Show-stopping flapper dresses: Have a Moulin Rouge moment in a 1920s-inspired frock
Modern flapper frocks come in all shapes and guises, from bead-fringed Miu Miu shimmy gowns, to print-plastered Peter Pilotto slip-dresses, to sequin-encrusted tube skirt and brief bodices
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Your support makes all the difference.What is the seemingly endless appeal of the 1920s for fashion designers?
Maybe it’s the last flush of post-war decadence, ending with a bang with the 1929 stock-market crash when suddenly waists rose, skirts dropped (allegedly calculated to boost the fabric industry by using more material) and the Flapper found she had to grow up, wake up and go and find gainful employment.
Prior to that was a decade of unrivalled, unbridled freedom. Hemlines rose higher than ever in recorded history, until a glimpse of stocking, to paraphrase Cole Porter, was looked on anything but shocking.
Women, emancipated and empowered by wartime employment, exercised the same freedom previously only afforded to men. Hence the fact that Victor Margueritte titled his 1922 novel La Garçonne, a phrase which immediately caught on as a description of the decade’s slender, boyish shaped and severely shingled hair.
The flapper look still has a fashion relevance today – it can still look modern, although its lost its power to startle and shock.
Modern flapper frocks come in all shapes and guises, from bead-fringed Miu Miu shimmy gowns, to print-plastered Peter Pilotto slip-dresses, to sequin-encrusted tube skirt and brief bodices. The slither of midriff between keeps those looking contemporary.
Photographs: Walter Hugo and Zoniel
Model: Hazel Townsend at Storm, and Leila Beasley
Fashion editor: Alexander Fury
Hazel's hair: Franco Vallelonga at Era Artist Management using Oribe
Hazel's make-up: Kenny Leung at Era Artist Management using Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
Leila's hair and make-up: Simone
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