This Friday, May 10th, Baz Lurhmann’s extravagant version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby will finally hit the big screen. However, 1920's style has also seen a major comeback in fashion . Ralph Lauren featured delicate dropped waist dresses, cloche hats and feathers boas in his latest spring collection. Prestigious New York City establishments such as Tiffany's, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel also recently paid tribute to the opulent decade with exquisitely lavish window displays. So what’s so special about the 20s and what should we remember about it?
The era was influenced by many different styles including Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. An essential element of the decade was the introduction of the Jersey fabric into women’s wear by Coco Chanel. By the end of World War I, there was a lack of resources, which made the use of elaborate and fragile clothes complicated. A greater demand for daywear and clothes fitting a more modest way of life suddenly appeared. It was just the right time for Coco Chanel to create her famous Jersey suit, a fabric that had previously only been used for men’s sports clothes and underwear.
With this casualwear revolution also came a much more sophisticated style: the flapper, or garçonne look. Based on the ideal of a young and free woman who escaped conventions and family to live her life on her own terms, the garçonne look is a style most people associate with 20s. The fashion embodied a new simplicity, especially in the tailoring, with sleeveless, shorter, and straight dresses. Made of rich fabrics such as lamé, brocade, beaded fabrics and silk, these dresses were more and more body conscious and came with a new physical ideal: to be slim, thin and young. Boyish and androgynous, the flapper look often came with a bob haircut which was at its apogee in 1926, just a year after the original novel of The Great Gatsby was released! Here at WGACA, we're dying to see the new costumes created by Catherine Martin for the film. Are you?
