Film And Fashion - The 1920s

If you are taking Films Studies this year, you would know all about “Movies Through the Decades” which happens every Friday. Picture this (pun intended): Every Friday, our class gets together in one of the large classrooms in JH (John Hume), and we watch a movie and discuss what we thought about it. Now, given my  “extra” nature, I spontaneously (twenty minutes before leaving the house, to be exact...) decided to match my outfits every Friday to the decade of the movie we would be watching. The more Fridays that have passed, the more extra I’ve gotten.  

 Working Class Women Emerge  

The first movie we watched was “The Kid” (1921), an American comedy-drama film. The movie was incredible, but most importantly, here is a glimpse into the fashion: 

 When we think about the 1920s, it is the flapper dress, the Great Gatsby aesthetic that most of us are thinking of. I decided to try something different for this first decade. I focused on the working class in the United States in the 1920s, which is a theme the movie (The Kid) touches on. Although not the most popularised piece of clothing, overalls were worn through the 1920s by the working class. It had a practical use as opposed to being fashionable at the time, protecting clothing from getting dirty or damaged. Overalls they were primarily worn by men; however, that is not to say women did not wear overalls in the 1920s. They did! And they looked fabulous while doing it: 

1920s overalls. Image from Vintage Dancer.

My 1920s Inspired Look 

Since I did not have overalls, this was my attempt to use the clothes I already had to create a look that resembled the 1920s from my point of view: 

Maintaining a sustainable fashion while doing this project was essential for me. Sustainability and the fact that this was a twenty-minutes-before-leaving-the-gaff-decision, the 1920s was not my most exact decade. This first trial felt more like a "hint of influence" as opposed to a more well-thought-out project that "Fashion & Film Friday" has evolved into.  

If you have made it until the end of this article, thank you. I hope to see you here again for my representation of 1930s fashion: a decade that was incredibly fun to do and one of the "less known" decades when it comes to fashion.  

Singing off for now, 

B.