Flappers In The 1920s

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