flapper

(noun)

A young woman whose unconventional clothing and progressive attitude personified the free spirit of the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age.

Related Terms

  • The Jazz Age
  • Symington Side Lacer
  • potter palm
  • Coco Chanel
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Charleston

(noun)

A young woman, especially when unconventional or without decorum; particularly associated with the 1920s.

Related Terms

  • The Jazz Age
  • Symington Side Lacer
  • potter palm
  • Coco Chanel
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Charleston

Examples of flapper in the following topics:

  • Fashion

    • Flappers popularized short skirts and hairstyles, heavy use of makeup, and a young and boyish look for women in the 1920s.
    • Flappers did away with corsets and pantaloons in favor of "step-in" panties.
    • Without the old restrictive corsets, flappers wore simple bust bodices to make their chest hold still when dancing.
    • Hence, flat chests became appealing to women in general, although flappers in particular most commonly wore such bras.
    • This image illustrates the provocative, active aspect of the flapper fashion and lifestyle.
  • Flappers

    • Flappers were the personification of a new spirit in fashion, dance and music in the 1920s.
    • Flappers were known for their style and the widespread popularization of new culture trends that accompanied it.
    • Flapper dresses were straight and loose, leaving the arms bare and dropping the waistline to the hips.
    • In the flapper period, dance music took parts of various existing musical styles and created a new form.
    • Analyze the changing social norms characterized by the rise of the flappers
  • The Culture of the Roaring Twenties

    • Jazz music experienced a dramatic surge in popularity, and notions of modern womanhood were redefined by the flapper.
    • This was the age of the flapper: a new breed of young women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for socially acceptable behavior by wearing makeup, smoking, driving automobiles, and flouting sexual norms.
    • Flapper fashion was both a trend and a social statement, a deliberate parting of ways with rigid Victorian gender roles, which emphasized plain living, hard work, and religion, to embrace consumerism and personal choice.
  • The Jazz Age

    • Young people of the 1920s were influenced by Jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations, a rebellion that went hand-in-hand with fads such as the bold fashion statements of the Flappers and new radio concerts.
    • The surfacing of Flappers, women noted for their flamboyant style of dress and progressive attitudes and modernized morals, began to captivate society during the Jazz Age.
  • Conclusion: Cultural Change in the Interwar Period

    • The explosion of Jazz and other new musical and dance forms in the 1920s was personified by the flappers, women whose fashion styles represented their free spirits and new social openness.
    • Although the appearance typically associated with flappers – straight waists, short hair and a hemline above the knee – did not fully emerge until about 1926, there was an early association in the public mind between unconventional appearance, outrageous behavior and the word "flapper."
    • French designer Coco Chanel helped develop the fashions for women that became widely popular in the flapper period.
  • The Roaring Twenties

    • Rebellious, middle-class women, labeled "flappers" by older generations, did away with the corset and donned slinky knee-length dresses, which exposed their legs and arms.
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