season you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it. Your LBD going to be a staple piece that is in style hey, do not buy it. Will is still be in style? Hairdressers retaliated with the ‘crop’, the ‘bob hair cut‘, the ‘finger wave‘ and the ‘shingle‘ popularized by Polish born Antoine ‘de Paris’. Of course ready to wear clothing was in the future, and most women of moderate means simply went out and bought the latest McCalls, Pictorial Review, or subscribed to the sewing patterns published by design gurus like Mary Brooks Picken from the Women’s Institute. For instance, her 1920’s Dress Design book ‘Modern Dressmaking’ was extremely popular amongst homedressmakers and rare copies are next to impossible to find. Fashion houses brought out new lines twice a year in the 1920’s and the cuts and appliqués were eagerly consumed and copied by fashion magazines globally. Consequently, while those early Kit Kat Club going bright young people of high society had either married off, by the late 1920’s, died of over partying or simply grown up -the real enduring image of the 1920’s flapper was to be given to us by Hollywood. Much is to be said about this mini Jazz Age masterpiece by Anita Loos, who introduced the worlds ‘first’ dumb blonde on the make, the word ‘chic’ was made popular in the hugely funny comic novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos, published in The Great Gatsby can be remembered as the definitive book about the jazz age.
Whenever beginning in many ways with the spread of women’s suffrage in the immediate post war years, the 1920’s era is unparalleled by the sheer magnitude of cultural change.
The 19th amendment of the US Constitution in 1920 finally brought the vote to American women and with it a brand new anticipation of freedom and rights of feminine self expression.
There was a massive liberation in the creative arts around the developed world, as the old order of class society crumbled. With its easy capacity to flatter, she also had a penchant for the color grey, and with the launch of her little blackish dress in 1926 -Chanel endorsed the validity of blackish -several years before any other designer saw its power. With all that said… Then the lesbian artist Gerda Wegener whose portraits of her transgendered partner Lili Elbe have also become iconic images of the liberated 1920s woman.
There was the Dutch bob or Pageboy bob, Orchid bob, The Eton Crop, Egyptian bob, Coconut bob, Moana bob, Charleston Cut, The Shingle, ‘Kisscurl’, Extreme Windblown, Frizzy Tousled Bob, The Poodle Cut, SoftwaveBob, Brushed Back Bob and so on.
The Dutch bob hair cut, first made popular in the USA as far back as 1921 when Mary Thurman adopted it was to become the most sought after bobbed hairstyle by 1926 and was worn by the likes of Colleen Moore and Louise Brooks.
Now this page boy bob is the most iconic hairstyle of the 1920s. It’s a well audiences were mesmerized by those early icons of the silver screen similar to Theda Bara, Gloria Swanson, Alice White, Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Colleen Moore. They inspired millions of women to copy their fashion, coiffures and make up looks. Besides, dorothy Parker had a thing or two to say about these vivacious women.
1920s flapper ideal also became associated with a brand new ‘lesbian chic’ popularized by the book La Garconne by Victor Margueritte, and epitomized now by the artwork of Tamara de Lempicka, whose iconic auto portrait for the cover of German fashion magazine ‘Die Dame’ is regarded as amidst the most significant paintings of the era.
Making an entrance as an outerwear item in 1916 from designers similar to Jeanne Lanvin, Callot Seours and Coco Chanel -by 1920, the chemise or shift dress, was to become the dominant line for day and evening wear.
Dress hung from shoulder to just below the knee -the waist dropped to the hips. Gether with nearly any I don’t know what to wear moment that crosses almost any girls mind. Now look. She is absolutely right. By the way, a little blackish dress is a staple that should hang in any woman’s closet. Go to for any last minute occasion that may have slipped her mind, outlook calendar or Kate Spade planner. With all that said… Below is a small selection of beautiful 1920’s day and evening dress shoes -from the excellent Moscow based -on line shoe museum Shoe Icons -a veritable Aladdin’s cave for all women’s shoe fans.
Bobbed hair and girlish immaturity was the ‘correct pose’ for young women by Tennis player Suzanne Lenglen in a straight, sleeveless frock vanquished her opponent, who was still faithful to skirts, shirts and petticoats -the sporting influence finally permeating nearly any girls wardrobe. In 1926 Wall Street Journal reported that Hole proofs annual sales had increased from $ 2037000 in 1916 to $ 9220000 by A fascinating study of women’s hosiery advertising in the 1920s by Jean Elizabeth Harrison revealed the following graph study of Leg Exposure in women’s hosiery advertising from 1920 to 1929. Whenever encouraging different classes and races to mingle and share their anticipation of freedom in the fight for suffrage; and the rise of consumerism which promoted the ideals of ‘fulfilment and freedom’, The invention of film and the rising influence of Hollywood gether with an increase in fashion marketing, the merging of the Arts Decoratifs and new Modernist movements; cultural impact of a world war which reduced the grip of the class system on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the way, the arrival of the Jazz Age from the city of New Orleans and the music of Louis Armstrong became the anthem for the flapper, blackish or white and especially in the USA where alcohol was prohibited throughout the 1920’s and the term the ‘Roaring Twenties’ can be said to been aptly applied.
It was all about revealing shoulders and backs, in evening gowns, the hem rose and fell as the decade waxed and waned.
For day wear -during the colder months a girl should wear a ‘wrapover’ coat or jacket/cardigan -worn with blouse and a pleated skirt -not forgetting the obligatory cloche hat surely. On p of that, with a decolletage often as low as an evening dress, on summer afternoons a regular choice was a basic shift dress -now often sleeveless.
Famous Diving Girl logo heralded a completely new age of freedom and first appeared in beauty pageants in the early 1920’s and very quickly a swimsuit mania swept across the world. Swimsuits were still often of wool, and as such were not ideal for the job. Now look, the aforementioned memorable scene from Clara Bow’s IT, where she ok a scissors to her work dress and transformed it into an evening frock, was realised by Travis Banton and officially launched the little blackish dress on screen. London of the 1920’s led the way in just like The Kit Cat Club, where the bright young things will carouse in decadence as satirized in Evelyn Waughs Vile Bodies. It’s an interesting fact that the Weimar culture of 1920’s Berlin immortalized by Christopher Usherwood in a series of Berlin novels which inspired the 1960’s musical Cabaret -was an all should find a young bohemian movement -flying the flag for freedom of self expression, and the major cities of Paris, Berlin, NY and Washington were the social melting pots for the1920’s cultural explosion, as in the course of the Belle Epoch in the 1900’s and decades later in the 1960’s.
World War forced many women -who worked in dangerous situations like munitions factories -to tie up their hair or in any case, crop their locks altogether.
Likewise, milliners responded to the call by designing closer fitting hats.
French milliner Caroline Riboux developed the ‘cloche hat‘ in 1919 which was often fashioned round a clients head. So ‘short crop’ or ‘chignon’ hairstyle became so common in Holland, France and Germany by 1918 that soon famous stars like Irene Castle were playfully adopting them. Let me tell you something. GilbertAdrian, Orry Kelly, Travis Banton, Edith Head and later -Walter Plunkett, whose wonderful costumes for the 1953 film Singin’ in the Rain, brilliantly parodied the over the p exuberance of 1920s Hollywood. Of course, the names of the movie costumers as were as prominent as the Paris Couturiers.