A collection of low opinions concerning the Flapper and her confederates, gathered from numerous clerical magazines throughout the fruited plane:
There is a great deal of frank talk among them that in many cases smacks of boldness. One hears it said that the girls are actually tempting the boys more than the boys do the girls, by their dress and conversation…
The Case Against Flappers (Literary Digest, 1922) Read More »
Since the preceding article was jam-packed with intolerant remarks from the lip-service corner of the Holier-Than-Thou clerical crowd, it seemed only fitting that we post this article which dwelt upon the far more accepting and just a wee-bit more Christian feelings of yet another clergyman who tended to think that the flappers were not really as queer as everyone liked to think they were.
Painting faces is no new thing except on occasion. Belles and famous beauties of the past painted for State occasions. But then it was not good form to wear paint in daylight. Now it is, apparently. That many young women now carry this to extreme is not unusual…
Click here to read an article about the demise of a popular 1940s hairstyle.
Flappers Were Nothing New (NY Times, 1922) Read More »
A brief notice from 1917 reported on the arrest of three women for smoking in the Times Square subway station in New York City.
When the socially astute, forward-thinking judge recognized that no real crime had been committed they were released, but in the high fashion world feminine tobacco abuse, these women are often said to be the Rosa Parks of nicotine:
Mary Driscoll, Edna Stanley and Elsie Peterson
let their names live ever more!
N.Y. Court Ruled That Women Can Smoke in Public (Hearst’s Sunday American, 1917) Read More »
A brief notice from 1917 reported on the arrest of three women for smoking in the Times Square subway station in New York City.
When the socially astute, forward-thinking judge recognized that no real crime had been committed they were released, but in the high fashion world feminine tobacco abuse, these women are often said to be the Rosa Parks of nicotine:
Mary Driscoll, Edna Stanley and Elsie Peterson
let their names live ever more!
N.Y. Court Ruled That Women Can Smoke in Public (Hearst’s Sunday American, 1917) Read More »
Scorned for too long by churchmen as an ambulatory example of folly, the flapper at length finds herself defended by the Church. She is not, in this new view, the brainless, overdressed Jezebel that she has been pictured to be. ‘She is a symbol of the times. As she sweeps down the street, she is like nothing so much as a fine, young spirited puppy-dog, eager for the fray’.
Unlike some members of clergy, the wise sages of Hollywood were clearly numbered among those who held favorable views about flappers, but they didn’t always produce films that were sympathetic to their causes; for example, the editors of Flapper magazine hated this movie.
The Flapper as a Religious Force in the World (Literary Digest, 1927) Read More »
This funny announcement from the yellowing pages of FLAPPER MAGAZINE made it clear to one and all that all flappers were eligible to enter their Flapper Beauty Contest:
You don’t have to be beautiful to be a flapper, and if you’re not a flapper you wouldn’t be considered beautiful. So there!
(But we’re sure it helped)
Flapper Beauty Contest (Flapper Magazine, 1922) Read More »
A single page history essay concerning the most popular hairstyle of the 1920s.
A History of THE BOB (Coronet Magazine, 1955) Read More »
In the attached column, a high-spirited editorial writer hails the Flapper Revolution and singles out Paris fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944) for being so out of step with the women of his day for continuing to design long dresses:
When flappers rise en masse and say that they can see no reason for giving up a style that means comfort, freedom and health, then indeed, out of this welter of strikes, injunctions and warfare may be seen a glimmer of hope for mankind.
M. Poiret, designer of Paris, has seen fit to take up the cudgels on behalf of the long skirt, and therefore he cannot object if the shafts of ridicule are hurled at him in return…
The Flappers and Their Fashion Rebellion (Flapper Magazine, 1922) Read More »
The following is an excerpt from the review of the New York production of the 1921 play, A Bill of Divorcement by Clemence Dane (born Winifred Ashton 1888 – 1965). With much enthusiasm, the reviewer wrote:
We know of no better expression of the creed of the new generation than that which Clemence Dane has drawn up….
What followed was a very short soliloquy which beautifully summed up not only the philosophy of the modern woman, but the philosophy of much the Twentieth Century.
‘Canonizing the Flapper” (Vanity Fair, 1921) Read More »
Will Paris succeed in imposing long skirts on the flappers of America?
Not if most of them have their way! When Paris started the short skirt fad and America eagerly aped it, the dressmakers figured that it would probably run its course and then die a sudden death. But no! For American flappers may be fickle but they know a good thing when they see it. And they intend to hang on to it.
Click here to read about another icon of the Twenties: Rudolph Valentino.
Flappers Defy the Paris Dictators (Flapper Magazine, 1922) Read More »
