The 1920s JAZZ AGE exhibition presents a glittering display of haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion from 1919 to 1929. Women’s clothing in the 1920s reflected dizzying social change on an unprecedented scale. From Paris and London to New York and Hollywood, the decade following the Great War offered the modern woman a completely new style of dressing.
With over 150 garments, this stunning selection of sportswear, printed day dresses, fringed flapper dresses, beaded evening wear, velvet capes, and silk pyjamas reveals the glamour, excess, frivolity and modernity of the decade.
The exhibition focuses not only on high-end couture but also on the ready-made. It offers a reassessment of the 1920s by showcasing the wide variety of clothing and accessories available to the modern woman, not just the drop-waisted flapper dress immediately associated with the era.
Colourful illustrations by Gordon Conway from the Illustrated London News Archive at Mary Evans and photographs by Abbe, Beaton, Man Ray, and Baron de Meyer highlight the role of photographs and magazines in promoting the 1920s look.