1920s Clothing & Costumes
The 1920s, also called the Roaring Twenties, were a period of unprecedented prosperity, optimism and social change across the United States and parts of Western Europe. People celebrated their prosperity and new found social freedom by taking in new entertainment, buying new goods and wearing fancy, sometimes shocking, new clothes.
Other People Are Reading
-
The Roaring Twenties
-
After World War One, the United States experienced a brief recession followed by an economic boom. Increases in government and private spending on education helped send more young people to college than ever before. By the decade's end, there were 150,000 new college graduates. Better educated people found better jobs. The standard of living rose, the middle class grew, cities expanded and suburbs sprouted outside most urban centers. With more money in their pockets, consumers spent more on cars, illegal drinking, entertainment, household goods, radios and other luxury items.The influence of women who'd entered the workforce during the War helped win women the right to vote in 1920.
Boyish Figures
-
In the 1920s, women cut their hair short and wore loose fitting clothes. During the 1920s, the hourglass figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries disappeared in favor of an appearance reminiscent of a teenage boy. Women's clothing became less structured and looser fitting. Shoulders became broader, the waistline disappeared and the bust disappeared. Women cut their hair short, bound their breasts to look flat chested, exercised to slim their hips and started wearing elastic lined girdles instead of heavily boned corsets.
-
Changing Hemlines
-
Women's hemlines varied throughout the decade. At the start of the decade, hems were calf length. In 1924, dressmakers began making long, flowing dresses with scalloped hemlines that gave the illusion of changing length. In 1925, the short skirts associated with the decade became popular, reaching their shortest between 1926 and 1928, the height of flapper fashion. By 1929, skirts were becoming longer again and featured uneven and asymmetric hemlines. By 1930, skirts ended several inches below the knee.
Flappers
-
A model recreates the flapper-style of short skirt, bare arms and exposed knees. The term "flapper" originated in Great Britain when some women began wearing their wet-weather overshoes called galoshes unfastened so they would flap when they walked. Although that fad faded, the term stuck as the nickname for a class of liberated young women. Flappers shocked conservatives by wearing their hair in a short style called a bob, smoking cigarettes, listening to jazz and wearing makeup. Their makeup included dark red lipstick, copious amounts of rouge and black lines around the eye.Their fashions featured short shift dresses, flat chests and exposed limbs.
Menswear
-
As the 1920s began, men returning home from the war returned to fashions from the 1910s, such as the three-piece sack suit. It was worn with a colored shirt in peach, blue-gray or cedar and a silk tie decorated with stripes or geometric patterns secured with a tie pin. A man completed his look with a hat, such as a bowler. Another popular style was the jazz suit featuring a long, tight-waisted jacket and tight pants. In 1924, Oxford and Cambridge universities banned the popular casual knee-length pants called knickerbockers or knickers. In response, students began hiding their knickers beneath extra-baggy flannel pants nicknamed Oxford Bags. In 1925, Oxford Bags became a fad among American undergraduates as well.
-
References
- Photo Credit Dynamic Graphics Group/Dynamic Graphics Group/Getty Images Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
