What Was The Role Of Fashion In The 1920's

As a whole, the 1920’s was a symbol for social rebellion. Prior to the 1920’s, women were conservative in regards to how they dressed; most never showed any ankles or anything scandalous. During this time period, women began to now change. After watching several actresses in theaters act in movies, women began to act like the actresses that they watched. These women, called “Flappers,” drank, smoked, and dressed in what was scandalous back then. Women also rebelled against their traditional domestic roles. Before the 1920’s, women would just pretty much strictly stay at home or work in factories with poor conditions. During World War I though, women stepped up and had to work the higher paying jobs that the men worked, which opened many new doors to women. They now had jobs

The 1920s was an age of drastic social and political changes. For the first time in history, more Americans started living in cities rather than on farms. Americans were wealthier than ever before. People from coast to coast bought similar goods, listened to the same music, did the same dances, and even used related slang. Numerous Americans were uncomfortable with this unfamiliar, urban, and occasionally racy “mass culture”. In fact, for a large number of people in the United States, the 1920s brought more conflict than celebration. However, for a minuscule handful of youth in the nation’s larger cities, the 1920s were roaring. Prohibition gave criminals a way to illegally make money; gangsters, young men who worked in criminal gangs, began selling on the black-market alcohol. Young woman emerged during the 1920s with different appearance, attitude, and behavior; with a bobbed haircut and short skirts.

In the age before the Roaring Twenties, women were still repressed and followed a strict dress code. They wore long dress that came down to their toes, waists were cinched and arms and legs were covered. However, in the 1920s, new generation for women begun. Trendy young women in Western area were nicknamed the flapper. Flappers had a whole new style. They had short haircuts called bobbed hair, wore short skirts and wore heavy makeups. “The Flappers' image consisted of drastic - to some, shocking - changes in women's clothing and hair. Nearly every article of clothing was trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier.” (Rosenberg) Not only they had a whole new style, but they had whole new attitudes and behaviors too. Flappers drank, smoke, drove, enjoyed jazz music, and had casual sex. They were symbol of women’s freedom and liberation, as well as the symbol of change in women’s life and attitudes towards the “social norms” expected from women.

As this article focused on the change of American culture during World War II, another main point was how the clothing styles changed. In the 1930s, women mainly wore conservative, but stately dresses. After women entered manual factory work, they needed to wear appropriate clothing, such as pants and flat shoes (Hall, Orzada, and Lopez-Gydosh). Because pants did not fit the woman’s picture, clothing companies had to shift to comply with the demand. Due to this, not only did the workforce demographics change, companies and products changed from past

The Jazz culture inspired multiple dances, such as the Black Bottom and the ever-popular Charleston. These dances required lots of movement leading to a shift in women’s fashion. Women wore less undergarments, went without coresets, and designed dresses that allowed for more freedom of movement. In 1921, Coco Chanel introduced the “drop-waist” dress, which were worn with long strings of glass beads or pearls. By 1925 these dresses resembled the shifts that were worn under the dresses of the early 1900. Evening dress were made up of mesh material, sleeveless, low v-neckline or backless, and sometimes adorned with sequence. These new fashions were advertised in fashion magazines that made their appearance in the 20s, Vouge, The Queen, and the

Many of the trends from the Roaring Twenties were set or seen at the parties thrown by the rich such as Gatsby did in the novel. Many of the trends were fashion, especially women, music, and dances. Fashion had changed a lot after and during the war. Dress making and custom styles were beginning to break out. New textures and patterns created the 1920’s style. For women many more options were now acceptable. A daring new style of skirts and dresses worn above the knee were popular. “1920's Dresses were lighter and brighter and shorter than ever before” (1920's Womens Fashion). Jewelry and many other embellishments were added now more than ever. “An increased sense of freedom was expressed in simple yet elegant designs, with carefully selected fabrics, and an intelligent use of color” (1920's Womens Fashion).

The Roaring Twenties brought many fads and fashion rages. During the 1920's, Americans were given the honor of being called the "best- dressed". Several things contributed to this honor: Affordable pricing, mass production clothing, the birth of the "flapper girl", and rise of fashionable movie stars that Americans wanted to imitate.

During the 1920’s many changes had occurred from the types of music to different types of attire. But the biggest change was the role of women. In this period women were starting to look a lot different than they did. They went from wearing really big puffy dresses to very simple clothing. They started to show a little more skin and wore loose clothes to hide their curves.

The Great Depression caused woman to want to save money and not spend much on clothing. All over people were struggling to keep money in their pockets, so no one would spend big bucks on designer outfits. Women tended to make their own new clothes from other clothes they already had. “The life motto of many was to ‘Repair, reuse, make do, and don’t waste anything’; therefore, any creativity was apparently confined to those boundaries.(The Vintage News, 2016)” During this time no one wanted to out shine others so they dressed very conservative. Shoulder pads and butterfly sleeves were coming into trend.

Fashion during the Great Depression was very different from 1920’s because poor people struggled and used cheap resources as clothing. Men’s fashion was pointed towards the job they worked, and women’s fashion was practical, yet simple. Poor families had to use their resources to create items for them to live, like clothes. Clothing in poor families was usually made from flour sacks. Women during the Depression had an elegant style, but it was practical for the work they did. Men always looked sharp, but their pieces were made of cheaper fabrics to save money. There were many styles for different families, working women, and men with specific needs during the Great Depression in the 1930’s.

When men went off to war women had to step into formally male dominated jobs and responsibilities. This blurring of gender roles led to a significant change in women and women’s fashion. Women cut their hair short and changed their style of dress to exemplify these new active roles in the public sphere. Historians see “short hair and a looser, more carefree style of clothing as a reflection of a new freedom of movement women enjoyed in both the professional and social circles that was itself brought about by the war.”(Roberts 662)

Even gravity could not hold down the pace of progressive change of the 1920s. Revolutionary inventions, free spirit the urban culture, gaudy fashion, equal rights and individualism ushered in a new decade in America. During the Roaring Twenties, women took a separate path than what society had placed upon them. These victorian style garments were disposed as risky attire distinguished the modern woman and set the standards for women’s fashion. From flappers to the everyday women, a style icon named Coco Chanel created styles that were the vogue of the twenties. Coco Chanel’s innovative ideas broke the boundaries of traditional to modern women’s fashion in the 1920s.

The 1920’s fashion was a period of liberation, change, and even more importantly a movement towards the modern era. Fashion in the 1920’s varied throughout the decade but one could see the noticeable change from the previous fashion statements and eras. At the start of the decade, women began emancipating themselves from the constricting fashions by wearing more comfortable apparel. As women gained more rights and World War I forced them to become more independent, flappers came to be, mass-produced garments became available, and artistic movements increased in popularity, one can see how the fashions from the roaring twenties characterized the time and redefined womanhood. (1920s clothing 1)

It may have seemed like all the women were on a equal playing field by the end of the 1920’s, but they may not have been. As previously mentioned, women were trying to pass off fake jewelry as real to fit in with the upper crowd. The upper class women were losing their dominance in the fashion world and it was evident they were not happy. Style leagues that would dictate fashion by elected officials began to pop up in New York City. It seemed that if they could not rule fashion by purchasing uncopied frocks, they would create policies and dictate the “in” designs and accessories themselves (“Society Women Form Style League” 64). Taking hold of the industry, the elected officials would “cooperate with manufacturers, designers, fashion artists and women who are socially and professionally ‘chic’” (“Society Women Form Style League” 64). This was without a doubt the official beginning of what we now call the group of women who run behind the name, “fashion police.” As the lower to middle class women climbed the rungs of the fashion ladder, the upper class women were doing all that they could to push the ladder off the

The skirt is one of the most used pieces since antiquity. Whether it be a sexy or elegant look, they have gained different cuts and lengths over the decades - evasé, balonê, round, short, long - but the question remains: after all, how did this fashion item come that we both love? Glamor tells you!