1920s style – The flapper look.

Way back in 2011, when Jamie Hince presented Kate Moss with a beautiful engagement ring, that ring was a replica of the ring that F Scott Fitzgerald presented to the ultimate flapper, and early example of a wild child Zelda Sayre in 1920.

Kate Moss is said to be fascinated both Scott and Zelda, and all things 1920s. Her infamous 30th birthday party was entitled ‘The Beautiful and the Damned‘ after one of Scott’s most famous books.  Kate has long been a fan of 1920s styled fashions, these suit her boyish frame and she has been loyal to them since her Johnny Depp days, revisiting the look immortalised by the Flappers again and again in her personal wardrobe.  When designing her first Topshop collection, many flapper dresses were included, often with stunning bead embellishment, and there were other nods to the roaring decade with beaded clutch bags and decadent capes.

 

 

But Kate Moss is by no means the only fashionista to embrace the lure of the Roaring 20s. Carrie Bradshaw wore a beautiful black beaded flapper style dress in series 5 of Sex in the City. Sienna Miller wore a beautiful white fringed dress that was definitely influenced by Jazz Age styling, whilst Kate Bosworth and Nicole Richie are just two stars to have worn their hair shingled in a 1920s manner. So what is it about that long ago decade that just seems to fascinate?

The 1920s were a defining era for woman’s styling and fashion. The confines of the 19th century corsets and long skirts were finally banished as women started to cut their hair and wear shorter and looser dresses that revealed more of the body than ever before. The golden age of silent movies meant that women had new style icons like Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Norma Talmadge and the immortal Gloria Swanson. This bought about changes in the wardrobes of women that was forever defined by the rise of Coco Chanel during this decade. No wonder it still resonates today.

And resonate it certainly does almost every season. The High Street often has a range of dresses/shoes and accessories that have a clear Jazz Age feel to them and this will only continue when the new Peaky Blinders movie is finally released. Flapper style dresses, long strands of pearls and cute Mary Jane shoes are never out of style, due to the success of TV repeats of the Chicago set Boardwalk Empire and this year’s Dope Girls. Even books have got in on the act, with the soon to be shown on Netflix The Seven Dials Mystery, based on one of Agatha Christie‘s early stories, and Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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