Dangerous Girls, 1920s
Girls took the styles they saw on movie screens and made them their own.
Girls' fashion choices upset many cultural authorities. Journalists, religious leaders, and others warned of the dangers posed by modern girls.
They made new gender-bending ideas—such as bobbing their hair—popular. Americans have forgotten that cutting one's hair was a radical move; short hair upended ideas about female respectability.
Evening Dress, around 1925
Gift of Mrs. Hebert Campbell
This dress was made to party. The loose fit made dancing easy and more energetic.
See Girlhood in 3D! Explore a model of the evening dress.
Movie Icons
Movies provided style icons that girls copied, adapted, and used to refashion themselves. Some stars bobbed their hair and wore pants. Girls copied and spread their boyish fashions, upsetting parents and authorities.
Remaking Style
When it came to remixing, girls in the 1920s borrowed ideas from magazines, advertising, and music. In turn, the fashion industry watched girls for new styles.
Sleek flapper fashions emphasized bare arms and legs. Many young women began shaving.
Gillette Ladies Razor, around 1920
Gift of Dadie and Norman P. Perlov
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Summer dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.
Poem, 1914
Modern girls wrote to local newspapers explaining why they changed modest clothing for bold designs, demure ideas for more adventurous personas.
