Coco Chanel
The Flapper源自Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How?
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.
Coco Chanel
Flapper Skirts As Feminist Symbols
The Flapper
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. Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? 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.
Coco Chanel
The Flapper
Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How?
Coco Chanel
The Flapper
Who? 1910’s women Flappers 1920’s How? 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.
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?
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.
Coco Chanel
The Flapper
She adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singer 1905-1908. 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.