The 20s, like most of the "vintage" decades seem to have become quite controversial in recent years due to it filtering into the mainstream. Companies sell cheap as chips halloween costumes to the uneducated consumer of so-called "flapper" outfits that are massively innaccurate. I argue that the 20s is perhaps the most mis-represented vintage decade due to the Flapper phenomena. Obviously Hollywood films have compounded the misunderstanding about this decade as well, but not so much as popular culture.
So, where's a costumer to start? Undergarments, always the undergarments. But when it comes to period research social history is perhaps the easiest place to start. I watched/listened to a programme once, don't ask me the name I can't remember, that said that fashion was a reaction to society and the changes within it. This is really quite obvious in the 20s. World War I ended in 1918, but it's effect was still being felt into the 20s.
In the 1910s fashion was changing from the waspish waists of the Edwardian period. The floufy, poufy dresses and hairstyles were slowly being phased out to more sleek, almost Greecian silhouettes. Corsets were longer, the waist was no longer being cinched in quite as severely as before, and the skirts were losing width, and even length. The waistlines are ever so slightly raised from the natural position, almost creating an elongated silhouette that will later feed into the 20s.
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| circa 1914 |
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| 1914 |
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| 1911/1912 |
Then the war rolls around and things change. Women are encouraged not to buy new corsets as the steel is needed for the war efforts. This leads to woman either making do, or doing away with the traditional long-line corset. Women need to move about more in WWI, do work that men would otherwise be doing. That's not to say they left them off altogether, but if you've ever kept a bra for more than 2 years you'll know it changes over time. The long thin skirts are slowly shortened to ankle length, which as well as being practical also saves on fabric?
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| 1915/16 |
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| 1918 |
From about 1919 onwards the waistline of dresses does the limbo and slowly slips down the body.
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| 1919 |
You can also see from 1918 the silhouette is very....straight. There's almost no waist definition, everything's very shapeless, and this continues into 1919 and obviously onwards. Where the hourglass had reigned supreme for the last 80/90 years, a new silhouette was in town after WWI. The "garcon". What today we might call a boyish figure was all the rage at the beginning of the 20s. Flat chests and no curves in sight if you wanted to be fashionable.
You could view this as an overcorrection on the Edwardian obsession with a small a waist as possible. In fact everything about the 20s just seems to be a kind of overcorrection or a rebuff against pre-war society. Check me out with my social history!
The Flapper perhaps epitomised this rebellious youth mindset. Like every generation before and after, the younger will always chafe against the values of the older. It can be seen widely today in the differing ways of thinking between Boomers and Millenials, and what will one day be between Millenials and Gen Z or Gen Alpa (anyone from 2000 onwards, and children born from 2017 onwards I think, respectively). The generation that was blossoming in the 20s wanted freedoms, wanted to do what they liked because they'd seen and lived through the devastation that the war brought with it. The war, in many ways, ended an era, a society that had been practically unchanged since the beginning of Victoria's reign in 1839. In its place was the men and women of the 1920s, the survivors of the war, and they wanted something different for themselves.
Now, don't get me wrong. Society doesn't change overnight. The morals of the Edwardian period hadn't gone completely. Sex before marriage was still frowned upon, skirts above the knee were still scandalous, and heavy makeup was reserved for silent movie stars. The subset of society who went against these ideals was, of course, the Flapper. But I'll state here.
NOT EVERY WOMAN IN THE 20S WAS A FLAPPER!!
Just in case you wanted to skim over that last paragraph. The Flapper movement was a small-ish group of women who took pleasure or wished to challenge societal norms, and there's a group like this in every generation. They wore shorter skirts (I'll get to the actual length in a minute), they wore makeup, they were sexually active before marriage. But not all women did all of these things to such an extreme extent. Society may have changed after the war, but it wasn't instantaneous. When the men returned they expected to get their jobs back, which left some women out of work. Some people in society expected everything to go back to normal after the war, but obviously it didn't.
Women now had jobs, which came with independence and freedom. Makeup was no longer as frowned upon as it once was, and the skirts which had become shorter during the war didn't return to ankle length, but stayed just above. Lipstick began being worn, shades of red and obviously the "vampy" dark colours came into fashion, but I don't think this would've been a daily thing as it became later in the century. Changes are always small at first.
Dearie me, I don't half split off into tangents sometimes. Let's get back to fashion. So, skirts were the shortest they'd ever been in about 100 years, sitting just above the ankle. Slowly, through the decade, they began to creep up until they were usually under the knee. This was at the time, and by some, considered scandalous, but skirts were never actually above the knee!
All real women, and all wearing dresses below the knee. This is an absolutely great picture because you can see the straight silhouette, or the garcon. The waistline is now down around the hips. There is one woman 2nd from the right who's dress waistline seems to be a bit below the hips, which was also fashionable. I'd just like to note here that there's not a piece of fringe, or a tassle in sight in this picture, nor will there be in any other picture I put in this post. I cannot understand for the life of me where that came from... I've scoured fashion plates from the period and can't find an example of the tiered fringe like you get on crap like this,
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| so much wrong... |
Also, skirts were not above the knee!!!! From what I've read tassle could be used as embellishment, but I've yet to see it on a fashion plate. Perhaps an extant garment somewhere?
To be fair at the beginning of the decade some skirts can still be quite full.
Some kind of sash at the waist seems to be quite popular as well. I think a common misconception, and certainly one I had, was that all 20s dresses were pretty much shift dresses with some embellishment. They're most certainly not. Most of the fashions I've seen have some kind of pleating, gathering detail in the skirt. Don't get me wrong, there are probably lots that are shifts and I've just ignored or not found them.
I think the above is a pretty good range. For evening wear I get the impression no sleeves or short sleeves is the most common, whilst for daytime wear it's strictly long sleeves, or nearabouts. There always seems to be some kind of accentuation at the waistline of the dress (the hips) whether that be a sash, a "waistband", ribbons, a belt.
Tiered skirts were still a thing, although 2 tiers seems to be the most common. Fabrics appear rather drapey like velvets, chiffons, crepe de chine, etc. The "hanky" hem is also in fashion during this decade.
I think by the middle of the decade some of the width comes out of the hem of the skrits and dresses. Waistlines are very low, cloche hats are at their peak and hemlines are at their shortest. But obviously looking at fashion plates is all well and good, but we're in the 20s now, there's photography.
I think the major issue with this decade to curvy gals like myself is just the shapleness of it all, and the fact that it seems to accentuate the worst part of my body.
I mean it's all well and good to look at fashion plates, but let's remember that no woman in the history of womenkind has every been that tall and thin! It's like comparing ourselves to Barbie. Real women wore these fashions and dealt with having unfashionable big hips, unfashionably large chests, human sized legs and feet! And they killed it!
What's next then? The 20s is a surprisingly diverse decade and to be honst I don't think I've quite got the sub-fashions down yet. I also seem to be drawn more towards either the very beginning or very end of the decade when there's still remnants of previous and future fashions (I like the 30s). I don't really want to do that for my project. I want to see if a woman with my body shape can make a dress that was fashionable mid-decade, from around 1923-1927. In my travels there was one dress I absolutely fell in love with.
If I wasn't sick of velvet I would try to recreate this. I love the colour, I love the drape, I just love everything about this. I haven't dug into this gown much yet so don't know where it's kept or from what year it is. There was one other that caught my eye.
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| circa 1924 |
I was more concerned with undergarments and whether I should try a girdle type contraption with a bust-flattener, or a full on corselette. The lingerie of the 20s was just as interesting as the fashions. Corsets, as they were in the 1910s, have fallen out of relative use. Since the fashionable silhouette is no shape at all, undergarments were made with this purpose in mind. Rather than the bust-improvers of the Edwardian era, we now have bust flatteners. Ironic, isn't it?
Those tube like corsets that we all make the first time we try to make a corset were actually in fashion in the 20s! I'm only slightly joking about that. Calling these corsets is perhaps misleading, and I've seen the term corsette and corselet (not to be confused with the 50s corselet). These things are exactly like shapewear we would wear today except they're made from somehwat stiff fabric rather than elasticated demon stuff.
The above is a perfect example, and it even has elastic inserts! This is practically a sheath for your body that ensures your boobs are bound and your hips are in line, literally. The main differences between these and long-line corsets is the lack of boning, and the fact these aren't laced up. They usually fasten with hooks and eyes, probably not poppers but I'm not sure. They go from bust to bum, and have fasteners for stockings. Underneath would be this amazing garment called a step-in chemise, or a Teddy. I know, a Teddy!!
The 20s is perhaps the decade where the term "lingerie" really means what we think it to mean today. Nicely decorated, flimsy undergarments that aren't made to be seen but are pretty anyway. Teddy's are usually made of silk or cotton at this stage as nylon hasn't gained as much popularity for clothing as yet. Silk crepe de chine, silk satin, or cotton voile I think is most common. Embellished with lace of all kinds, and finished with spaghetti straps. They're kind of like a modern playsuit, but I have seen Teddys without a join at the crotch, or just a band of fabric joining the front to the back.
The less extreme form of underwear is a brassiere (not what we would call it these days). There is no boob support in the 20s, it's all about the flattening of the chest if you have one.
These garments usually stop at the waist and are meant to hide all boobage. Or you can have the equally horrifying bandeuxs that stop just below the boobs, but still squish them.
I do remember reading somewhere that if you wore a bandeux with a girdle that stopped at the waist you would sometimes get....well...muffin top. Hence women prefered the brassiere as it stopped at the waist. Maybe I just made that up.
These would be worn over separates.
Wow, did you get through all of that? Congratulations, you're a dedicated 20s lass! This isn't extensive, and I have gaps in my knowledge, but that's what I've learned so far during my research. I'm going with a Teddy, and a corselet because I don't like muffin top and it all seems equally uncomfortable....let's hope not.
