Retro Rack

Someone asked me recently how I'd dress for a 1920s party. If there is one decade of vintage fashion I avoid like the plague it's the 1920s. (I'd take the 1980s over the 1920s, which, if you know me, is saying a LOT.) The 1920s just wasn't a good time for the Rack.


I blame Chanel. Don't get me wrong I love her as all us fashion addicts do. For changing the course of dress history. For being the first perfect example for French simplicity.


But Coco Chanel wouldn't know what to do with a pair of bosoms if they whistled up to her in the street and slapped her up side the head. Girl had game, but girl sure had no Rack to speak of. This made her highly unsympathetic to the boulder-schlepping cause. Never yet has the Chanel label really come around to the top side. Pioneering, as they did, the boxy suit jacket among other atrocities. (Thank goodness for Dior, that's all I have to say.)


But, Miss Gail, this does not help those of use with the quandary of having a flapper New Years Party and huge tracks of land. The fact is there is nothing about 1920s fashion that works on the Rack.


So if I were invited to such a shindig? I'd wince and I'd winch and I'd go muttering on about why it couldn't at least be an Enchanted April picnic... But here's what I'd do: work around it. The 1920s isn't going to work with the Girls, so it has to be made to work around them.


Here are some thoughts.

1. Try to find a fit & flare dress 

Yes they did exist. Many for daytime, bonus day dresses often had sleeves a pretty handkerchief hemlines.


That second option above would be easy to do with a long fitted sweater over a fluttery skirt.


And evening ensemble might be made by layering skirts and tops of opaque and see through material, base with dance wear, perhaps?


Alternatively, hunt for a fit and flare dress that has a pattern flattering to the larger bust (like above) is an option.

2. Try to find a dress with lots of neck floof

Alternatively, you can add scarves and layers of beads yourself.

3. Drape loose jackets, stoles, etc

4. If all else fails, move that hip sash to your natural waist

So long as you use a long skinny scarf as a sash and leave it dangling it will have the right look. The point for a party is not necessarily to dress as authentic as possible, but to dress in a way that harkens to the right time period while still being flattering and comfortable. I approach events more like stage shows than reenactment.

If I had an evening 1920s theme event, I'd wear this dress with a fringed shawl and sash at the waist and lots of necklaces. I'd borrow from belly dancing costuming.


Just don't use a proper belt, you'll mess with the feel.

Alternatively, a wide pair of silk pajama trousers or harem pants over a leotard with lots of necklaces, boa, fringed scarf, and the like does wonders.


Skinny sash about the head or a cloche and the right makeup and you'd be surprised how authentic this looks.


One of the best things about this era? Low healed overly decorated shoes!



Want to watch something to go with? I recommend the TV series You Rang M'Lord and Jeeves & Wooster, the movies Cold Comfort Farm, Enchanted April, and Gosford Park.

Something for Prudence in anticipation of this style?