Shoulders Of Coats Were Cut Broad With Voluminous Armholes: To

Over these bare arms -in daytime -a wrap coat, worn with scarves and if she could afford it -fur accessories.

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! Capes appeared by the initial stage of the 1920’s with gabardine being a favorite fabric, with an intention to compliment the newer slimmer silhouettes in evening gowns. Shoulders of coats were cut broad with voluminous armholes, that intensified the look of ‘shapelessness’.

Huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, Chanel, Lanvin, Lelong, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can’t be underestimated, 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 aside from the whims of clothing designers, as for changes in fashion.

The 1920’s was a cultural revolution! 1920’s was a cultural revolution! Generally, the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, Chanel, Lanvin, Lelong, 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 apart from the whims of clothing designers, as for changes in fashion.

While 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. Virtually 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. Silk was the favored fabric in chiffon, velvet and taffeta. Did you know that the modern ‘myth’ of the ‘flapper’ party dress is more a relic of the 1960’s revival. So 19th amendment of the US Constitution in 1920 finally brought the vote to American women and with it a new feeling 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.

The inspirational Paris based travelling ballet company Ballet Russes also came to an end after a 20 year run which had helped revolutionize fashion.

The hairdressers retaliated with the ‘crop’, the ‘bob hair cut‘, the ‘finger wave‘ and the ‘shingle‘ popularized by Polish born Antoine ‘de Paris’. Whenever forcing the closure of the company and dispersal of its dancers, its founder Serge Diaghilev died with substantial debts.

Lingerie fabrics were of silk, ‘crepedechine’, rayon and a brand new soft transparent fabric crepe Georgette devised by Chanel contemporary Georgette de la Plante. 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 around the globe. With that said, 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. Her 1920’s Dress Design book ‘Modern Dressmaking’ was extremely popular amongst ‘home dressmakers’ and rare copies are a problem to find.

In the USA, the prohibition of alcohol produced the inevitable response of thousands of speak easy run by gangsters springing up across the nation.

One Notable such club to hit the headlines was the Krazy Kat Klub in Washington. You should find a young bohemian movement -flying the flag for freedom of self expression, and the major cities of Paris, Berlin, NYC 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. That’s interesting. 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 similar to The Kit Cat Club, where the bright young things should carouse in decadence as satirized in Evelyn Waughs Vile Bodies.

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. Accordingly the names of the movie costumers as were as popular as the Paris Couturiers. Therefore, 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 top exuberance of 1920s Hollywood.

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 will go to a polar opposite of -no curves really, straight figure, flat chests and boyish look.

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. Remember, it was a battle between the feminine and the modernist.

Read our History of 1920s Makeup for the more detailed illustrated story of how the consumer boom in women’s makeup really took off in the roaring twenties. Day wear evolved into simple layered ‘suitstyled’ jackets or cardigans, jersey blouses, and pleated skirts. Fact, by 1926, most spring and summer dresses were sleeveless or cap sleeved ‘scoopneck’ lightweight dresses with a lowered waist or no waistline whatsoever. Now let me tell you something. 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. Cosmetics counters were fast becoming the norm in ladies departments stores and pharmacies.

The aforementioned memorable scene from Clara Bow’s IT, where she took 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.

With nipped waists and billowing skirts -called Robe de Style, at the start of the decade the couture designs from Paris drew mostly from historical lines.

There was the Dutch bob or Pageboy bob, Orchid bob, The Eton Crop, Egyptian bob, Coconut bob, Moana bob, Charleston Cut, The Shingle, Kiss curl, Extreme Windblown, Frizzy Tousled Bob, The Poodle Cut, SoftwaveBob, Brushed Back Bob and so on. In 1926 Wall Street Journal reported that Holeproofs annual sales had increased from 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.

Audiences were mesmerized by those early icons of the silver screen just like Theda Bara, Gloria Swanson, Alice White, Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Colleen Moore.

They inspired millions of women to copy their fashion, coiffures and makeup looks. So 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 amongst the most significant paintings of the era. Dorothy Parker had a thing or two to say about these vivacious women.

Then the real kudos for the ‘sudden’ popularity of the little grey dress goes to Hollywood designer Travis Banton and Clara Bow. Below is a small selection of beautiful 1920’s day and evening dress shoes -from the excellent Moscow based -online shoe museum Shoe Icons -a veritable Aladdin’s cave for all women’s shoe fans. Tubular silhouette, the backless chemise dress the lowered waistline, the bobbed hair, the feather boas, the long necklines and cigarette holders, the new slang and oodles of art deco influenced faux jewellery. Have you heard about something like this before, right? The first half hour of the iconic movie IT look of the decade.

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 It’s a well-known fact that the famous Diving Girl logo heralded a really 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. Nevertheless, swimsuits were still often of wool, and as such were not ideal for the job.

With its easy capacity to flatter, she also had a penchant for the color grey, and with the launch of her little grey dress in 1926 -Chanel endorsed the validity of grey -several years before any other designer saw its power. Actually the arrival of the Jazz Age from the city of New Orleans and the music of Louis Armstrong became the anthem for the flapper, grey or whitish 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. Then, 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 with an increase in fashion marketing, the merging of the Arts Decoratifs and new Modernist movements; Accordingly the cultural impact of a world war which reduced the grip of the class system on both sides of the Atlantic.

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.

The 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 the early 1920’s -the popular style was to wear blackish rolled stockings with your swimsuit, thanks to the Max Sennett’s Bathing Beauties, though this idea -however charming to look at, disappeared within a few years. For the most part there’re designs by Jeanne Lanvin as far back as 1914 which show these styles -albeit worn by younger girls. I know it’s difficult to say with any accuracy who first created the drop waist look. Now please pay attention. 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. Top designers just like Jean Patou and newer emerging talents like Sonia Delaunay believed that fine art should be integrated seamlessly into textiles and clothing. Coco Chanel had published a collection of evening gowns in 1916 in Harpers Bazaar which showed a clear move towards a drop waist style,achieved with loose fitted belts.

As early as 1908 -when Paul Poiret produced his Les Robes De Paul Poiret -illustrated by Paul Iribe -a total break away occurred from the conventional presentation of new lines in clothing.

Whenever 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. Iribe, was amidst 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.

For day wear -during the colder months a girl would wear a wrapover coat or jacket/cardigan -worn with blouse and a pleated skirt -not forgetting the obligatory cloche hat definitely. It was all about revealing shoulders and backs, in evening gowns, the hem rose and fell as the decade waxed and waned. 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 Chatillon Mouly Rousse Autumn Collection, where a regular choice was a basic shift dress -now often sleeveless.

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.

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. However, this page boy bob is the most iconic hairstyle of the 1920s. Women of a daring disposition could not wait to jump into them.

Leading brands of foundation wear in the 1920s included Gossard, Spirella, Berlei, Symingtons and Sears Roebuck and a 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 took enthusiastically disrobed quite a few of their female stars to show off undergarments. I know that the lesbian artist Gerda Wegener whose portraits of her transgendered partner Lili Elbe have also become iconic images of the liberated 1920s woman.

Evening gowns in the first season of 1921 unusual were magnificence, luxurious works of decorative art.

Silk was still the main sought after fabric, and a typical colours were beige and greyish and white being the most favoured. Gowns draped on women of impossibly refined silhouettes now declared a brand new ideal of beauty -slenderness. Whenever 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. For instance, not only did the waist drop -but most significantly, the hemlines rose -dangerously! However, 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.

Therefore the major designers in modernist fashions included Chanel, Lanvin and new surrealist designers like Elsa Schiaparelli and Sonia Delauney. Through the dissemination of haute couture to the streets of ordinary women -thanks to the Paris Patterns, published weekly in magazines like the Pictorial Review. Loads of gowns were designed with the new dances in mind so freedom of movement was always important to a party going girl. For the working class girl -the new fabric Rayon -an artificial silk, was the alternative when it came to designing an evening frock.

When the ‘Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes‘ opened in Paris with exhibits from twenty eight nations, by April 1925 Decorative arts and design or Arts Decoratifs was merging with a completely new ‘modernist’ appeal that was ‘anti decorative’ and almost industrial. Though nowadays referred to as Art Deco, the look that was to dominate up until the late 1930’s, was a combination of feminine and ‘modern’ industrial inspired designs. And therefore the new short bob is chic …. It was the ‘Age of Chic’ -a word that found itself into the vocabulary of almost almost any fashion article or advert written. Considering the above said. Sequinned dresses are chic for evening ….

With imaginative film sets and stunning gowns adorning their female stars, in all creative arts right on up to ollywood enthusiastically endorsed this new demure style from the late 1920’s, art Deco style was the dominant feature, not only in fashion.

For a complete and lavishly illustrated guide to the history of ‘make up’ in the 1920s -Read the History of Makeup -The 1920’s or visit Vintage Make up Guide.

Until fashion photography took its place in 1930s film magazines like Hollywood’s Photoplay, the magazines of the period, displayed a simplicity that is striking. For ageser than life young ladies, tubular for a while grey holders, cloche hats, bobbed hair and hands of diamond bracelets. Making an entrance as an outerwear item in 1916 from designers just like 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. It’s an interesting fact that the dress hung from shoulder to just below the knee -the waist dropped to the hips.

Did you know that the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, for a while, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can not be underestimated, 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 aside from the whims of clothing designers, as for changes in fashion.

The 1920’s was a cultural revolution! Actually the 1920’s was a cultural revolution! Generally, the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, for ages, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can’t be underestimated, 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.

Did you know that the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, for ages, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can’t be underestimated, similar to 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 apart from the whims of clothing designers, as for changes in fashion.

The 1920’s was a cultural revolution! 1920’s was a cultural revolution! Generally, the huge influence of Paris designers like Poiret, Patou, Molyneux, for awhile, Callot Soeurs and Vionnet can not 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.