on September 30, 2025
The 1920s was an upheaval, a shimmering departure from the old world to the new. After the devastation of the First World War, a youthful generation embraced freedom and harbored a love for excess and experimentation. It was the manifestation of change: faster cars, shorter skirts, and jazz beats reverberating through smoke-filled nightclubs. F. Scott Fitzgerald captured it best when he called it “an age of art, an age of excess.” Fashion was no longer bound by tradition. It was alive, modern, and defiant.
Flappers, Freedom, and the Rise of the Modern Woman
The flapper became the era’s most enduring symbol. With her bobbed hair, crimson lips, and drop-waisted dresses, she danced the Charleston into the memory of culture. She represented more than a new silhouette, she embodied liberation. Gone were suffocating corsets and ornate Edwardian gowns. In their place came loose-fitting dresses that moved with the body, silk pyjamas worn for both lounging and entertaining, and trousers pioneered by icons like Coco Chanel. Fashion and freedom fused, redefining femininity with bold sensuality.
Jazz, Cinema, and the Rhythm of Style
If jazz was the sound of the ‘20s, cinema was its mirror. The syncopated rhythms of improvisation inspired visual excess beads that shimmered with every step, tassels swaying like cymbals in motion. Hollywood amplified this aesthetic, projecting stars like Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, and Louise Brooks into global consciousness. With their feathered headdresses, sequined gowns, and magnetic rebellion, they became style goddesses for a world ready to consume glamour at a cinematic scale. Film was the new runway, and every marquee lit up with the promise of fantasy and fashion.
Exoticism and the Allure of the East
Despite it being controversial and problematic, the fascination with everything exotic and oreintal was big during the 1920s. Following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, Egyptian motifs infiltrated fashion and jewelry. Lotus flowers, scarabs, rich gold details and symbols once cherished by the Pharaonic civilization were resurrected in dainty dresses. Chinoiserie embroidery and Japanese kimonos infiltrated wardrobes, signaling a fascination with the “Orient” as a source of decadent inspiration. This infusion of global references elevated Western fashion into something more theatrical and eccentric, a precursor to today’s luxury houses drawing from global archives.
The Age of Excess and Opulence
The 1920s didn’t like quiet luxury; in fact it favored the glittering and extravagant type of luxury. Sequins caught candlelight in Speakeasies and top secret bars, pearls draped over bare shoulders, and velvet clung to the body with sensual fluidity. Accessories became just as important as the clothing itself. One could wear feathered headpieces and beaded clutches and still be as casual as ever. The fashion scene overall spoke to indulgence and performance, making clothes less about modesty and more about spectacle. The woman wasn’t just dressed; she was staged.
Liberation Through Style
At its core, the Jazz Age was about women claiming space in society through what they wore. The shorter hemlines and freer silhouettes were trending for a good reason; they were statements of an independence age when women finally drove cars and wore trousers without apology. Ever since humans learned how to make clothes, clothing signaled identity. So the 1920s’ fashion undoubtedly signaled individualism and unapologetic self-expression.
The Enduring Influence of the Jazz Age
Nearly a century later, the Roaring Twenties continue to echo through fashion. Art Deco gowns are modernized flapper dresses taking over the runways this year, and the codes of the roaring decade remain timeless. Brands today still mine the 1920s for inspiration, we aim for pearls layered with abandon, feather trims, sequined mini-dresses, women's suits with a sheen and sleek bob cuts. Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe it’s a realization that this decade in particular laid the foundation of the modern wardrobe. The Jazz Age lives on because it was the first era to make fashion about freedom, movement, and pure spectacle.
Why the 1920s Still Roar for Luxury Fashion
For luxury fashion houses, the Roaring Twenties offers us abundant inspiration. It also serves as a blueprint because that was the exact moment when fashion broke free. Today, as consumers seek pieces that blend heritage with a sense of boldness, the parallels are unmistakable. The 1920s remind us that fashion thrives on reinvention, borrowing and reinterpreting. In our house we know that beauty lives simultaneously in the spectacle and the .
The Jazz Age wasn’t just a style moment—it was the birth of fashion as a modern language, one that still speaks fluently in silk, sequins, and satin.
