The 1920s was the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. It was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear more comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or pants). Men likewise abandoned overly formal clothes and began to wear sport clothes for the first time. The suits which men wear today are still based, for the most part, on those which were worn by men in the late 1920s.
The 1920s were characterized by two distinct periods of fashion. The early 1920s were hin nature and change progressed slowly as many were reluctant to adopt the new styles. From 1925, the styles that have been associated with the Roaring Twenties were passionately embraced by the public and would continue to characterize fashion until late in 1930.
Clothing changed with women’s changing roles in modern society, particularly with the idea of new fashion. Although society matrons of a certain age continued to wear conservative dresses, forward-looking and younger women now made sportswear into the greatest change in post-war fashion. The tubular dresses of the ’Teens had evolved into a similar silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion to rule women’s fashion for the first time in history. Undergarments began to transform after World War I to conform to the ideals of a flatter chest and more boyish figure. The corset was diminishing and the bandeau, flattening style was prevalent in the early 1920’s. During the mid-twenties all-in-one lingerie became popular, leaving behind the corset and moving into the curvier brassiere era of the 1930’s.
