Evening dress
Gabrielle Chanel · 1925
Flapper
A dropped waist and a loose outline gave the flapper room to move. Beaded evening dresses made the look famous, but its proportions also shaped simpler clothes.
Dropped waistStraight silhouetteShorter skirts
Dress
Gabrielle Chanel · 1927
Evening dress
Jean Patou · 1928–30
Bataille
Paul Poiret · 1925
Evening dress
Edward Molyneux · 1926–27
Evening dress
Louise Boulanger · 1928
Embroidered day dress
House of Paquin · c. 1923–24
About Flapper
The flapper is the best-known image of 1920s fashion: a youthful look with a relatively straight outline, a low waist and freedom to move. Shorter skirts, bobbed hair and close-fitting cloche hats helped complete it. Evening dresses often shimmered with beads or sequins, while simpler dresses shared the same loose proportions. Hemlines varied across the decade, and neither fringe nor a knee-length hem was essential to every fashionable dress.
Explore the designers
- Coco ChanelView garment · 1925
Ease as elegance
- Jean PatouView garment · 1928–30
From modern simplicity to fluid eveningwear
- Paul PoiretView garment · 1925
Color, ornament and theatrical proportion
- Edward MolyneuxView garment · 1926–27
Modern taste and classical drapery
- Marie-Louise BoulangerView garment · 1928
Feathers and fluid evening dress
- House of PaquinView garment · c. 1923–24
An influential couture house led by successive generations of designers.