Accessories were the top of the fashion list for the ladies of the 1920s. With so many dresses made from such similar patterns, the fabrics and the accessories made all the difference.
The most important accessory was the hat. And the most important hat of the decade was the cloche. This hat was a soft helmet-shaped item with an all-round brim fitting low on the forehead. It could be plain or decorated with embroidery, beadwork or flowers. The hats were made from felt, quite often, but also silk, satin and straw. For evening wear, the exotic turban was worn. The material for this had to be light; having one’s head bound for hours can be very unforgiving in a crowded place. The turban was decorated with feathers, pearls, flowers or feathers, producing an unusual look. The beret became more common, too, used primarily with sports clothes.
Stockings became a more prominent feature in this decade. For the first time, women had to worry about what their legs looked like above their ankles. House dress stockings were usually black cotton. Afternoon dresses deserved better. The stockings were most often silk, in white, black and tan for day and nude and pastels for evening wear. The sheer material was held in place by garters. And a lady had to be aware of the seam being straight all the time.
And what was on their feet? Shoes of quality. Flat oxfords were worn at home. Going out shoes were 2” heeled oxfords, Mary Janes or T-straps, some decorated with rare leathers, like alligator or snake, or with contrast stitching or cut-outs in the leather. Evening shoes were the Mary Janes or T-straps with glitter or sparkles. And, for the first time, a sport shoe was developed for women, canvas sneakers.
Gloves were a basic accessory, like a hat. During the day, a woman wore wrist-length white gloves, kid or cotton. Evening gloves were opera-length or elbow length, again kid or cotton. The very modern flappers could wear lace gloves to the night clubs. In the winter, gloves were worn for warmth, thus, knitted gloves or fur-lined leather.
Shawls, scarves and filmy jackets dressed up a simple outfit in various ways. It was inexpensive to add those to a working girl’s repertoire of accessories. Long and narrow, squares with fringe, satin or chiffon, every item made a sure hit.
There was only one rule with jewelry: colorful. Rings, hairpins, cuff bracelets and dangle earrings were all popular. Most were oversized. Chokers were embellished with bead work, and embroidery. Large pins were attached to shoulders. Art deco earrings swung from lobes. The pearl necklaces that fell to the natural waist were the rage.
Avoiding the feminine handbags of the past, the ladies of the Roaring 20s needed something to hold their omnipresent compacts. Small hand-embroidered or crocheted purses were popular. They were just large enough for a change purse, a handkerchief and the compact. Powdering your nose at the table was a very popular thing to do, apparently. For those who thought that was too much, manufacturers made cosmetic cases into very artsy displays with a chain to hang on one’s wrist.
Glasses had been avoided by as many as possible, especially among the young, for years. Finally, a process was created to make the first plastic frames. The colors were black, brown or tortoiseshell. It gave a whole new look to the nearsighted. The frames were round, due to the limitations of manufacturing the lenses, but it was so Modern! Of course, metal was still a popular look, too. Once larger frames were available, the Hollywood stars all started wearing sunglasses, giving a boost to the optical industry, because, of course, the movie-addicted populous imitated their heros and heroines.
The cosmetic industry had a great awakening in the 1920s, too. It all began with the Gillette Razor company which had the contract for US military during the Great War. At the end, the men went home and used whatever brand they wanted. To not lose the great sales numbers they had during the war, Gillette saw that sleeveless dresses were becoming popular so they started a newspaper campaign to tell women they needed to shave their underarms. And, so it began! When the silent movie stars began to peroxide their hair and turn into a white-blonde, many women followed suit. They also followed the fad to thin arched brows, dark eyeshadows and a bright red lipstick. The women have been using cosmetics ever since.
Although the hemlines climbed during the 1920s, the winters were still too cold for a coat that short. Today, we discuss the coats the ladies and girls wore in that decade.
At the beginning of the decade, the coats were still long. The coats were down to midcalf, to show off the dress hemlines or to show off the boots. The dresses were just above the ankle and so were the ladies’ warm wraps. The lines of the coats were simple, but all the additional parts, collars, cuffs, buttons, pockets, were oversized and took over the look! The waist was accented with a matching belt more often than not. A popular item for years was the detachable fur collar. Of course, the coats had to be oversized to accommodate several layers of clothes. Remember, central heating was not yet a popular commodity.
By 1923, the hemlines of coats had gone up, then, down, again, to just above the ankle. The surplice coat, or jacket, was the most popular item. This has a look of a man’s coat, with the neckline a deep V. The coat is loose fitting, not usually tight at the waist. This style had subtle trim, contrast stitching. The sleeves tended to be batwing or bell, in shape, for better movement.
The younger ladies, the college age crowd, found a new coat style, based on the men’s trench coat popularity. These coats were a straight-cut, double breasted (6 button) coat which was most trendy in the second half of the decade. They were made in bright reds and blues. Plaids were common in single breasted or wrap form.
By 1925, the coats had risen to the knee. They were most commonly found with a deep V neckline sporting a fold-out collar. A fold-out, or rolled collar, is one that stands up slightly from the point of attachment to the neckline of a garment before folding over to lie flat. They also could have a fur, detachable or not, collar.
The fabrics used for these coats can only rarely be found anymore. They included wool, wool velour, velveteen, plush, tweed or vicuna. This last is a fabric made from camelids, or llamas, found in the Andes mountains. It is absolutely the softest wool known, along with the wool of musk oxen found only in Alaska. You can not find it anymore because the animals defy domestication. It was very fine and very expensive.
Coats at that time came in a variety of colors. Tan, brown, rust, cranberry, grey, black, green, rose and medium blue were the most common. They came in plaids, checks and fancy textured weaves. The linings were most often of a single bright color, very soft and smooth. Everything was decorated with cording, embroidery and other trim.
Faux furs and cheap real fur dyed and sheered to look like their expensive counterparts were all the rage. Real fur coats were found everywhere. Everyone had one. My grandmother got a mink coat for her 16th birthday! Any fur possible was used. They came in full length and jacket length. And many of the college kids did. Male or female, the outstanding item of a collegiate was a raccoon coat. It was not worn for warmth as much as for status! Of course, driving in an open car was sure to make one cold, so, what better reason to get the parents to splurge?
Everyone had to have fur! And if you couldn’t afford a real fur coat, there were faux fur coats or cloth coats trimmed with fur at collar and cuffs.
Winter coats were not the only need. Spring coats were worn longer than coats are now-days, since the lack of central heat caused people to dress warmer longer in the season. These coats were a light wool, velour, polaire (an arctic fleece), normal fleece, jersey or a knit. They tended to be an open front with a tie belt. They were more sporty than dressy, but they were worn with everything.
However, on rainy days, the light weight cloth could get sodden in a rain. What worked for men, for years, appeared for women, in brighter colors: the raincoat, often made with rubberized cloth. It appeared for children along the same time. To save the hair and the hats from ruin, raincoats came with matching hats. These looked like a shower cap with a brim, hardly anything we would wear, now, but they served the purpose.
Next time, we will talk about the accessories, hats and shoes of the ladies of the Roaring 20s.
The Great War, women’s suffrage, improved international trade, more thorough education for the masses. What do these all have in common? They all contributed to the most amazing and fast change in culture in many centuries. And one of the most predominant features of that change was the entirely new look for women!
Contributing to the war effort, women, by the end of the war, were seen as intelligent and capable of handling decisions. By 1920, women in the US were given the right to vote. Suddenly, women saw themselves as competing with men on the job front and bringing home their own money. Financial freedom makes one develop social freedom. And many women did. They expressed their freedoms with their styles.
Gone were the days of morning, afternoon and evening changes of clothing. Clothes were now defined by what you did while wearing them: housedresses, going out dresses, evening apparel, sports outfits, etc. One might change several times during the day, but for a specific reason.
Typically, house dresses were simple, straight cotton or cotton blend affairs, in plaid, prints or colors. They were either not waisted or had a drop waist. They had small white collars or wide, long, flat collars, long or short sleeves. The dresses were often decorated with embroidery, lace or rickrack. They were most often worn with dark stockings and sensible dark oxford shoes, flat or with a short heel. The dresses were very blousy and did not need buttons or hooks. They could easily be put on and taken off, making dressing a very quick affair. Most often the dresses were covered with a full apron while working in the house. Older women brazenly showed their ankles. Younger women had hems above mid-calf.
The house dress would never be worn outside the house unless the wearer had nothing else. The ladies dressed to go downtown for errands or to go visiting. The tall, thin look abounded everywhere. And the ease of dress continued with the new “boat neckline”, much wider than the close necklines previously seen in day dresses. Fabrics ranged from casual jersey, batiste, wool, linen, knits, crepe, and rayon to fancier silk, taffeta, organdy, and velvet. These beautifully draped materials can’t even be found in fabric stores. anymore. The material of the garment made a status statement. Dresses with sashed natural waists or dropped waists were worn alone, or with a matching or coordinated long jacket.
The most popular colors for summer were jade, sunset orange, powder blue, white and pale yellow. The fall/winter colors were black, mauve, purple, sage green and burnt orange. City dwellers tended to have muted colors. Country and seaside dwellers went brighter. Solids were more common but there was some representation of polka dots, plaids and small prints. The dresses were busy with pleats, tucks, embroidery, smocking, ties, and belts, everything arranged to accent height. Long sleeves were de rigor, except in the summer.
Hems were all over the place in the 1920s. The straight skirt was hard to move around with. Answers to that problem included side pleats, flounces, tiers of material, bias cut patterns and, the most popular, bringing the hem higher. By 1927, the popular height was just below the knee. It had already started to drop by 1928. That year, my grandmother got married and her mother insisted on the shorter style for the wedding gown. Her mother was a seamstress.
Due to the leg exposure, stockings became an important part of the outfit. They came out in cotton and silk. The silk ones came in white, black and beige. For the poor teens who could not afford stockings except for good occasions, the fad in some big cities, was to paint smile faces on their knees with lipstick. The sales of both stockings and lipstick skyrocketed over the decade.
Jewelry was plentiful and somewhat gaudy, like beads, pins on hats and jacket lapels. Small purses held little. Shoes were heeled Oxford, Mary Janes, or T-straps. I remember my grandmother telling me to keep a quarter in my shoe, for a quick getaway phone call; of course, it was only a nickel back then. Many girls would go out without a purse. The well enclosed shoes could easily hold a coin.
The 1920s was a decade of rebellion, free-for-alls and action. Everyone got wrapped up in the new culture emerging. Between the Great War and the Great Depression, there were a few years of craziness and decadence for the population of North America and Europe. The dying gasps of the agricultural economy were heard as people migrated to the new business and industrial economy.
During and immediately after the war, women were required to move into factories to take the places of the men who went to war and, then, the ones who didn’t return. Women began to see themselves differently. They saw themselves as people with rights, options and freedom. And they reacted to the perceived changes in a typical way…they over reacted! Opulence was in. Hems and hairlines were short.
Women who worked in the factories had already started cutting their hair for safety reasons. Others followed suit. Especially movie stars. And, as the movies were getting more and more popular, the cinema goers were following the styles of the actors and actresses. Everyone started to cut their hair. Even the hesitaters cut theirs by the end of the decade.
“Bobbing” hair merely meant cutting the hair short. There was the Dutch boy cut and the blunt bob, both best for straight or straight-able hair. The slightly shorter version was the shingle cut, where a razor was used to cut the hair at the nape of the neck into a V. The Eaton cut, sported by singer Josephine Baker, was a hug-the-head shortest of all cut. The variations included kiss curls (or spit curls) and curl wings on the cheeks. The kiss curls were supposed to indicate how many different men a girl had kissed.
For those who had the time or the right kind of hair, there was the longer bob with finger waves and the even longer (not quite shoulder length) version called Marcel waves. These required hair gel, hot curling irons and hair clips to maintain. The finger waves were combed in by zigzagging the comb slowly through the gelled hair
The woman who could not part with her long tresses could have a fake bob, with most of the hair up in a chignon, held in place with bobby pins. (Did you ever wonder where the term came from, before?) Only the front looked like she had bobbed her hair. There were a few who would buy wigs to wear when going out so that they could look modern.
Accessories for the head were over the top in that decade. Thin fabric bands, worn low on the forehead with an off-center flower or jewel were quite common. Wider cloth bands, which practically covered the forehead, and all but the crown, were popular, too. Hats were close-fitting affairs made out of any soft fabric: wool felt, knits, cotton, linen, heavy rayon or, even, straw. Hats were worn plain as well as decorated. The hair had to be short and straight to handle the hats!
Cosmetics became popular. Heavy lid color, thick mascara and pencil-thin eyebrows were an imitation of the screen stars. Hair coloring was also used to copy starlets. The platinum blonde was born. Some henna products tripled in sales during the decade as drug store shelves could barely keep the favorite hair tint in stock.
The styles of clothing changed for both men and women with the coming of the Depression. The fun-loving Roaring 20s morphed into more of a workingman’s mentality, where work and family took first place. Men began to honor masculinity, the Tarzan and tough man roles that were the rage at the movie theaters. Men started looking at themselves and evaluating their own masculinity. In an attempt to follow the trend, designers developed a look of wide shoulders, narrow waists and tapered wide leg pants to show off a man’s more muscular figure. By the 1930s, sports had stopped being a spectator sport and had become more of a participant sport. So, clothes had to be designed for the sportsmen. As sports became more prominent, a sense of the casual permeated the dress code.
Everyone who could, worked. Outside of laborers’ and servicemen’s uniforms, most men wore suits for the majority of the day. Material, cut and color dictated the use of the suit. The needed effect of these suits was to add an illusion of added height and width (at least in the shoulders). This was achieved with shoulder pads, slimming shaping at the waist, and various cuts of jackets and pants.
Suits came in winter weights and colors and summer weights and colors. In the winter, the suits tended towards navy, mid-brown and dark grey. Backs of the jackets tended to look one of two ways: the smooth, ventless (cheaper) version we see most often nowadays and the sporty belted back version with pleats.
The patterns were solid, glen plaid, herringbone, stripes, checks and windowpane checks. Summer suits had more variety, with colors as varied as medium blue, tan, beige, cream, golden brown and grey. They had more patterns, adding chine, birdseye (a small diamond pattern with each diamond having a dot in the middle) and vertical and diagonal stripes. The “Palm Beach” summer suit was made of a cotton/mohair blend with an open weave. Other summer materials were seersucker, shantung silk, rayon blends, linen and gabardine. This last one was quite popular. It is a tight weave of wool, cotton, texturized polyester or a blend of these, with a prominent diagonal rib on the face of the material. The pants were so durable that men could wear the bottoms without the jackets, for a casual look, without worrying about wearing them out. Single-breasted and double-breasted varieties of the jacket existed. Double-breasted built up a thin man.
Suits often came with matching vests. These were 5-6 button fronts with or without lapels, mostly single-breasted. The pants were designed to fit high on the waist, with full leg, tapering slightly to the cuffed ankle. They were in both pleated and flat, for a lean look, versions. The ironed crease down the middle of the pant, front and back, was designed to add height. The waist band had belt loops for narrow belts and, by the mid-30s, with technological advancement, the zippers made button-flys a thing of the past. The deep crotch drop would be popular for several more decades. One pant style did not last too long: the very high waist pant which young men wore with short sweaters.
Sport coats became a welcome addition to an American man’s wardrobe. Mixing and matching jackets and pants extended an otherwise limited wardrobe. The sports coat tended to be of gabardine or some other strong material. It came in a variety of colors from golden tan to blue to ivory. Green and burgundy were less common, but seen. Men paired sports coats with matching or contrasting pants, both in color and texture. Although it was a strictly country item in the UK, men in the US started using this casual look for the office.
Dress shirts were similar to what we see now, with a variety of patterns and colors. Cotton broadcloth was the most common material. In the late 30s, rayon and silk rich-hued shirts became popular. The long sleeves had one button or French cuffs, and a single chest pocket. The collars were narrow, pointed down and 3-5” long.
Ties came in every possible design and color to coordinate or clash (as the wearer saw fit) with the shirts. Handwoven ties made of textured materials became popular.
Coats did a lot of redevelopment in the 1930s, starting with a variation on the British grenadier greatcoat of the early part of the century. Full shoulders and upper arms of the coats were supported by shoulder pads. The arms tapered to the wrist and the torso tapered to the waist. Two pleats in the back were inserted for needed ease of movement. In the mid-30s, the raglan sleeve coat was popular, in both single and double-breasted styles. They were in plaids and checks, with herringbone tweed becoming popular by the end of the decade. Solid colors with a print lining were common. Richer men wore the coat with fur lining in the winter. The camel hair top coat and the tan wrap coat became quite popular with young men. The wrap had a big collar to flip around the neck, a full, shorter skirt, with the tie belt moved to the side. The most popular coat of the decade was one designed for the detectives of the ever-popular movies, the trench coat.
Hats were worn by all men in the 1930s. The most popular was the classic fedora. It was made of fur felt or wool felt. It had a 5-6” crown, a deep center dent, with an optional pinch front and a 2 ½” brim. Men shaped their hats in various options. The conservative businessmen wore homburgs, in dark colors. This hat had a lower crown, with a rolled rim with a grosgrain edging and a wide ribbon band. The bowler was on its way out by 1930. In summer, straw hats in these shapes could be found. Boaters, hats with flat crown and brim were popular with the young men. These hats boasted ribbons in the colors of their college or organization. The pork pie hat, in straw or felt was a new phenomenon. The brim curled up all around, with a flat crown. In the movies, men who wore these hats tended to be portrayed as less intelligent.
Shoes were quite stylish during the decade. Oxfords, 2-toned oxfords and wing tips were the most common. The colors were black, brown, brown with cream, black with white, black with grey or white. They were worn to match the outfits. The decorations included the wingtips, contrast stitching and decorative tooling.
The most comical part of men’s clothes were their socks. Silk socks came in all possible patterns and colors. Men mixed and matched their socks and pants. Blue pants and green and yellow socks would not be out of line.
Men used accessories such as watches, either pocket or wristwatches, some jewelry and gloves. These gloves ran the gamut from workmen’s gloves to driving gloves, a shorter version of thin material, to get a good grasp of the steering wheel. Men wore day gloves, if very well dressed. White leather gloves for formal evenings were used with formal clothing.
This decade was one of the most-classy for men’s fashions. Just look at any 1930s period film! Thanks for reading this blog. I hope it helps you picture your characters’ looks a little better.
When writing about your heroine’s clothes, you must remember her place in society. The Depression put a severe change in the clothes styles of those years. But not everyone got poor and lived in the Dust Bowl, either.
Every woman who was under 30 in 1930 was sure to dress more modern. That meant whatever the stylish hem length of the day, whether it was knee length or mid-calf. Only the matrons did not follow suit.
The Depression meant better use of accessories to dress up the fewer outfits that women had in those years. That was discussed in the last blog post.
Dresses were categorized: day dresses and going out dresses. The day dresses could be thought of as the dresses worn to cook and clean house. No self-respecting woman would go downtown in a “day dress”. These tended to be made out of cotton broadcloth, with, often, bold patterns of flowers or checks on the material. They often had full sleeves, yokes, small collars, made in a wrap-around style for easy on-off wear. Some were made completely reversable, so the wearer had two dresses in one. They were of a slender bias cut, with a flared hem, and the matching belt. Shoes were most often oxfords with a thick heel. They were not beautiful but they were comfortable.
To go out, one would change to the afternoon dress. These dresses were often plain, but not severe, made of silk, rayon crepe, or linen. They actually had a similar silhouette to the day dress, the slim bias cut with puffy sleeves, but they were garnished with embellishments like bows, rushing, embroidery, decorated buttons, flowers and other trims. In the spring and summer, pastels were worn, especially peach and aqua. In the fall and winter, earthy colors, like burgundy and maroon, were used. Rayon tweed and corduroy were common materials. Shoes for going out were often a variety of oxford, but with cut outs in the leather for ornamentation. Dress length tended to be mid-calf. Collars were often big. Shoulders were big, too, trying to get that big, tall look that was so elegant at the time.
For business attire, skirt suits were common. Most popular materials were linen for summer and wool for winter. The skirts were long at the beginning of the decade, moving up to knee length by the end. They were flared or gored, following body lines but not tight. The waist was worn high.
With the skirt, blouses or sweaters were worn. The button-down-the-front cotton blouse was a must have. Whites and floral prints, in sheer rayon, were most in demand. Sweaters were short and snug around the waist, fitting mostly like a blouse, sometimes having blouses under them. Short sleeves for either blouses or sweaters were puffed. Long sleeves were full. Necklines were very modest with small collars of various shapes on blouses. Decorative details, like shirring and bows were common as a way of modestly accenting the bust. If a woman had a low neckline, she filled in the space with a scarf. Dressy blouses were made of silk, lace, organdy and satin.
For those who could afford such things, evening gowns were a common sight, at least on the movie screens. They were very revealing by daytime standards. Low necklines and non-existent backs combined with silky satin, lace, velvet or taffeta, cut on the bias, made dresses comfortable to dance in. They all seemed to be very clingy and sported short trains for elegance. The shoes looked like delicate high heeled slippers.
Coats tended to be cut similar to dresses, with built up shoulders, bias cut, full without cling. Many had removeable fur collars for ease in cleaning. And hats to match or coordinate.
Pants became acceptable for women to wear to watch or participate in sports events. (Croquet, anyone?) They were very wide at the ankle, and more often worn with stripped knits rather than blouses.
Before we go, just remember that those beautiful women on the screen translated into cosmetic sales going through the roof despite the poverty of the decade. By the end of the 1930s, everyone knew how to be a peroxide blonde and how to put on lipstick. It was universal!
The Matter of a
Missing Stutz
Book 2 of the Hadley Sisters Mystery series: Available now at Amazon in ebook and soon in paperback
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