Do you love the look of clothing from Downton Abbey, The Great Gatsby, Miss Fisher, Cable Girls, or any of the other 1920s Movies and TV series? I do, but I definitely don’t want to wear out my vintage ’20s clothing. Instead, I am adding 1920s inspired clothing to my everyday wardrobe so that I can look and feel like I have a bit of roaring 20s style on me all the time.
Thankfully, there are many new clothes, shoes, and accessories that are inspired by 1920s clothing designs that fit our modern tastes and budgets. Let me show you…
1920s Modern Clothes
Evening gowns that are heavily beaded, draped or embroidered are back in fashion. Very 20s glamour!
Your local department store is a terrific place to start. Many modern dresses feature the classic ’20s drop waist with bead or sequin embellishments, fringe, and feathers. You can find formal evening gowns with all-over beading like the Crawley sisters wore to dinner in the formal wear section.
Shorter, playful sheath dresses for a ’20s day look are harder to find. Look for any design with a drop waist that is sleeveless, long sleeve, or with short flutter sleeves. Dresses with tiers of ruffles, side draping, and hanky hems are in style now and look 1920s too. Online shopping can give you even better options than your local stores. Look here for my handpicked selection of 1920s dresses from around the web.
- 1920s daytime dresses
Thrift stores can be a gold mine of cheap dresses and accessories with plenty of ’20s style. The last 1920s fashion revival was in the 1970s and 1980s, when beaded dresses and two piece jackets and skirts were in vogue. While these dresses can look too “’80s,” if you remove any shoulder bags and add 20s accessories, they can work out very well.
Cloche Hats
Cloche hats, bucket hats, and sun hats always seem to be available at thrift or new clothing stores. I usually add ribbon trim to cloche hats, and flowers and feathers to sun hats to give them more vintage ’20s style. If you don’t have a local thrift store to shop at, consider buying a new 1920s style cloche hat.
1920s Inspired Crystal Necklace
Jewelry can be found at the mall in specialty jewelry stores for not much money. The 1920s began the use of costume jewelry, where jewelry could be made to look expensive but is actually constructed with cheaper materials to make them affordable. 1920s style costume jewelry can be found almost anywhere. Look for long pearl necklaces, gold and bead chain necklaces, lariats, and Art Deco drop earrings with a lot of colorful gems like ruby and emeralds. Online, shop here for 1920s style costume jewelry.
Deco Hair Comb
Wedding boutiques may not be a place you shop more than once in your life, but they are worth a look for 1920s hair accessories. Sparkling rhinestone hair clips, combs, and headbands were worn by all the Downton ladies. They accented the short hairstyles beautifully. Tiaras, too, were especially welcome with formal dresses. For day wear, the ladies mostly wore hats, but in the coming season 4 I suspect we will see many more ribbon headbands and feather clips worn at all times of the day. Wedding shops have the best selection of rhinestone and pearl hair accessories. However, I am seeing more and more sparkling headbands making their way into costume jewelry stores everywhere. Shop online for a wide range of formal and day 1920’s style hair decorations.
These a just a few ideas of where you can begin to find 1920s modern clothes both locally and online. 1920s fashion is becoming so popular this year that almost everywhere you look there is a skirt, blouse, dress, hat, or necklace that is inspired by the Roaring Twenties. The ladies of the Roaring Twenties bring out the effortless elegance of the decade. You, too, can dress like them with a keen eye for 1920s fashion inspiration in modern clothing
Debbie Sessions has been teaching fashion history and helping people dress for vintage themed events since 2009. She has turned a hobby into VintageDancer.com with hundreds of well researched articles and hand picked links to vintage inspired clothing online. She aims to make dressing accurately (or not) an affordable option for all. Oh, and she dances too.
