1920s Fashion | The Roaring '20s

If ever there was a monumental shift in fashion it occurred during the early 1920s.

The new designs coming out of House of Chanel, fashion designers like Paul Poiret ushered in a new era of fashion.

The rise of flapper fashion paralleled closely with the rise of jazz and these new French fashions that were showing up more and more in the department stores and catalogs of rural America.

The 1920s were known as "The Golden Age of French Fashion."

Coco Chanel almost single handedly gave rise to the "flapper look" with her simple dresses, the use of flashy yet simple jewelry, and "convention be damned" attitude.

Flapper dresses were about attitude as much as they were about style.

As the decade progressed fashion designers pushed the envelope of what was socially acceptable, speaking about the flapper dress a famous rhyme of the Roaring twenties went: "glimpse of stocking could be quite shocking."

Drinking, making out in the back of automobiles, dancing to all hours of the night, all became popular pastimes for the "It Girls" of the 1920s.

From a citrus orchard to a bustling city in less than 30 years, 1920s Hollywood was the pinnacle of elegance and fashion in the Roaring '20s.

Just after the 1910s started, young film makers like Cecil DeMille moved west from New York to take advantage of the good weather and the cheap price of land. The poem by Arthur Freed went:
Out where they say,
let us be gay,
I'm going to Hollywood.
I'll ballyhoo
greetings to you.
I'm going to Hollywood.

The celebrities followed the money and fame. Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and Mary Pickford all made there names for themselves during the 1920s. Please Read more about Hollywood in the 1920s

1920s hairstyles are one of the most iconic elements of 1920s women's fashion. The influence of celebrities like Louise Brooks, Josephine Baker and Clara Bow pervaded the minds of women worldwide, and made it edgy and acceptable to cut their hair short.

Like the dresses of the era women's hair was cut short because it was easier to manage, and fit underneath the Cloche hats that were popular in the 2nd half of the decade.

Here are some popular hairstyles of the 1920s:

The Bob: Was the standard cut. Introduced during World War 1 it was the popular hairstyle for young women looking to remove the constraints of childhood and assert their independence.

"I like to drink and f*&%"
--Louise Brooks: 1920s Icon

If you ask someone to name one of the first things that come to mind when they think of the 1920s after flappers and gangsters many people think of "that pretty lady with the black "Dutch-Boy haircut".

Louise Brooks was brought up in middle-America, always dreamed of the city. She dispised her mid-western roots.

In her early years she could either be found with her nose in an classic novel, or stringing some boy's affections along.

Louise Brooks became famous for:

1)Being Sexually Promiscuous: one time shacking up for an entire weekend with Charlie Chaplin and another couple in an swanky New York hotel.

2) Being Beautiful and Unique: Her Hairstyle defines the 1920s Bob hair craze.

3) Being True to Her Ideals and Independence: In many ways this attribute cost her career.

Discover much more about Miss Louise Brooks here

Help Louise Brooks Win the Title of Sexiest Woman in Movie History ~ Click here and make your opinion count!!!

I love 1920s fashion. . . because as far as style goes it really was the birth of classic fashions as we know them.

Explore the fashions of the 1920s. Think about the '20s and what an exciting a time in world history. Explore flapper dresses, cloche hats, jewelry, etc.

If anything Broadway in the 1920s is a reflection of the underbelly of American life. It reflects everything that is wrong and right with the United States. Broadway is a enigma wrapped in a riddle.

The kings and queens of Broadway are not your typical statues up on high, they are regular folks that made good.

Louise Brooks' famous quote, "I like to drink and f*%@", sums up the Roaring lifestyle of Broadway in the 1920s.

Brooks is not alone, Broadway was littered with drinkers and f&%#ers.

One famous love triangle: The famous architect, Stanford White and Harry Thaw's love affair with Broadway star Evelyn Nesbit, is a prime example of the enigmatic rules of 1920s Broadway.

Jealous, Thaw ended up shooting and killing White at Madison Square Garden during a play over White's relationship with Nesbit.

These types of incidents really opened my eyes to what went on On Broadway in the early years.