The 1920s is making a huge impact on this season’s fashion

The 1920’s was the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. After World War I, social customs and morals were relaxed in the optimism brought on by the end of the war and new music and dances came on the scene. There was a revolution in almost every sphere of human activity and fashion was no exception.

Clothing changed with women’s changing roles in modern society, particularly with the idea of new fashion. 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.

This season, many high street ranges timewarped to the roaring 20’s. One of these is London brand People’s Market. This retro inspired collection celebrates the wild and bohemian post World War 1 Parisian world. The People’s Market AW09 collection evokes the underground Paris scene of free spirited artists, romance and decadent smoky cafés. Pieces are crafted from starkly contrasting fabrics, such as structured wools fused with silk chiffons.

In keeping with the 20’s throwback look, masculine shapes appear throughout this Autumn Winter. Sharp shapes appear in People’s Market tailored shirts, loose peg trousers and padded blazers surface alongside flapper dresses, single shoulder bodycon cocktail dresses and gauze panelled blouses. Scooped necklines and swing and cocoon coats further add to the 1920’s aesthetic, creating a sexy, elegant, yet youthful look. [Peoples Market is available in Limerick at Imasa, in Dublin at the Arnotts Project, Neola’s of Malahide and Tigerlilly in Tyrellstown along with other leading boutiques throughout the country. For a closer look at the collection log onto www.peoples-market.com.]

Dressing in the 1920’s…

A fashionable 1920’s flapper had short sleek hair, a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, a chest as flat as a board, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder, exposed her limbs and epitomised the spirit of a reckless rebel who danced the nights away in the Jazz Age. The French called the flapper fashion style the ‘garçonne’.

Dress and coat lengths were actually calf length and quite long for most of the decade. Shortness is a popular misconception reinforced by the availability of moving film of the Charleston dance which shows very visible knees and legs on the dancing flappers.

The Masculine Silhouette of 1920’s - female clothes became looser and more shapeless in fit. The bust was suppressed, the waist disappeared, the shoulders became broader and hair shorter and shorter.

Girdles and Underwear - between 1920 and 1928 corset sales declined by two thirds, but it adapted to changing needs. Fast flappers refused to wear corsets and rolled their stockings to the knee to enable them to dance easily. Long Corsets produced the boyish figure, but instead of thick boned corsets many women preferred thin elastic webbing Lastex girdles that flattened the abdomen. Suspenders were attached to the girdles.

Short hair - the 1920’s saw a universal fashion for short hair a more radical move beyond the curtain styles of the war era. Hair was first bobbed, then shingled, then Eton cropped in 1926-7. An Eton crop was considered daring and shocked some older citizens, since hair had always been thought a woman’s crowning glory.

An Air of Nudity in Stockings and Bare Arms - the arms were bared not only for evening, but also for day and the legs were covered in beige stockings visible to the knee which gave an overall more naked look than ever before. Feet, ankles and calves formerly hidden and encased in black stockings were suddenly on show. By the 1920’s stockings with patterns were hot fashion items. Embroidery snaked around the ankles and up to the knees.