What Is the Origin of the Flapper Dress?
Overview The flapper dress became the preferred attire of rebellious young women in 1920s America. It emerged as an expression of young people’s dissatisfaction with society after World War I. Flappers did all the things young women weren’t supposed to do: drink, dance, smoke and ride around unchaperoned with young men. The Flapper Phenomenon The flapper dress is short and straight and stops just above the knees, and sometimes higher. The flappers of the late 1920s aspired to a new concept of feminine beauty—a body that had, according to dress historian Anne Hollander, “no waistline, and as minimal a bust and bum as you could manage.” “Flappers” wore the dress without stockings. They bobbed their hair, slathered on makeup, and drank and smoked in public. Upright citizens were scandalized.
