A 1920s Fashion History Lesson: Flappers, Bobs, and Other Trends That Made the Roaring Twenties Roar

How did 1920s fashion help to make the Roaring Twenties roar? Bernice had bobbed her hair; French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen was fueling the sportif craze; the taste for all things Art Deco carried over into fashion; and Chanel had slipped women into something more comfortable—the Little Black Dress. The LBD was deemed such a closet mainstay that Vogue drew a comparison to Ford’s revolutionary Model T of 1908. In an article in our October 1, 1926 issue entitled “The Debut of the Winter Mode,” Vogue captioned a sketch of a black, long-sleeved frock that fell just below the knees: “The Chanel ‘Ford’—the frock that the world will wear is model 817 of black crepe de chine.”

On our covers, we celebrated the decade with illustrations from the likes of Georges Lepape, Benito, and William Bolin. A harmony of linear elements that appear plucked from the sketches of the forthcoming Chrysler Building, these illustrations helped feed the Art Deco frenzy. Fashion-wise, women were dressed in cloche hats, tubular silhouettes with drop waists, and handkerchief hemlines boldly skimming shins—which were on show for the very first time.

A breakdown of all these 1920s fashion trends and more, below.