Did you know that Jazz was the first type of music that existed? In the 1920’s, Jazz influenced culture and clothing but most specially the fashion industry because the whole industry targeted a society that was aware of one certain kind of music. Because of the post-economic problems, the consumer market was very powerful and the fashion indus-try had to follow the demands of the young generation of the titime. The wild and joyful music of jazz filled the streets of the United States while the flapper fashions very much il-lustrated the importance of jazz. The big popularity of jazz music was that it was incredible music to dance to! The most popular dance across the dance halls in the United States was the Charleston. As these two dances became so popular, the Victorian clothing of the pre-war era was no longer suitable for the jazz apparel. Jazz music was such a big hit in the twenties that the fashion industry was barely able to satisfy the needs of our young generation consumers. Jazz intro-duced the “flapper” fashions: “drop-waist” dresses, long strings of glass beads and pearls became very fashionable because of Coco Chanel but this style became very popular in 1923 where the popularity of jazz soared. What was searched by the consumers was the fact that they wanted to be comfortable as well as loosely fitted to be able to dance. The upper and lower body freedom was essential when dancing on jazz music or dancing the Charleston, so dresses we’re cut short to reflect the ability to move freely when dancing. Another popular look for a lady was a mesh dress that was sleeveless so the outfit was able to breathe and keep tthose active women comfortable but looking stylish with se-quins and accessories so it shouted for attention in crowded nightclubs. Flappers were seen as an excuse for wearing ex-cessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and most importantly, flout-ing social and sexual norms. They had phrases that were commonly used in that era like “the bee’s knees” that meanan extraordinary person, thing or idea.

Also, “chassis” meant the female body, “razz” that meant to make fun of, etc. The way women dressed reflected their sta-tus.The wealthy wore such elegantly ornate dresses and be-cause of the simple pattern of the flapper dress, ordinary women were easily able to copy these dresses for far less money. Flapper dresses were a straight waist so that the wom-en’s curves wouldn’t show as much and it would give it a boyish look. They even went to the point of flattening their chests and a long string of beads or pearls having down below the chest stressed the flat bodice. Hairstyles we’re also based on style and necessity. They used a lot of hair additives so the hair was slicked back to the head so that it assured that the hair would stay in place and not suddenly begin to fly about in the middle of a dramatic dance move from the 1920’s.