Flappers were rather different in the 1920s than they are portrayed in fancy dress shops and I much prefer the original versions. As Billie Dove shows us on the cover of ‘The Flapper’ magazine (“Not for Old Fogies”) it wasn’t all about shimmying around in beaded dresses, being a ‘bright young thing’ was about bucking the trends, even if that means wearing a football uniform!  The illustrations from this time were beautiful too, and graced the covers of lots of magazines, I particularly love the cover of Life magazine with the butterfly flapper.

Above: “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” by American artist Russell Patterson (1893-1977). Full-length illustration of a fashionably dressed flapper standing with one hand on her hip and a cigarette in the other hand. A stream of smoke from the cigarette forms a curving, twisting, decorative line.

 

Image source and copyright: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, This media file is in the public domain in the United States. 6, This is a press photograph from the George Grantham Bain collection, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1948. According to the library, there are no known restrictions on the use of these photos.