What Is The Role Of Fashion In The 1920's

In the 1920s and 1930s women’s clothing became more freely flowing as opposed to more traditional constricting clothing styles until the late 1930s. The 1920s brought forth more comfortable clothing such as shorter skirts, lowered waistlines, and closer-fitted dresses to “emphasize youthful elegance” (History of 20th Century Women’s Clothing). This was deemed the “Flapper Era” and reigned from the early 1920s to the early 1930s before the Great Depression struck. During the Depression, clothing became more conservative, taking fashion a step backwards. This was because function had to be chosen over appearance on account of the stock market crashing and most people losing most to all of their money.

The 1940s and 1950s were times of war. In the 1940s, fabric and other materials were incredibly scarce due to wartime. Fabric had a number of uses in war and as for the public, there were ration cards for a set amount of material one is allowed to purchase. That amount dropped drastically as the war continued. This created shorter skirts than ever and short, blocky jackets (History of 20th Century Women’s Clothing). However, with the war over and the mid-50s approaching, designers had grown tired of the minimalistic clothing during the war and form-fitting clothing came back in with elegantly-made outfits that demanded accessories.
It is important to study the changes of U.S.
fashion because even through all the wars, and through the market crashes, and the poverty and bombings and all the big history lessons, people wore clothes and said clothing was always changing in innovative ways. It is a way to remember that there are more people in the world than just the ones who are in text books and that these ordinary American people wore clothes. There is also an importance of knowing why these changes were made to fashion and the influences of music, media, celebrities, economic status, and many
others.