Flapper Dress

Beginning in the 1920's, a new style called “Flapper” caught the interest of teenage and college age women. Considered provocative, the Flapper girl look broke the old standards of dress, practiced for over 100 years in America. Embracing the wearing of makeup but rejecting corsets and the traditional restrictive and voluminous dresses, the Flappers created an innovative and controversial style with the Flapper dress.

The flapper style developed for two reasons. During and after World War I, women began to favor conservative styles that deemphasized the female form. At the same time, Jazz became popular with young people. Girls and boys both loved to dance and were hindered by corsets and long skirts.

In the early 1920's, young people started to revolt against the old strict social and moral habits. Young teen girls refused to wear corsets and were increasingly drawn to the unruly jazz. By their mid to late teens, girls began making their own dresses and undergarments. The first thing eliminated in the new style of dress was the corset. Patterns for the Flapper dress became available, fueling home sewing of the new fashion.

With flowing fabric, the Flapper dress allowed the wearer to spend hours in the jazz clubs, dancing the night away. Early versions of the Flapper dress had a mid-calf hemline, with layers of fabric sewn in such a way to reveal alternating glimpses of knees as the wearer walked. Both the dress length and loose waistlines were considered provocative.

The loose waistline, dropped to the hips, emphasized the boyish figure popular at the time. Special undergarment designs developed, with straight lines to make girls look more flat-chested. Bras were made to flatten the chest and prevent “jiggling” while dancing. For an even flatter line, simple tummy flatteners were used. The Flapper dress had taken it's hold on the youth but unnerved the older people. The term “Flapper dress” doesn't just mean the dress itself, but what accompanied the style.

Other flapper dress accessories included rayon stockings rolled down to the knee, in protest to the black wool ones popular until then. Makeup, considered scandalous in the past, was all the rage. Previously only for actresses and prostitutes, red lipstick and thick black eyeliner became popular. Girls drank hard liquor, in public, during the Prohibition years. Even the taboos of tobacco were broken. Flapper girls smoked cigarettes through fashionable long holders. The final assault on the dress standards of the time was the short, bobbed hair cut, also known as the Flapper cut.

During the 1930's, the free spirit and insubordination of the flapper dress couldn't stand up to the Great Depression. People couldn't afford to go to jazz clubs often, and materials to make the dresses had become expensive. Leaving its legacy in films of the time, the Flapper dress is the icon of the Roaring Twenties.

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