Flappers and Philosophers

Musique - "She's Got It" by Harry Reaser

I recently almost got into an internet fight with someone who was incredibly misinformed about flappers. It all started with me ranting that a full-fringe boxy dress is the standard flapper costume for Halloween when that is incredibly historically inaccurate (which I'm basing on the fact that I've never seen any pictures of women from the 20s in that sort of dress; some fringe, yes, but never an all-fringe dress). Someone commented on that saying that "flapper" meant a dancer in a jazz club, that flappers definitely did wear all fringe, and that regular women weren't flappers, which is why I'd never seen a picture of a woman in an all-fringe dress. I got really, REALLY upset at this.

Not only is this a hideous costume, but look at her hair! No one in the 20s looked like that! Sacrilege!

First of all, I don't like to be challenged on a subject I am particularly passionate about. Secondly, this girl had it all wrong! I was very, very tempted to set her straight in a bitchy, know-it-all comment telling her exactly what flappers were and recommending she read some Fitzgerald (both Scott and Zelda) to get up to speed. However, I ended up deleting my original comment so as to end a potential internet fight. I don't need to get angry with absolute strangers over something as silly as the definition of flappers.

If you know me, you know my love affair with the 1920s and flappers started in 2005 when I myself decided to be a flapper for Halloween (because I had the perfect black bob and I usually pick my costumes based on what my hair looks like that year). Not being particularly versed in flapper fashion, I still somehow just knew that no one really wore those hideous fringe dresses. So I set out to make my own costume and found a pattern for a dress based on Velma Kelly's "All That Jazz" dress in Chicago (which, as you can see, has some fringe, but is NOT all fringe). And, never one to half-ass a Halloween costume, I started watching and reading more about the 1920s. And I fell in love with the era.

So, long story short, for the last seven years, I've been devouring countless silent films, early talkies, books written in and about the 1920s, music from the 1920s, and pictures of the 1920s. So, while I'm no 1920s historian, I'm more knowledgeable about this time period than your average person. And if I had to tell that misinformed girl my own definition of "flapper", I'd say: A flapper was a young woman in the 1920s who flouted previous generations' conventions by doing things like smoking, drinking alcohol, wearing shorter skirts and dresses, rolling her stockings, wearing a lot of makeup, bobbing her hair, dancing to jazz music, using slang, staying out late, and/or "petting" with boys. But, as Levar Burton says on "Reading Rainbow", you don't have to take my word for it:

• Flapper Fashion - 1920s Fashion History
• 1920s Flapper: Brash & Beautiful
• Flapper Fashion
• Eulogy on the Flapper
• Flappers in the Roaring Twenties
• Definition of Flapper

As you can see, flappers were everyday young women of the 1920s, not only dancers in jazz clubs (although, if a woman were a dancer in a jazz club, chances are she was a flapper). I know I shouldn't get so irritated with someone who was obviously given erroneous information, but something in me snapped and made me want to blog about flappers.

If you are interested in the 1920s (and learning more about flappers), I can personally vouch for the following books:

• Six Tales of the Jazz Age and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
• Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by Anita Loos
• Fate Keeps on Happening: Adventures of Lorelei Lee and Other Writings by Anita Loos
• The Technique of the Love Affair by Doris Langley-Levy Moore
• Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties by Marion Meade
• Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild by David Stenn
• Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz
• Chicago: With the Chicago Tribune Articles That Inspired It by Maurine Dallas Watkins
• Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston by Robert Hudovernik
• The Jazz Age: The 20s (Our American Century) by the editors of Time-Life Books
• Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks
• Fashions of the Roaring '20s by Ellie Laubner
• Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs by Stella Blum
• French Art Deco Fashions: In Pochoir Prints from the 1920s
• The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s by Paula S. Fass
• Flapper Era Fashions: From the Roaring 20s by Tina Skinner
• The Night Club Era by Stanley Walker
• The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston
• The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry
• The Flapper Wife by Beatrice Burton
• Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen

And if you want to be a fancy flapper (or her sheik) for Halloween, may I suggest these sites for more historically accurate dresses, patterns, and accessories:

• Leluxe Clothing Co.
• Unique Vintage (this site does offer some all-fringe dresses—just ignore those)
• Vintage Style Clothing
• Ageless Patterns
• Past Patterns
• HBO (Boardwalk Empire inspired accessories)
• Vintage Dancer (men's 1920s attire)

I thank you for listening to me rant and I apologize if I sounded pretentious or bossy. I just really, really, REALLY love the 1920s and I get a little upset when people misrepresent this time period. Maybe one day I'll have a job where I can inform the masses about the awesomeness that was the 20s. ;)