Elegant Fashion Photograph (1921)

1921 via

Famous Flappers of the Roaring Twenties

Flappers were a “new breed” of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.

Flappers had their origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe.

Zelda Fitzgerald was an American socialite and novelist, and the wife of American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who dubbed her “the first American Flapper”. She and Scott became the emblem of the Jazz Age, for which they are still celebrated via

Clara Bow epitomized the Roaring Twenties’ flapper. At only 25, she retired exhausted by repeated scandals about her presumed sexual life. Photo: Bow in a shiny strapless dress by Eugene Robert Richee, 1926 via

 Coleen Moore was Bow´s “chief rival”. After Bow took the stage Moore gradually lost her momentum. In spring 1924 she made a good, but unsuccessful effort to top Bow in The Perfect Flapper, and soon after she dismissed the whole flapper vogue. Photo: Coleen Moore in “Why Be Good?”, 1929 via

Louise Brooks 1920. She was an American dancer and actress noted as an iconic symbol of the flapper, and for popularizing the bobbed haircut via

Gilda Gray, 1924. She was an American actress and dancer who popularized a dance called the “shimmy” which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions via

Tallulah Brockman, 1922. Bankhead was an American actress of the stage and screen, and a reputed libertine britannica.com

Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author, best known for her blockbuster comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes first published in 1925. It was one of several famous novels published that year that chronicled the so-called Jazz Age – including Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Photo: Loos, on page 12 of the April 1922 Photoplay via

A Collection of Vintage Photos Feat. 1920s Street Style

French fashion postcard, 1920s via

Paris street fashion, second half of the decade, 1920s via

A gentlemen tips his hat to a group of ladies, 1920s via

Street style  by the Seeberger Freres agency via

Street style by the Seeberger Freres agency, 1920s via

1920s via

A Collection of Photos Of Famous Women Wearing the 1920s Popular Cloche Hat

 

French milliner Caroline Reboux, is considered the inventor of the cloche hat via

Gloria Swanson 1921 in a cloche hat via

 

Josephine Baker wearing a cloche via

A 1920s model wearing a black cloche hat via

Hollywood actress Joan Crawford via

A Collection of Vintage Photos Feat. the Glamorous Fashion & Style of the 192Os

Clara Bow

Gloria Swanson in the Queen Kelly, 1929

 

Josephine baker´s Eton crop haircut

Louise Brooks short bobbed flapper hair

Marion Morehouse in Chanel. Photo by Edward Steichen, Vogue, 1926

Norma Shearer giving thanks for her amazing wardrobe collection in A Slave to Fashion, 1925

Bebe Daniels with an exotic animal, 1927

1920s icon Gilda Gray looking very glamorous

1920s girl with monocle

1920s style

Silk Stockings (1926)

Washington, D.C., 1926. “National Hosiery Week. Erlebacher window, F Street.” Among the Blue Moon shades on display: Flesh, Blond, Peau, Orchid, Gravel and “Jenny.” National Photo Company Collection glass negative via

The Bright Young Things Captured by Cecil Beaton (1927)

The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. They threw elaborate fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London, drank heavily and used drugs—all of which was enthusiastically covered by journalists such as Tom Driberg.

They inspired a number of writers, including Nancy Mitford (Highland Fling), Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time), Henry Green (Party Going) and the poet John Betjeman (A Subaltern’s Love Song). Evelyn Waugh’s 1930 novel Vile Bodies, adapted as the 2003 film Bright Young Things, is a satirical look at this scene. Cecil Beaton began his career in photography by documenting this set, of which he was a member.

Bright Young Things by Cecil Beaton, October 1927; Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, Georgia Sitwell, William Walton, Stephen Tennant, Teresa Jungman and Zita Jungman via

Bright Young Things at Wilsford by Cecil Beaton, October 1927; William Walton, Cecil Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Rex Whistler, Georgia Sitwell, Zita Jungman and Teresa Jungman via

Stephen Tennant and The Bright Young Things, photograhed by Cecil Beaton, 1927 via

Performer Backstage (1928)

Performer backstage, 1928 via

Flask in Garter (1926)

Mlle. Rhea seated with flask in garter on leg, 1926 via

Vintage Bride in Beautiful Wedding Dress (1929)

Bride in wedding dress, 11 September, 1929, Minneapolis, Minnesota via