The 1920 flapper dress is commonly referred to as just a flapper, but the word flapper actually refers to much more than the garment itself, it refers to the entire sensibility of the era in the 1920s. Flapper actually referred to the women themselves, with their short skirts and dresses, their bobbed hairstyles, their love of Jazz and willingness to buck convention. Flappers were the rebels and the punk rockers of the 1920s, so to speak, looked down upon for their heavy makeup, drinking, their more-relaxed sexual lifestyles, smoking, driving and basically breaking out of the stereotypical woman’s role that had dominated society for years.

Flappers were the forerunner of the modern woman, refusing to do what society expected of them, and actually acting in a directly contradictory way, simply because they could. The 1920 flapper dress was just one part of that entire era, but one of the most recognizable symbols of it still today. Social and political change is common after a war, and the flappers era was no exception, coming on the heels of World War I and timed with the popularity of American Jazz culture reaching as far Europe.

The term flapper first appeared in a 1920 film called The Flapper. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the popular writers who helped define and popularize the flapper lifestyle, with his character Daisy and her friends often wearing a 1920 flapper dress and living the carefree flapper lifestyle as they did, and soon flappers were viewed as independent, reckless and desirable. Dorothy Parker, another popular writer from that era, was a staunch critic of flappers, calling it a fad and writing poetry to poke fun at it.

The word flapper had many uses prior to 1920. It was used as early as 1912 in the UK. Until 1920 or so it was also actually a term for a teenage girl or young woman. But with the 1920 flapper dress the popularity of the flapper lifestyle, the term took on that meaning alone. Jazz clubs were often filled with dancing, drinking, cocaine-sniffing and smoking flappers who dated with abandon. Cocaine use was legal then, but drinking alcohol was not as Prohibition was in effect, but they flew in the face of convention and the law and drank openly. Petting parties became common again. Some of the popular dances shocked older generations, like the Charleston and the Shimmy. But flappers didn’t just have fun to show rebellion, they worked outside the home and paved the way for the modern woman by voting and demanding their rights. The lifestyle couldn’t last once the Great Depression hit, and America took a much more conservative turn. A 1920 flapper dress is a great keepsake of that era, whether for its style and freedom, or its importance in the women’s movement.

An authentic 1920 flapper dress found on eBay can range in price from a couple hundred dollars to well over one-thousand or more, depending on the style and condition, and whether it’s associated with a famous figure from that era.

Originally posted 2008-11-02 05:00:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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