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The impact of 1920s fashion
Essays about the history of flappers
Flappers and what they did
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Imagine walking in the streets where all other women and girls are dressed in long dresses, look modest, and have long hair with hats. Then, there is a girl with a short skirt and bobbed hair smoking a cigarette. This girl makes a statement and is critically judged by many people for dressing this way. Women during the 1920s were not to look “boyish” in any way, so when short hair and short skirt were introduced, it was seen as shameful. The girls wearing this new style were known as flappers. Their style was introduced in the early 1910s but did not spark until the 1920s. The style was said to be more comfortable, but was not appealing to the more conservative. Before the change of style, most women were dressed modestly; however, women's
Views on the modest vs. flapper style were very different. In Cleve’s article, it explains how the Flappers focus their style around dating and being attractive whereas the modest women would wear very conservative clothes or what the men wanted. The Flapper was seen that it could hurt a woman’s reputation to be dressed in that way but it was also seen as a stand for women’s rights to achieve self-fulfillment. During the modest era women had little to no rights and did whatever the man told her and would run the house. The media was all over the change in society and came out saying how the style was more comfortable compared to the cumbersome and restrictive style before (8). An anonymous person states this about the change in the past, “revealing clothing and visible cosmetics worn by young women were the cause, or at least a consequence, of this new conception of female sexuality” (qtd. in Cleve 2). Another anonymous person states, “They feel that beauty is not incompatible with modesty…” (qtd. in Cleve 1). Flappers believed that they were not seen as pretty when dressing restrictive and they finally wanted to dress for themselves. The style change was seen as a terrible thing for society back then but they would never know what kind of effect it had on the future. Modern day style has been shaped around the Flappers in a way. Nowadays women are always wearing short skirts or somewhat revealing clothing. Women are wearing cosmetics and everyone has a different hairstyle. For the long decade of a different look on style it has completely changed how women are dressed in modern day. In the end, women during 1920s would make a huge impact on style in the
From coast to coast people were reading the exploits of a new type of woman called flapper. Prior to World War 1 Victorian ideals still dictated the behavior of American women and girls. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the traditional role of women. Women were the guardians of morality. They were made of finer stuff than men. They were expected to act accordingly. Young girls must look forward in innocence to a romantic love match which would lead them to the altar and to living happily ever after. Until the right man came along they must allow no male to kiss them. Flappers did the opposite. Flappers danced the Charleston, kissed their boyfriends while they played golf and sat behind the wheels of fast cars. The liberated usually young female disdained the traditions of her mother and grandmother before her. Flappers would smoke and drink alcohol, she cut her hair and wore short dresses. They also changed their views on courtship rituals, marriage, and child rearing. With these they could have the same freedom as men could. The time period also saw a highly physical change in women’s lives like how they dressed and looked. For the first time in American history women could choose to be free from long hair and voluminous clothing. Before the women changed they wore very restrictive clothing consisting of long skirts with layers of petticoats over tightly laced corsets that produced an hourglass figure with wide hips and a narrow waist.
According to the book Flappers: a Guide to an American Subculture written by Kelly Boyer Sagert, “Early in the 1920s, flappers epitomized the battle for freedom in terms of self-expression, female equality, and indulgence in pleasures.” The first of these three components of this fight for autonomy was conveyed through fashion and beauty choices highly popularized by flappers, such as bobbed hair, bold makeup, short skirts, and rolled stockings; all of which redefining the perception of the feminine form and silhouette. Significant gains were also made towards the battle for gender equality when women were granted suffrage, therefore permitting their opinions and ideologies to be present in political decisions and allowing women to be more involved in local, state, and national affairs. In addition, flappers went against societal norms for women and began indulging in pleasurable activities, such as attending speakeasies, dancing the Charleston with numerous male suitors at jazz clubs, and engaging in casual sex as opposed to remaining reserved and modest as women in earlier generations had (Sagert, 2010). As said by author Jonathan Zeitz in his book Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, “They believed that life should be lived moment to moment, not according to
The 'Standard'. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who. Made America Modern. New York: Crown Publishing Inc., 2006.
Short skirts, bobbed hair, excessive makeup, all terms consistently used to describe Flappers. The term Flapper was thought to originate from England to describe the awkward age of girls in their mid- teens. By the 1920s, Flapper constituted an entirely new image, and meaning. The Flappers caused a hugecontroversy in their time period not only because they defied the social constructions that the past generation had revered, but also because they did so flamboyantly. The rise of the Flappers was a representation of a younger female generations change and disruption in older stereotypical social order by asking for equal education, work opportunities, sexual freedom and suffrage. While youth feminist movements are prevalent in history and even
Women during the 1920's lifestyle, fashion, and morals were very different than women before the 1920's. Flappers became the new big thing after the 19th amendment was passed. Women's morals were loosened, clothing and haircuts got shorter, and fashion had a huge role in these young women.
woman's body. Flapper was invented to describe a so called new breed.Flapper women wore bobbed hair, short skirts, and they enjoyed listening to jazz music.Flappers also drove cars and smoked, the word flapper is another word for prostitute. Many people disapproved of flappers because they thought they showed too much. Louise Brooks was a fashion icon of the 1920’s, she often wore flappers. “Coco Chanel’s motto was ...
The roaring twenties was often recognized as the era of the flappers. Trendy women were often referred to as a “flapper”. The flapper “became the image that represented the tremendous change in women's lives and attitudes during the 1920s”. This term, flapper, was originated in Great Britain and then ended up becoming a pervasive term around Europe and North America. These women were often young and described as “confident, bold, sexy” females. They tried new diets to achieve a thinness, because “new fashions required slim figures, flat chests, and slim hips.”
Women began to dress and act in ways that before had been considered improper”(Wukovits 15). According to the quote from the book, The 1920s, society was changing it conception about roles, especially those concerning women. This change allowed women to define themselves from something that was different then what had already been done. Thus, the flapper was born. According to Kelly Boyer Sagagert’s book Flappers, a flapper was a woman, or young woman, who wore short dresses, bobbed their hair, cursed, drank, smoked, and petted. According to Dictionary.com, petting is defined as kissing, caressing, and other sexual activity between partners that does not involve sexual intercourse. By using Sagagert’s definition of a flapper, one can see that she rebelled against the norms of society. Even in the film, Bare Knees, it was apparent that there were two types of women. Billie was the textbook definition of a flapper, she smoke, drank, bobbed her hair, and wore short dresses. Her older sister Jane, on the other hand, was the more traditional type; she listened to her husband, did not drink or smoke, and never wore short dresses. What classified a woman as a flapper in the
Early on in the 20s woman began to change both in actions and appearance; they had short hair, had dresses showing ankles,began smoking and drinking in public. There was an uproar, especially from the conservative woman. Up until this time women were portrayed as perfect home makers that only cared for the home, their children and their husbands. But the era changed and with it the style too, the 1920s brought along a new desired fashion, the flapper. Flappers were portrayed as rebellious youth who had short hair, flashy clothes, bold make-up and listened to jazz. While many women of the 1920s were not flappers, the fashion did catch on, therefore the “scanda...
In the 1920’s, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote. During this decade women became strong and more independent. Women were accomplishing a lot more than they had before. Women started going to college so she could earn her own living. More women started leaving the home and working at a factory or as a secretary. Women were discriminated at the work place. They received lower wages then man did. In the 1920’s, the term flapper was introduced. It was first used in Britain after World War 1. Young women were labeled as flappers who wore makeup shorter skirts. Fl...
Flappers often influenced men because of how they dressed, how they walked, and how they presented themselves. White men had to deal with some disadvantages because they were no longer a focus point for flappers; they mainly focused on African Americans and immigrant men (NIcholas 106). It also added “One more level of alleged disadvantage for white, working class, and middle classed men already tarnished masculine identity (Nicholas 106). Flappers also had many contributions as to how they could influence the behavior of men in the areas of cosmetics and popular culture. Makeup represented emancipation and modernity which means that women began to express their newfound freedom and ventured in the modern era of fashion (Hoobler 104). Women also started to openly put on makeup in public and the popular lipstick color was red (Hoobler 104). Eyeliner and mascara were also heavily used to purposely avoid the “natural look” and to make their eyes bigger and bolder (Hoobler 104). Popular culture originally centered on the idea of media focused on private lives. Most movies in the 1920’s focused on romance that hinted at sex (Streissguth 40). “Spicy novels and confessional magazines uncovered private lives (Streissguth 40).” Flappers were able to influence men in both good and bad ways by choosing to reestablish white men as the new minority and to introduce the world-wide use of cosmetics and popular
The flapper era was the time of the worship of youth (pandorasbox/flapper). Flappers were women of the Jazz Age. They had measurements of pre-adolescent boys, with no waistline, no bust, and no butt. Flappers had short hair worn no longer than chin length, called bobs. Their hair was often dyed and waved into flat, head-hugging curls and accessorized with wide, soft headbands. It was a new and most original style for women.
During the day, women wore the cloche hat-one of the most persistent fashions of the decade-to tea dances, to lunch parties at their own homes, and around town in the streets (Herald 30). The evening fashion of the flappers was elaborate and exquisite. They wore low-cut dresses made from beaded chiffon fabrics (Women’s Fashion). The length of dresses and skirts of the era was not accidental. They were so short that the tops of the stockings were typically seen (Herald 29). Flappers’ fashion during the 1920s was hoydenish and haughty, with dresses that hung free from the body, bare arms shown, and hemlines that gradually crept up the knee and higher as the 1920s progressed (Jailer-Chamberlain). The 1920s was a splendid time of new freedoms for women expressed through rakish fashion
...as because with little money this style was very cost effective. Women began wearing the same clothes as men which as mainly high-tops or ugg boots and hoodies. By wearing the same style as men women were finally seen as equals.
Fashion is a form people use as a way for self expression. For me, fashion dictates how a person sense of style is; some may be bold and loud or simple and calm in which it also gives others an outlook on how their character may be. Although fashion is a way to express ones’ sense of style it does not tells us who the person is personally. Fashion in the society of the 1900s has changed female gender roles then and now by the way their roles changed during the time.