Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper Coco Chanel: ~She created the flapper fashion. ~She introduced the world to unisex jumpers. ~She worked in neutral tones of beige, sand, cream, navy and black in soft fluid jersey fabrics cut with simple shapes that did not require corsetry or waist definition. ~ She helped make the little black dress popular. Flapper: ~Flappers are young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz and wore excessive makeup, drank, smoked and drove cars.

Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper She adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singer First a mistress of a wealthy military officer then of an English industrialist, Coco Chanel drew on the resources of these patrons in setting up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910, expanding to Deauville and Biarritz. The two men also helped her find customers among women of society, and her simple hats became popular. Soon Coco Chanel was expanding to couture, working in jersey, a first in the French fashion world. By the 1920s, her fashion house had expanded considerably, and her chemise set a fashion trend with its "little boy" look. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating. She pioneered the use of knit fabric in women’s clothes.

Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper

Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper The work of other famous designers beside hers seemed old fashioned and outmoded belonging as they did to the pre World War One era. She promoted the styles we associate with flappers. She worked in neutral tones of beige, sand, cream, navy and black in soft fluid jersey fabrics cut with simple shapes that did not require corsetry or waist definition. They were clothes made for comfort and ease in wear making them revolutionary and quite modern. She was the Jean Muir or Donna Karan of her day and the originator of the LBD - that little black dress.

Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper Flapper Skirts As Feminist Symbols After WWI, the flappers of the Twenties took off their corsets and shortened their skirts to demonstrate their freedom and independence. The shorter skirt became a potent symbol of the changing role of women in the world. Women could vote now, and they had proven their value to the workforce during the War. They could choose their own role or occupation, make a living and be independent. They no longer had to marry for financial support. Girls in their late teens or early twenties were the first to wear the short skirt as a statement that they were New Women, no longer bound by pre-war values. The old-fashioned long skirt came with an array of constricting undergarments. Corsets bound the female body into the current fashionable form, and petticoats created a barrier between the skirt and skin. Until the advent of the Twentieth Century, the female ankle and calf were hidden erotic zones. The flapper changed that. Freedom of movement was a core principle of flapper fashion. Some critics claimed that flappers were emulating men, seizing male power and freedom by looking like men. They were indeed like men in that they made their own choices and expressed their sexuality more freely than ever before. The flapper would have laughed at the ideal, chaste, Victorian maiden who considered a kiss tantamount to a proposal. But the flapper didn’t want to be a man. She wanted to be a woman, a New Woman, the woman of her own creation. Such attitudes were bound to provoke criticism. Journalists went to great lengths to describe the flapper’s lack of modesty, propriety and other womanly virtues. Clearly she was out of control, at least the control of anyone other than herself. But instead of repressing the flapper, these attacks only helped to popularize her style. By the middle of the Twenties, the short skirt was in style for women of all ages. Perhaps matrons wore it a little lower than college girls, but they too bound their bosoms, bobbed their hair and went to the speakeasies for a drink. Until the great stock market crash of 1929 brought on the Depression, the flapper ruled supreme. Even when skirts went down a bit in the thirties, women still wore relatively few restrictive undergarments and remained concerned with being able to move about freely. The bosom re-emerged, but it was no longer bound by a corset. Short skirts would return to fashion again, over and over throughout the rest of the Twentieth Century, making it perfectly clear that Woman too had legs, and that she was willing to stand on her own two feet.

Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? Coco ChanelThe Flapper The flapper dispensed with corset and petticoat and reduced her undergarments to a single piece, the step-in. Over this went the dress, often designed in two parts. The skirt was attached to a sort of sheer tank top to provide the loose low waist characteristic of the Twenties. Over it went a matching loose top or blouse that was frequently sleeveless. The fashionable shape was now boyish, straight up and down, and full-figured women and girls bound their chests to achieve the desired flatness. Under the skirt, the flapper wore sheer flesh-colored stockings, rolled and twisted to keep them in place without garters. A breeze might reveal the stocking top or even a bare knee, and the rolled stockings required regular adjustment, drawing further attention to newly-revealed legs. Bare skin and exposed knees were shocking stuff for elders, but the flapper considered her body her own, and preferred to be unbound and active. The word flapper came from British slang for an awkward teenage girl. Some of this youthful flavor can be seen in the illustrations of John Held Jr., a cover artist and magazine illustrator whose work focused on the flapper and whose images survive to define her. The flappers, however, did not consider themselves little girls - they worked hard to be grown up and sophisticated. Along with their short skirts they wore short hair, lipstick, rouge, and powder. Slimness was essential to the flapper’s look, and women began to watch their weight and diet as never before. Smoking became popular as a weight control aid, and drinking was fashionable despite (or perhaps because of) prohibition. Some flappers even swore. The days of the refined, restrained, repressed lady were over.