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THE FLAPPER GIRL
During the war, the boys had fought against both the enemy and death in far away lands; the girls had bought into the patriotic fervor and aggressively entered the workforce.
During the war, both the boys and the girls of this generation had broken out of society's structure; they found it very difficult to return.
The "Younger Generation" was breaking away from the old set of values.
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The term "flapper" first appeared in Great Britain after World War I. It was there used to describe young girls, still somewhat awkward in movement who had not yet entered womanhood.
In the June 1922 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, G. Stanley Hall looking on the dictionary discovered what the term "flapper" meant:
“[T]he dictionary set me right by defining the word as a fledgling, yet in the nest, and vainly attempting to fly while its wings have only pinfeathers; and I recognized that the genius of 'slanguage' had made the squab the symbol of budding girlhood.”
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“If one judge by appearances, I suppose I am a flapper. I am within the age limit. I wear bobbed hair, the badge of flapperhood. (And, oh, what a comfort it is!), I powder my nose. I wear fringed skirts and bright-colored sweaters, and scarfs, and waists with Peter Pan collars, and low- heeled “finale hopper” shoes. I adore to dance. I spend a large amount of time in automobiles. I attend hops, and proms, and ball-games, and crew races, and other affairs at men’s colleges.
…there are many degrees of flapper. There is the semi-flapper; the flapper; the superflapper. Each of these three main general divisions has its degrees of variation. I might possibly be placed somewhere in the middle of the first class.
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I want to beg all you parents, and grandparents, and friends, and teachers, and preachers—you who constitute the “older generation”—to overlook our shortcomings, at least for the present, and to appreciate our virtues. I wonder if it ever occurred to any of you that it required brains to become and remain a successful flapper? Indeed it does! It requires an enormous amount of cleverness and energy to keep going at the proper pace. It requires self- knowledge and self-analysis. We must know our capabilities and limitations. We must be constantly on the alert. Attainment of flapperhood is a big and serious undertaking!”
December 6, 1922, issue of Outlook Magazine, Ellen Welles Page
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THE ATTITUDE
The flapper attitude was characterized by truthfulness, fast living, and sexual behavior. Flappers seemed to cling to youth as if it were to leave them at any moment. They took risks and were reckless. To take a distance from the rectitude of the Gibson Girls they smoked, something only men had done previously.
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The 1920s was the Jazz Age and one of the most popular past-times for flappers was dancing, dances such as the Charleston, Black Bottom, and the Shimmy. The Charleston dance had been performed in black communities since 1903, but did not become internationally popular until the musical debuted in 1923. The dance could be done by oneself, with a partner, or in a group.
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PROHIBITION
Between 1920 and 1933 the United States held a ban on the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, known as Prohibition. Prohibition was difficult to enforce and led to the increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other crimes. In 1933, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, bringing the Prohibition era to a close.
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GANGSTERS
Organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition. Mafia groups limited their activities to prostitution, gambling, and theft until 1920, when organized bootlegging emerged in response to Prohibition. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Prohibition provided a financial basis for organized crime to flourish. Al Capone (1899-1947) was the most notable member of the Chicago mob scene in the 1920s and inspired the popular series of films, Scarface.
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The discovery of the tomb Tutankhamun, in 1922, sparked popular interest in the Egyptian style.
The wealth of funerary goods extracted from the tomb included chariots, furniture, mummy cases, spectacular gold jewellery and the extraordinary gold mask of the pharaoh.
Generic Egyptian images and motifs, such as lotus flowers, scarabs, hieroglyphics, pylons and pyramids, rapidly became popular.
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ART DECO
Art Deco’s designers sought to infuse old traditions with new life and to create a modern style based on a revitalised decorative language. They borrowed from historic European styles, as well as from contemporary avant garde art, the colours and oriental themes of the Ballets Russes, and the urban imagery of the machine age.
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After World War I many designers looked back at the themes and imagery of the classical worlds of ancient Greece and Rome.
Subjects such as the Flight of Europa or Pallas Athena became popular, while the huntress and dancing maenad appeared in designs from textiles and wallpapers to moulded glass and ceramic vessels. The figure was central to the practice of many Art Deco designers.
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Another theme central to Art Deco was Maya and Aztecs art.
Ancient ziggurats found an echo in the facades and interiors of the great skyscrapers of New York and other American cities. Decorative motifs borrowed from Aztec and Mayan sources adorned cinemas, hotels and private houses, as well as jewellery and ceramics.
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China and Japan inspired the style and spirit of Art Deco. The glamour and exoticism of the new style was expressed through the traditional materials and techniques of East Asian art such as the Chinese jade and the Japanese lacquer. The stylised natural forms and geometric motifs of East Asian art were also a feature of much Art Deco design. Designers were mainly drawn to the powerful and mysterious motifs on ancient Chinese bronzes, ceramics and hardwood furniture.
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Africa also offered a wide imagery to Art Deco designers.
The bold, abstract and geometric zigzags, hatch marks, circles and triangles of African textiles, shields and sculptures became part of the repertoire of Art Deco.
Many designers used the African figure as a decorative motif, while others explored the African sculptural tradition of masks.
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JAZZ
The decade marked the beginning of independent record companies which performed some of the early jazz, blues and country musicians.
However with the beginning of the Great Depression the radio would become the most important medium in the music industry. As a result, indie record companies went bankrupt or merged with the bigger companies.
By the late 1920s motion pictures had gone from silent to sound, creating another medium for the sale of sheet music and phonograph records.
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THE GREAT GATSBY
In 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) wrote The Great Gatsby, a brilliant fable of the hedonistic excess and tragic reality of 1920s America.
The Great Gatsby, follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.
Fitzgerald brilliantly captures both the disillusionment of post-war America and the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status.
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BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS
‘Bright Young Things’ were the younger sons and daughters of the aristocracy and middle-class people seeking to advance their careers through association.
They started the modern cult of celebrity. Chased by the paparazzi who were fascinated by their outrageous behaviour.
The party set were obsessed with jazz which they saw as modern, raw and anti- establishment. They drank to excess, took drugs such as hashish, cocaine and heroin and indulged in licentious behaviour. They frequented the cocktail bars, jazz clubs and night clubs of London where they danced and drank till dawn.
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THE FLAPPER’S FASHION
The construction of the flapper's dress was not very complicated, women could easily make their own flapper dress which was a straight shift. It was easier to produce plain flapper fashions using Butterick dress patterns. Recorded fashion history images after the twenties do reflect what ordinary women really wore rather than just the clothing of the rich.
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The outer look, called "garconne" ("little boy"), was instigated by Coco Chanel. The waists of flapper clothes were dropped to the hipline.
The hem of the skirts also started to rise. At first the hem only rose a few inches, but from 1925 to 1927 a flapper's skirt fell just below the knee so when the flappers walked people could see the knee.
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THE HEM
Between 1920 and 1924 skirts remained calf length with fluctuations of an inch or two according to garment style. By 1925, the year of the famous Paris Exposition, skirt and dress hems had risen to just above the knee. By the end of the decade however, more asymmetrical hems brought hemlines down below the knees again.
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UNDERWEAR
Young women used to wear undergarments such as the Symington Side Lacer to flatten the bust to achieve a manly outline.
1920s underwear reflected the absence of a silhouette the same as dress fashions by mimicking the box shape in slips, chemises and negligees.
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Nearly every article of clothing was trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier. The new, energetic dances of the Jazz Age, required women to be able to move freely. Replacing the pantaloons and corsets were underwear called "step-ins."
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Between 1920 and 1928 corset sales declined by two thirds, but it adapted to changing needs. 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.
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STOCKINGS
By the 1920s stockings with patterns were hot fashion items. Embroidery snaked around the ankles and up to the knees. The stockings were rolled the over a garter belt.
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Flesh and soft pastel colours were popular and they were made in either silk or artificial silk known as art silk later called rayon. The rayon stockings were very shiny so girls powdered their legs to dull them before venturing out.
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Names of stocking colours were Honey Beige, Teatime, Rose Morn, Boulevard and Spanish Brown. Lastex, a rubber based thread was used in knee highs in bright colours.
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They ranged from more subtle patterns to wild floral, plaid and even figural printing like faces. Girls would even wrap printed ribbon around their legs over plain stockings to achieve this wild-tight look
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1920s lingerie included flowing lace trimmed chiffon negligees that were loose-fitting and cut similarly to the fashionable dresses of the day.
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HAIRSTYLE
The short haircut was called the "bob" which was later replaced by an even shorter haircut, the "shingle" or "Eton" cut. The shingle cut was slicked down and had a curl on each side of the face that covered the woman's ears. Flappers often finished the ensemble with a felt, bell-shaped hat called a cloche.
BOB
SHINGLE ETON
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HEADDRESSES
Milliners drove Inspiration from Egypt, China, Japan and Russia. Headdresses including turbans, toques, kokoshniks and tiaras were all reinvented by designers. Couture houses such as Molyneux and Lanvin had atelier shops attached to them so buyers were able to make a hat selection at the same time as buying a dress or suit and gain a complete ensemble that matched to perfection.
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The cloche hat was made of velvet, satin, horsehair, straw or felt, it hid a woman hair and allowed her to tuck it up into the hat.
Some variations of the standard cloche were the gigolo hat with its wider brim and crease at the top. One side was dipped lower than the other.
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MAKE UP
Flappers also started wearing make-up, something that had previously been only worn by loose women. Rouge, powder, eye- liner, and lipstick became extremely popular. The overall effect was artificial.
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Elizabeth Arden developed cleansing and nourishing creams, tonics and lotions. At the same time, Helena Rubenstein was developing creams to protect the face from the sun. This was welcomed in an era when the sun tan made fashionable by Coco Chanel, was becoming a craze. Later Rubenstein also began to manufacture face powders and lipsticks.
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BLUSH
Before the 1920s, Blush was associated with promiscuous women.
With the introduction of the compact case, rouge became transportable, socially acceptable and easy to apply.
The red makeup was applied in circles on the cheeks. It could be applied over a suntan, a trend popularized by Coco Chanel’s who accidentally got sunburnt while visiting the French Riviera.
Her fans went crazy for the darker look and began to tan themselves.
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LIPSTICK
With the invention of the metal, retractable tube in 1915, lipstick application was forever revolutionized. You could carry the tube with you and touch up often, even at the dinner table, which was now tolerated. Metal lip tracers and stencils ensured flawless application that emphasized the lip line. The most popular look was the heart-shaped “cupid’s bow” and the most used color was red, sometimes cherry flavoured.
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EYES
Eyes were lined with dark kohl. Mascara came in cake, wax or liquid form. The Maybelline cake mascara had instructions, a brush and a photo of actress Mildred Davis’ eyes. Since the brush hadn’t evolved into the circular wand women used the Kurlash eyelash curler, invented by William Beldue in 1923, for a more dramatic effect. Eyebrows were plucked to a thin line. Sometimes they were completely plucked to a thin pencil line substitute.
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NAIL POLISH
Nail lacquer took off in the 1920s when French makeup artist Michelle Ménard Inspired by the enamels used to paint cars, teamed up with Charles Revson and they began producing nail polish as their first product, and officially founded the Revlon Company in 1932.
The brands Max Factor and Cutex followed. The “moon manicure” was in vogue: women kept their nails long and painted only the middle of each nail, leaving the crescent tip unpolished.
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FOOTWEAR
Once shoes began to be mass manufactured in the 1920s footwear became an essential fashion accessory. Now it was truly visible beneath shorter dresses. Heels were over 2 inches high and waisted until the 1930s. Strapped shoes were called Mary Janes. T-bar shoes or others with buckles and bows made interesting fashion statements. Sequin or diamante trims were quite usual. Shoes had to be comfortable for dancing.
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ACCESSORIES
The main accessories in use were:
• Cigarette holders: the longer the better • Pearl necklaces • Bangles • Cigarette cases • Compacts • Boa feather scarf • Feather fan • Cloche hats • Clutches/small purses • Pearl earrings • Gloves
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Before prohibition, the only time a lady even considered carrying any intoxicating beverage with her was when she put a few drops into an old medicine bottle to take when traveling. The flapper girls carried their own flask— but not in their purses or in the side pocket of their coats. Also books became alcohol carriers. One book, for instance, had nickel edges; but one of the edges could be taken off and inside there were three nickel collapsible drinking cups. The other edge hid a cork.
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Then there was the fashion of carrying a stuffed toy animal whose head would conceal a cavity with a bottle that held ten ounces of liquor. Garters also were used to attach a glass bottle to the ribboned or jeweled clasp. Also cigarette cases as well as muffs sometimes were really flasks in disguise.
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Diane von Furstenberg Issa, F/W 2012 S/S 2004
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Hellen van Rees A/W 2012 Alberta Ferretti S/S 2013 Ralph Laurent Tweed fabrics used by Chanel, silhouette of flapper girls and artworks by Anish Kapoor 67 THE ROARING 20’s
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THE TRENCH COAT
When the soldiers returned from the front after the war, they carried on wearing their trenches in civilian life because of its water-resistant fabric (gabardine) which made it very practical. In 1920 the famous Burberry check, registered as a trademark. The distinctive storm shield covering the upper back ensured that water ran cleanly off the coat; a belt at the waist for further protection; and metal D-rings were a place to attach military tools.
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Thomas Burberry company grew and prospered, appealing to the leisure classes of the “smart set” of the 1920s and 1930s with outfits for golf, grouse shooting, trout fishing, riding, cycling, tennis, archery, skiing, and motorcycling, many of which were were designed for both men and women. Glamourised in Hollywood films, they were then associated with spies, gangsters and foreign correspondents. Nazis also wore them,
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72 THE INFLUENCE OF PERFORMING ARTS
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TRIADISCHES BALLETT (1922)
n 1922, Oskar Schlemmer premiered his "Triadic Ballet" in Germany. He named the piece "Triadic" because it was literally composed of multiples of three: three acts, colors, dancers, and shapes.
Concentrating on its form and movement, Schlemmer explored the body's spatial relationship to its architectural surroundings.
Schlemmer saw the modern world driven by two main currents, the mechanised (man as machine and the body as a mechanism) and the primordial impulses (the depths of creative urges). He claimed that the choreographed geometry of dance offered a synthesis
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Grace Jones in the maternity dress David Bowie in the Pierrot costume for the video by Jean-Paul Goude and Antonio Ashes to Ashes, 1980 Lopez, 1979 76 THE ROARING 20’s
THE GAS HEART
The Gas Heart (Le Cœur à gaz) is a play by the Dada artist Tristan Tzara. It was a parody of classical drama and featured ballet numbers. The Gas Heart was first staged in Paris, as part of the 1921 "Dada Salon" at the Galerie Montaigne and famously re-staged in 1923 with costumes by Sonia Delaunay.
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David Bowie on Saturday Night Live Klaus Nomi in 1980 in 1979
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REVUES
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932.
In every city, revues were influenced by the traditional popular entertainments: operettas and cafés chantants (Paris), cabaret (Berlin) and vaudeville (New York).
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FOLIES BERGERES
The most famous theatre of revues was the Folies Bergère, which opened in Paris in 1869.
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ERTÉ
Romain de Tirtoff (1892-1990) - Erté was a Russian-born costume designer known for his elegant and lavish creations. H
He was a diversely talented 20th- century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor.
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MISTINGUETT
Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois (1875-1956) was known to everyone as Mistinguett, she was the highest paid performer in the world in the early 1920s and the first entertainer to insure her legs.
She made her debut at 20 at the Casino de Paris and became a household name with her extravagant costumes and a chorus line made of young and handsome boys.
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JOSEPHINE BAKER (1906-1975)
Born in 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker found success on Broadway.
In the 1920s she moved to France and soon became one of Europe's most popular and highest-paid performers.
She also worked for the French Resistance during World War II, and during the 1950s and '60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States.
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Baker exploited European eroticisation of the black body. During the war France was fashionably influenced by negrophilia—“love for black culture”—which involved white craze for black entertainment and greatly impacted French art, from sculpture and painting to music. The avant-garde artists of Paris were adopting, appropriating, and commercializing black culture (African folk art introduced to them by the colonial experience) to advance their own ideas about modernity.
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White, French males of the era described her with words such as “savage,” “exotic,” and “primitive,” and, in describing Baker’s performances, frequently used animal terms. “This is no woman, no dancer. It’s something as exotic and elusive as music, an embodiment of all the sounds we know.” from the Candide. While in America, lighter skin was more desired and more accepted by the society; in Europe, the darker color represented a socially constructed, “true” black spirit.
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People were exploring “new” meanings in sexuality and in fetishism, homosexuality, and transvestitism. Josephine Baker’s athletic body appealed to both sexes. However Baker’s banana skirt clearly invoked mental associations with male organs. From its debut in 1926, the skirt became the dominant iconic outfit with which La Baker would be identified to this day.
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Joanne Campbell, 1970’s Naomi Campbell, Vogue, 1988
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Diana Ross, 1978 Beyonce, 2006
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ZIEGFELD FOLLIES
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate and lavish revues produced by the theatre impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (1867-1932) in New York at the New Amsterdam Theatre from 1907 through 1931.
Ziegfeld was inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris and employed the best designers of the time, including Erté and Lucile.
He signed and launched the careers of the greatest entertainers of the era.
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FANNY BRICE / BARBRA STREISAND
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MAE WEST / BETTE MIDLER
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SHOWBOAT (1927)
Showboat is a musical composed by Jerome Kern an written by Oscar Hammerstein II.
The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on theCotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over forty years, from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
It is considered the first modern musical in history, with a fluent consistency between music and lyrics and a strong embedded narrative.
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DAMIA (1889-19978) HELEN MORGAN (1900-1941)
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EDITH PIAF JUDY GARLAND
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ADELE / BRIT AWARDS 2012 RIHANNA / GRAMMY AWARDS 2013
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LILLIAN GISH (1893-1993)
Lillian Gish was all of six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience. In 1912, she met famed director D.W. Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in almost 30 films. In 1915, Lillian starred as Elsie Stoneman in Griffith's most ambitious project to date, The Birth of a Nation (1915). The following year, she appeared in another Griffith classic, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) and became one of the industry’s top stars.
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MARY PICKFORD (1892-1973)
Pickford started her career in 1907 with D.W. Griffith. In 1917 she was directed by Frances Marion in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) and Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) and thanks to these films, she became “America’s Sweetheart.” In 1919, Pickford co-founded United Artists with her future husband Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, and Charlie Chaplin to distribute the films they produced, thus gaining more artistic control and shares in the profits. Pickford spearheaded the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Oscar awards that same year. 100 THE ROARING 20’s
GLORIA SWANSON (1899-1983)
Gloria Swanson made her debut in 1915 in slapstick comedies until Cecil B. De Mille made her a star in his marital comedies, such as Male and Female (1919). For her glamourous looks, Swanson quickly became Hollywood’s clotheshorse and the highest-paid actress earning a million dollar in 1925. After few unsuccessful films she retired from the screen in the 1930s but with Sunset Boulevard – where she played the fading diva Norma Desmond – she made the greatest comeback in the history of cinema in 1950.
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RUDOPLH VALENTINO (1895-1926)
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian- American film actor. After immigrating to the United States in 1913, Valentino moved to Hollywood, taking up small film roles until he landed his breakout role as Julio in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Idolized as the “Great Lover” of the 1920s, he starred in several romantic dramas, including The Sheik (1921) and The Eagle (1925). His star status was evident after his sudden death in 1926 -- at just 31 years old, the actor suffered a ruptured ulcer, causing fans to grieve worldwide.
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CLARA BOW (1905-1965)
Clara Bow had a very difficult childhood being abused by her father and having a mental hill mother. She made her way to Hollywood and signed with Preferred Pictures. She starred in anumber of silent movies such as Grit (1924), The Plastic Age (1925) and Dancing Mothers (1926).
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She became wildly popular after 1927's It, a film adapted from a Elinor Glyn novella. The project was a hit and lent the actress the nickname the "It" Girl. Bow's imagery and electric, sexy performances perfectly represented the flappers. She was a style icon as well, with her look taken on by women across the country. In 1927 she was given a co-starring role in Wings, which went on to receive the first Best Picture Oscar.
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THE VAMP: THEDA BARA, POLA NEGRI, LOUISE BROOKS
The vamp brought the image of a sexually aggressive woman to the screen.
In 1915 Theodosia Goodman (1885-1955) when she performed as The Vampire in A Fool There Was. She embodied the cinematic “vamp”, an evil, predatory woman. She became an overnight star with the release of the film. She changed her name in Theda Bara — an anagram for “Arab Death.”
Dressed in veils, furs and silks, petting a python and nibbling on raw beef and lettuce leaves, she held hundreds of press conferences.
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POLA NEGRI (1897-1987)
Pola Negri was born in Poland. By 17, she was a star on the stage in Warsaw, but World War I changed the theater scene and Pola decided to turn to films. One of her films, 'Madame DuBarry' was optioned and retitled as 'Passion' for exhibition in America. The film was such a success that by 1922, Pola and Lubitsch were both given contracts to work in Hollywood. Between her lovers she could name Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin.
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LOUISE BROOKS (1906-1985)
Brooks was a 20th-century icon, symbol for the Jazz Age, flappers, femme fatales, wild women, and the modern woman. She played an archetypical and seductive character, Lulu, in the film for which she is best remembered, Pandora's Box. Brooks was extraordinarily beautiful and became known for her black bob, a hairstyle copied by women all over the world. Above all Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.
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BETTY BOOP (1930)
Betty Boop’s character was created by the animator Grim Natwick as a caricature of Helen Kane, in the form of an anthropomorphic singing dog with droopy ears and a squeaky singing voice, in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes. In 1932, Betty Boop was changed into a human, the long dog ears becoming hoop earrings. Betty became the sex symbol crown queen of the animated screen, a fully-fledged flapper-style woman.
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Helen Kane “Baby” Esther Jones
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Model Olya as Betty Boop by Retro Atelier, 2008
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METROPOLIS (1927)
Metropolis is a sci-fi epic film by the German director Fritz Lang, which mixed expressionism, melodrama and German Romanticism. In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. The film is a cinematographic masterpiece and has virtually influenced any subsequent futuristic representations.
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Versace couture, spring 2012 Thierry Mugler, Robot suit, 1995
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Lady Gaga, 2008
Beyoncé, 2009
Kylie Minogue, 2001 119