The Rise and Fall of It All: The Hemlines and Hiplines of the 1920s

Abstract

That the hemline of women's daytime costume became increasingly elevated during the 1920s, and that this costume often evidenced stylistic emphasis around the anatomical hipline, are two traditional concepts promulgated by most costume historians. In the current investigation, 1,978 women's daytime fashion illustrations, published within Good Housekeeping between February 1920 and December 1929, were measured to test the accuracy of these often communicated beliefs. While the data did substantiate that hemlines rose and hiplines were emphasized during the 1920s, it was noted that the actual transitional movements of these two style details, as plotted by the results of the study, were not so simply described. Hemlines, for example, lengthened during 1922 and 1923, before beginning an upward trend in 1924, reaching the most elevated position in 1927. A relatively stable period ensued until October 1929, when the dress skirt again began to grow longer. Thus, the publication of longer skirts predated the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, by approximately one month. Similarly, the specific location of waist/hip emphasis dropped between the years of 1920 and 1925, thereafter followed by a gradual rise. A modest inverse relationship was noted between the fluctuating positions of the waist/hip design features and hemline locations. It was discovered that data collected from sketched fashion illustrations reflected slightly more exaggerated versions of a concurrent style than did data collected from photographs.

“The New Costumes of Odd Sizes”

“…The ideal silhouette of the 1920s was tubular, flat, and “boyish” as opposed to the womanly silhouette of the 1910s. Skirts remained ankle length at first, but by 1927, they were at their highest for the decade and showing the knee (Richards, 1983). Women usually wore one-piece, looser-fitting, sleeveless, or long-sleeved dresses.…”

“…Silhouettes changed from a barrel shape in 1919 to an oblong shape in the early 1920s; in the late 1920s, silhouettes were wedge shaped with narrow hemlines (Tortora & Eubank, 2010). Throughout the 1920s, dress silhouettes included a lower, horizontal waist hip line created through manipulation of fabric in pleats, tucks, smocking, and belts or sashes (Richards, 1983).…”

Museum Collections vs. Fashion Magazines: Aesthetic Rules

“…Recent researchers have continued to study fashion change as represented in fashion publications (Behling & Dickey, 1980;Belleau, 1987;Carman, 1966;Creekmore & Pedersen, 1979;Lowe, 1984;Lowe & Lowe, 1982, 1984, 1985Richards, 1983-84; Robenstine & Kelley, 1981;Turnbaugh, 1979). From this group of authors Vogue was the most used fashion magazine, followed by Harper's Bazaar and Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine.…”

Visual complexity of women's streetwear in photographs, 1839 to 1929

“…Richardson and Kroeber (1940) and Weeden (1977) investigated trends in styl istic changes or dress. Richards (1983-84) tested traditional assumptions about styl istic changes. lowe (1984) To begin measuring the number of visual parts I first looked at "visual boundaries" (Arnheim, 1954) within a clothed body form.…”

“…Aesthetic Research Richardson and Kroeber (1940) (Richards, 1983-84). Lowe (1984) uti I ized visual analysis of dress to evaluate aesthetic rules of proportion.…”