Research for OTSThe Era

The 1920’s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 19229, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar ‘consumer society’. The 18th Amendment and the Volstead act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it, many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. This drove the liquor trade underground, people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies instead of ordinary bars: where it was controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organised crime figures.

During this period many Americans had extra money to spend, and they spent it on consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothes and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The first commercial radio station in the US hit the airwaves in 1920, three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s there were radios in more than 12 million households. Despite the household inventions that helped women of the era become free there were other inventions such as an instant camera, sunglasses, television and penicillin.

Many young people wanted to dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom, the flea hop. Some older people objected to jazz music’s’ ‘vulgarity’ but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dancefloor.

The carefree attitude of the young generation was a reaction to World War I. Losing so many young men to war gave people a ‘live for the now’ energy. Women were also seeing more opportunity in life, having taken the place of men in factories and fields gave them a taste for jobs outside domestic service.

Women’s fashion

The most familiar symbol of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said ‘unladylike’ things. In reality most women in the 1920’s did none of these things but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms. Clothing fashions changed with women’s changing roles in society, particularly with the idea of new fashion. Although society matrons of a certain age continued to wear conservative dresses, the sportswear worn by forward-looking and younger women became the greatest change in post-war fashion.

“With silken legs and scarlet lipsWe’re young and hungry, wild and free,

Our waists are round about the hipsOur skirts are well above the knee

We’ve boyish busts and Eton crops,We quiver to the saxophone

Come, dance before the music stopsfor who can bear to be alone?”

-James Laver – The Women of 1926

The flapper dress was functional and flattened the bust line rather than accentuating it. The straight-line chemise topped by the close-fitting cloche hat became the uniform of the day. Women ‘bobbed’ or cut their hair short to fit under the popular hats, a radical move in the beginning, but standard by the end of the decade. Low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline allowed women to literally kick up their heels in new dances such as the Charleston. In 1925, shift dresses with no waistline emerged. At the end of the decade, dresses were being worn with straight bodices and collars.

Undergarments began to transform after World War I to conform to the ideals of a flatter chest and more boyish figure. The women’s rights movement had a strong effect on women's fashions. Most importantly, the confining corset was discarded, replaced by a chemise or camisole and bloomers, later shortened to panties or knickers. During the mid-1920s, all-in-one lingerie became popular. Above is an example of the casual boyish look that women in the 1920s captured. This involved long knitwear, blazers and flattening shirts.

For the first time in centuries, women's legs were seen with hemlines rising to the knee and dresses becoming more fitted. A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton crop and the Marcel wave. The fashion was bohemian and forthcoming for its age.

Women’s makeup and hair

Women in the 1920’s tended to have cut their hair short to fit under their hats easily. Therefore many wore short bobs in the early 1920’s with finger waves. They tended to style this hair with extravagant headpieces. Jeweled headbands were designed with an ancient Egyptian look to them and one style of blunt-cut bob with a wispy fringe was called the Egyptian bob. This was inspired by hairstyles seen in Egyptian art and the year of the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.

The Victorian belief was that hair was a girl’s ‘crowning glory’ however women decided to take on the option of the bob leading to those women working in the public to be fired on the spot if they came into work with a bob. Some schools even banned bobs. The variations of bobs can be seen below.

The Shingle

The shingle where the hair is thinned at the back to the nape

with a razor, exposing the hairline (often left in a tapered

shape). The front of the hair was longer and kept in place

with grips or slides.

Orchid Bob

Orchid bob is a short bob with two definitely flicked-up side

curls that sit on the cheeks. The rest of the hair was sleek and

smooth. When worn under a cloche, the two curls would peek

out.

Coconut Bob

Coconut bob is a very short and unforgiving style, with a

solid straight fringe and no parting. The hair length sat around

the middle or top of the ears.

Moana Bob

Has a fringe that with a distinctive parting that ran parallel to

the forehead. The rest of the hair was swept back over the

crown.

The 1920s women were the first to truly create an artificial face. Startling eyes, scarlet lips and pale pallor. The consumer boom in makeup simplified women’s requirements and a handbag carried all daring flapper needed. Cake mascara was applied with a brush and the ever present push up tube lipstick. The key makeup looks of the 1920s were:

Eyes – kohl eyeshadow for the daring and often eyeliner Eyebrows – plucked for the first time and drawn downward towards the temple Lips – lips were smaller than the natural outline and fashioned into the cupids bow shape Lashes – mascara was the new range and no woman could resist enhancing her lashes Rouge – applied in circles rather than angular, the effect was a rounded face Nails – the big name was Revlon and the popular style was the moon manicure leaving the tip

painted

Men’s fashion

For the past few centuries, men had worn some variation on three-piece suits. Edwardian upper-class men in particular had been very formal, changing clothes several times a day as propriety dictated. The war changed attitudes and did much to level the classes, which reflected in fashion. Younger men, in a switch from wearing clothes of their elders adopted a look all of their own with baggy plus fours and wide-legged trousers. Suits were simpler, with just sim, unpadded jackets over the trousers, and fabrics and colours were lighter and brighter than anyone had seen in years, reflecting the brightness of the music, theatre and good times.

For the workplace or most daily business, men of all ages wore suits. However, whereas suits had traditionally been broad-shouldered, they were now cut to give men a slimmer, boyish look. Tight jackets with sloping shoulders ruled the day. Ties became more casual. Bow ties were fashionable, but so were knit ties, which was a vast difference from the silk that had been so prevalent. The knit tie went well with both the collegiate look and leisure clothes that were so popular.

Much of men’s clothing in the 1920s took its cue from what popular athletes were wearing. The plus-fours, plus-sixes and plus-eights of course, were worn by golf stars such as Bobby Jones who topped them with colourful Fair Isle sweaters.

With casual wear so radically different from previous decades, and women’s clothing changing so boldly, it may be something of a surprise to note that men’s formal wear in the 1920s was much the same as it had

always been. Black was the only colour to wear in the evening and while the frock coat had given way to the tailcoat, the overall look was the same. A starched white shirt and high collar with a bow tie was worn under the tails, and the black trousers topped shiny black shoes.

No man of any class was out in public without a hat. That had been true for centuries and was still very much the case in the 1920s. In summer, light blazers were topped by a Panama straw hat or the shallow, flattop, stiff-brimmed hats called either boaters or skimmers, depending on the brim’s width. Autumn and winter were all about the felt fedora, worn with panache by gangsters but beloved of all men for their style and comfort.