The 1920s marked a transformative era in American society characterized by urbanization, economic growth, and cultural shifts. Women's fashion evolved with the rise of the flapper and the abandonment of corsets, while men's fashion became more relaxed and youthful, reflecting changes in social attitudes brought on by World War I. This decade saw increased consumerism, the popularity of jazz, and significant advancements in technology, like the radio, which further shaped the cultural landscape.

1. Research for OTS
The Era
The 1920’s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in
cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 19229, and this
economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar ‘consumer society’. The 18th
Amendment and the Volstead act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it,
many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. This drove the liquor trade underground,
people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies instead of ordinary bars: where it was controlled by
bootleggers, racketeers and other organised crime figures.
During this period many Americans had extra money to spend, and they spent it on consumer goods such as
ready-to-wear clothes and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The
first commercial radio station in the US hit the airwaves in 1920, three years later there were more than 500
stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s there were radios in more than 12 million households. Despite
the household inventions that helped women of the era become free there were other inventions such as an
instant camera, sunglasses, television and penicillin.
Many young people wanted to dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom, the flea hop. Some
older people objected to jazz music’s’ ‘vulgarity’ but many in the younger generation loved the freedom
they felt on the dancefloor.
The carefree attitude of the young generation was a reaction to World War I. Losing so many young men to
war gave people a ‘live for the now’ energy. Women were also seeing more opportunity in life, having taken
the place of men in factories and fields gave them a taste for jobs outside domestic service.
Women’s fashion
The most familiar symbol of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed
hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said ‘unladylike’ things. In reality most women in the 1920’s
did none of these things but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms.
Clothing fashions changed with women’s changing roles in society, particularly with the idea of new
fashion. 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.
“With silken legs and scarlet lips
We’re young and hungry, wild and free,
Our waists are round about the hips
Our skirts are well above the knee
We’ve boyish busts and Eton crops,
We quiver to the saxophone
Come, dance before the music stops
for who can bear to be alone?”
-James Laver – The Women of 1926
The flapper dress was functional and flattened the bust line rather than accentuating it. The straight-line
chemise topped by the close-fitting cloche hat became the uniform of the day. 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. Low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline allowed women to literally kick up their heels in
new dances such as the Charleston. In 1925, shift dresses with no waistline emerged. At the end of the
decade, dresses were being worn with straight bodices and collars.
Undergarments began to transform after World War I to conform to the ideals of a flatter chest and more
boyish figure. The women’s rights movement had a strong effect on women's fashions. Most importantly,

2. the confining corset was discarded, replaced by a chemise or camisole and bloomers, later shortened to
panties or knickers. During the mid-1920s, all-in-one lingerie became popular. Above is an example of the
casual boyish look that women in the 1920s captured. This involved long knitwear, blazers and flattening
shirts.
For the first time in centuries, women's legs were seen with hemlines rising to the knee and dresses
becoming more fitted. A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short
hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton crop and the Marcel wave. The fashion was bohemian and forthcoming
for its age.
Women’s makeup and hair
Women in the 1920’s tended to have cut their hair short to fit under their hats easily. Therefore many wore
short bobs in the early 1920’s with finger waves. They tended to style this hair with extravagant headpieces.
Jeweled headbands were designed with an ancient Egyptian look to them and one style of blunt-cut bob with
a wispy fringe was called the Egyptian bob. This was inspired by hairstyles seen in Egyptian art and the year
of the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.
The Victorian belief was that hair was a girl’s ‘crowning glory’ however women decided to take on the
option of the bob leading to those women working in the public to be fired on the spot if they came into
work with a bob. Some schools even banned bobs. The variations of bobs can be seen below.

3. The Shingle
The shingle where the hair is thinned at the back to the nape
with a razor, exposing the hairline (often left in a tapered
shape). The front of the hair was longer and kept in place
with grips or slides.
Orchid Bob
Orchid bob is a short bob with two definitely flicked-up side
curls that sit on the cheeks. The rest of the hair was sleek and
smooth. When worn under a cloche, the two curls would peek
out.
Coconut Bob
Coconut bob is a very short and unforgiving style, with a
solid straight fringe and no parting. The hair length sat
around the middle or top of the ears.
Moana Bob
Has a fringe that with a distinctive parting that ran parallel to
the forehead. The rest of the hair was swept back over the
crown.

4. The 1920s women were the first to truly create an artificial face. Startling eyes, scarlet lips and pale pallor.
The consumer boom in makeup simplified women’s requirements and a handbag carried all daring flapper
needed. Cake mascara was applied with a brush and the ever present push up tube lipstick. The key makeup
looks of the 1920s were:
 Eyes – kohl eyeshadow for the daring and often eyeliner
 Eyebrows – plucked for the first time and drawn downward towards the temple
 Lips – lips were smaller than the natural outline and fashioned into the cupids bow shape
 Lashes – mascara was the new range and no woman could resist enhancing her lashes
 Rouge – applied in circles rather than angular, the effect was a rounded face
 Nails – the big name was Revlon and the popular style was the moon manicure leaving the tip painted
Men’s fashion
For the past few centuries, men had worn some variation on three-piece suits. Edwardian upper-class men in
particular had been very formal, changing clothes several times a day as propriety dictated. The war changed
attitudes and did much to level the classes, which reflected in fashion. Younger men, in a switch from
wearing clothes of their elders adopted a look all of their own with baggy plus fours and wide-legged
trousers. Suits were simpler, with just sim, unpadded jackets over the trousers, and fabrics and colours were
lighter and brighter than anyone had seen in years, reflecting the brightness of the music, theatre and good
times.
For the workplace or most daily business, men of all ages wore suits. However, whereas suits had
traditionally been broad-shouldered, they were now cut to give men a slimmer, boyish look. Tight jackets
with sloping shoulders ruled the day. Ties became more casual. Bow ties were fashionable, but so were knit
ties, which was a vast difference from the silk that had been so prevalent. The knit tie went well with both
the collegiate look and leisure clothes that were so popular.
Much of men’s clothing in the 1920s took its cue from what popular athletes were wearing. The plus-fours,
plus-sixes and plus-eights of course, were worn by golf stars such as Bobby Jones who topped them with
colourful Fair Isle sweaters.
With casual wear so radically different from previous decades, and women’s clothing changing so boldly, it
may be something of a surprise to note that men’s formal wear in the 1920s was much the same as it had

5. always been. Black was the only colour to wear in the evening and while the frock coat had given way to the
tailcoat, the overall look was the same. A starched white shirt and high collar with a bow tie was worn under
the tails, and the black trousers topped shiny black shoes.
No man of any class was out in public without a hat. That had been true for centuries and was still very
much the case in the 1920s. In summer, light blazers were topped by a Panama straw hat or the shallow,
flattop, stiff-brimmed hats called either boaters or skimmers, depending on the brim’s width. Autumn and
winter were all about the felt fedora, worn with panache by gangsters but beloved of all men for their style
and comfort.