DISCOVER LONDONDAVID ILIFF/ ROYAL ALBERT HALL ➤Swing
Time
A century on from the “Roaring
Twenties”, Adrian Mourby revisits
the Art Deco venues and artistic
triumphs that dazzled London
during this stylish eraT
he “Roaring Twenties” was
perhaps the first time that
a decade gained an identity
in the popular imagination.
It was a phrase that spoke of fast living
and flapperdom; of a hedonism spawned
in Britain and America that would spread
across both hemispheres, from São Paulo to
Shanghai. The 1890s eventually developed
a risqué soubriquet all of its own, but the
“Naughty Nineties” was retrospectively
applied. The 1920s “roared” while they
were still happening.
This decade was remarkable in Britain
because, for the first time in history, our
way of life began to be influenced by
America. London, as capital of the British
Empire, had dominated taste and style
in the decades leading up to the First
World War. By 1920, however, the far
less exhausted metropolis of New York
boasted couture that the British began
to emulate and a dangerous music that
intrigued Europeans. Meanwhile, over
in Los Angeles, there was a burgeoning
movie industry that would soon change
the way people thought about the world,
and even spoke. Nevertheless, Britain in
the aftermath of the First World War was
an exciting, fizzing place to be, especially
if you had money.
In terms of dress, the 1920s had a
particularly dramatic impact on women’s
fashion in England. The bosomy Edwardian
S-curve silhouette, created by dangerously
tight corseting, was already out of fashion
by the beginning of the war. In its place
came three-quarter length skirts, dropped
waistlines and tight-fitting cloche hats.
For gentlemen what had been sportswear- V-necked sweaters and loose-fitting
trousers known as Oxford bags –
MAT T HE W SHAWbecame acceptable daywear in the 1920s,
DISCOVER LONDON➤Swing
Time
A century on from the “Roaring
Twenties”, Adrian Mourby revisits
the Art Deco venues and artistic
triumphs that dazzled London
during this stylish eraT
he “Roaring Twenties” was
perhaps the first time that
a decade gained an identity
in the popular imagination.
It was a phrase that spoke of fast living
and flapperdom; of a hedonism spawned
in Britain and America that would spread
across both hemispheres, from São Paulo to
Shanghai. The 1890s eventually developed
a risqué soubriquet all of its own, but the
“Naughty Nineties” was retrospectively
applied. The 1920s “roared” while they
were still happening.
This decade was remarkable in Britain
because, for the first time in history, our
way of life began to be influenced by
America. London, as capital of the British
Empire, had dominated taste and style
in the decades leading up to the First
World War. By 1920, however, the far
less exhausted metropolis of New York
boasted couture that the British began
to emulate and a dangerous music that
intrigued Europeans. Meanwhile, over
in Los Angeles, there was a burgeoning
movie industry that would soon change
the way people thought about the world,
and even spoke. Nevertheless, Britain in
the aftermath of the First World War was
an exciting, fizzing place to be, especially
if you had money.
In terms of dress, the 1920s had a
particularly dramatic impact on women’s
fashion in England. The bosomy Edwardian
S-curve silhouette, created by dangerously
tight corseting, was already out of fashion
by the beginning of the war. In its place
came three-quarter length skirts, dropped
waistlines and tight-fitting cloche hats.
For gentlemen what had been sportswear- V-necked sweaters and loose-fitting
trousers known as Oxford bags –
MAT T HE W SHAWbecame acceptable daywear in the 1920s,