1920s in Western fashion

Women's fashion continued to evolve from the restrictions of gender roles and traditional styles of the Victorian era.

[1] Women wore looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s.

Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time.

[1] The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles.

Vastly improved production methods enabled manufacturers to easily produce clothing affordable by working families.

Designers favored separates in new fabrics like jersey that could be mixed and matched for work and modern, informal, un-chaperoned social activities like attending films or the theater and car rides.

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.

The tubular dresses of the 'teens had evolved into a similar silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion.

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.

[7] In the west, women won the right to vote in the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries; that may have played a role in the social reboot that was to come in the 1920s.

The pioneer of this hairstyle is often disputed; the primary figures frequently mentioned are the French fashion designer Coco Chanel who shortened her hair some time in 1916, Joan of Arc who was a powerful female symbol of strength in France and the novel La garconne by Victor Marguerite - the plot of a woman who lives a liberated lifestyle.

These afternoon or "tea gowns" were less form-fitting than evening dresses, featured long, flowing sleeves, and were adorned with sashes, bows, or artificial flowers at the waist.

Evening dresses were typically slightly longer than tea gowns, in satin or velvet, and embellished with beads, rhinestones, or fringe.

This trending topic inspired a 1920 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, called Bernice Bobs Her Hair, and many editorials in Vogue throughout the decade.

Examples of changing tastes in design were the use of diamonds being set against onyx or trans lucid vitrines and amethysts juxtaposed against opaque coral and jade.

Sharp, geometric patterns celebrated the machine age, while exotic creations inspired by the Near and Far East hinted that jewelry fashions were truly international.

[18] Both jazz music and dance marked the transition from the archaic societal values of the Victorian era to the arrival of a new youthful modernistic society.

In fact, jazz music and dance are responsible for the origin of the iconic term "flapper", a group of new socially unconventional ladies.

[19] Jazz music and its perceived exotic nature had both a flamboyant influence on fashion while keeping both form and function in mind.

The female figure was liberated from the restrictive corset, and the newly popular boyish look was achieved through the use of bust bodices.

[22] Young flappers took to these styles of underwear due to the ability to move more freely and the increased comfort when dancing to the high tempo jazz music.

A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton crop, and the Marcel wave.

Jean Patou, a new French designer, began making two-piece sweater and skirt outfits in luxurious wool jersey and was successful with his morning dresses and sports suits.

At the end of the 1920s, Elsa Schiaparelli combined the idea of classic design from the Greeks and Romans with the modern imperative for freedom of movement.

During the 1920s, men had a variety of sport clothes available to them, including sweaters and short trousers (commonly known in American English as knickers).

[24] For women, face, figure, coiffure, posture, and grooming had become important fashion factors in addition to clothing.

Women did not feel ashamed for caring about their appearance and it was a declaration of self-worth and vanity, hence why they no longer wanted to achieve a natural look.

For evenings and events, the popular look was a smoky eye with long lashes, rosy cheeks and a bold lip.

Glamour was now an important fashion trend due to the influence of the motion picture industry and the famous female movie stars.

Women and men wanted to emulate the styles of Hollywood stars such as Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, and Clark Gable.