Dissecting the 1920s "Flapper" (Dressed Classic)

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Over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed. Welcome to Dressed, the history of fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when of why we wear.

We are fashion historians and your hosts, April Callahan. And Cassidy Zachary. While Halloween was just yesterday and on the heels of our fashion that kills episode,

April and I wanted to cover another decidedly morbid topic. In fact, we thought it would be fun to dissect the flapper. Well, I mean, not literally, of course,

but it is going to be fun to take apart this iconic 1920s lady apart piece by piece from the top of her bobbed head of hair all the way down to her dancing feet. But first, what exactly is a flapper and where did she come from?

You might think you know the answer to this, but what we have to share with you today may just surprise you. Right, because the so-called flapper is most often characterized as the 1920s phenomenon representative of a new type of fashion forward,

free spirited modern young woman that emerged in the post-World War I era. And to this day, she really embodies the zeitgeist and excitement of the rowing 20s,

an era that's defined by this unbridled pursuit of an indulgence in entertainment and extravagance. However, despite popular opinion cast, the term did not originate in the 1920s.

Although some narratives will tell you that it came from the 1920s as a fashion trend for unfastened rubber boots that quote unquote flapped when the wearers walked.

This is actually not the case. And we're gonna quote one of our favorite fashion historians, Claire Sarrow. She once wrote about the flapper saying, quote,

despite this potent imagery, the word has its origins in 16th century British slang. Driving from the colloquial flap, the word indicated a young female prostitute

and likely referred to the awkward flapping of a young bird's wings when learning to fly. Claire goes on to assure us that, quote, by the 19th century, the term had lost most of its lewd connotations. So to find out exactly when the term gained its contemporary associations with the Jazz Age poster girl, we naturally started sleuthing in the online archives. It's what we do best on dressed.

And I found one answer in the form of a Harper's Bazaar article entitled, Dressing the Flapper, which reads, quote, the awkward age has long been the despair of mothers who wish to dress their girls becomingly today the designers are paying special attention to the flapper.

Wait, but that's not exactly describing our fun-loving girl of the 1920s. Now is it awkward? No, and actually that article dates to 1915. And at this point, the term flapper, well, it refers more to a teenager or even a preteen.

You know, the girl that embodies that Britney Spears song. I'm not a girl. Oh, no. Not yet a woman. No Britney on dress.

I need his time. I could go on. But I won't. Well, you said that article was from 1915.

And if we're going to judge by the huge spike in advertisements and articles from around World War I, 1915 to 1919, that are suddenly addressing the clothing needs of these young flappers.

Clothing manufacturers and designers had discovered that there was a lot of money to be made in what was then an entirely untapped market. Wrote the New York Times in 1917.

It is a long time since the spirit of youth has been any better depicted than in the garments for misses and juniors that are now being shown in the market.

garments for that quote unquote flapper, which is the title given to young girls of the awkward age. There it is again, that word awkward. Awkward and flapper are just not two words I would normally equate with one another. No, you usually think of extreme elegance.

So when did quote unquote flappers make the transition from awkward preteen girls to free spirited fashion icons? And why? Well, one answer might lie in a 1919 Women's Wear Daily article. This article expressly defines the flapper as a girl aged 12 to 16 years of age and even

illustrates her for you. We see in this article four stylish young flappers being depicted, they're smiling, they're carrying on with their fashionably dressed mothers in tow. But Cass, these young flappers all wear dresses that barely skim their knees and

And two of them, well, they have even short bobbed hair. Aha! That is two characteristic 1920s flapper traits, and in 1919 no less. In fact, just one month prior, the same magazine had declared, quote, flappers receiving more attention than ever before.