CLARKE HISTORICAL MUSEUM
  • Home
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • How to find us
  • About the Clarke
    • Annual Report 2023
    • Staff & Board
  • Exhibits
    • Native Plant Garden
    • Main Hall >
      • History of McKinleyville
      • Emmerson Room >
        • Arsenic and Old Lace: A Victorian Cookbook
        • The Carolyn Burns Foundation
      • Historic Firearms
      • Clarke Bird Collection
      • Clarke Gem & Mineral Collection
    • Nealis Hall >
      • About Nealis Hall
      • History of Nealis Hall
      • Florence Harrie (1889–1981, Karuk)
      • Traditional Tastes
      • Shounarr Gaplhouyit! Let’s Eat!
      • Hover Collection
      • Wiyot People, Places, and Practices
      • Traditional Legacy: Baskets from the 1800's
      • Past Mini-Exhibits
    • Community Case
    • Opera Alley Mural >
      • Past Opera Alley Exhibits
    • WWII Memorial Exhibit at the Humboldt County Airport
    • Virtual Tours
    • Online Exhibits >
      • Historic Homicide: The Kjer Family Tragedy
      • Historic Homicide: Northern Humboldt’s Mysterious Murderer: The Unsolved Cases of Bert Porter and Joseph Vierra
      • MPH
      • Immigration, Expulsion, Homecoming
    • Exhibit Archive >
      • Membership
      • Fall Harvest
      • Stitched in Time: Humboldt County's Quilted History
      • Weaving Wonders: Exceptional Design
      • Nellie McGraw
      • Ecological Management
      • Hailstone Collection
      • Maritime History
      • Notable Women of Humboldt County
      • Bigfoot Quilt Raffle
  • Events
    • Second Annual Night At The Museum Gala 2025
    • Arts Alive
    • Saturday Speaker Series
  • Membership
  • Support
    • Membership
    • Admission
    • Volunteer
    • Donations & Fundraisers
    • Sponsorships
    • Internships
  • Blog
  • Education
    • TikTok Videos
    • Teacher Resources
    • Additional Resources
    • Research >
      • Humboldt History
      • Local History Links
  • Tours
    • School Tours >
      • Donate & Schedule Your Tour
    • Chinatown Walking Tours
  • NCMA

1920s Fashion Exhibit


Picture
                                                 Fashion of the 1920s

WWI brought around many changes in society, particularly for women’s fashion. In the past, high fashion was reserved for the upper class, but due to design changes, dresses became less complicated and more affordable for middle class women.

Corsets lost their general appeal as flappers refused to wear them and instead rolled their stockings to the knee.  Long Corsets produced the boyish figure, but instead of thick boned corsets, many women preferred thin elastic webbing Lastex girdles that flattened the abdomen, with suspenders attached to the girdles. Underwear was minimal, sheer and lightweight.  

The arms were bared and the legs were covered with beige stockings visible to the knee. The young and fashionable woman during this period paid attention to legs and footwear. Stockings with patterns were hot fashion items with embroidery snaking around the ankles and up to the knee.  Flesh and soft pastel colors were made in either silk or rayon.  Rayon stockings were very shiny so girls powdered their legs to dull them before venturing out. 

Women wore cloche hats throughout this period, which signified that you had short hair.  It was only possible to get a close fitting cloche on the skull if the hair was cropped short and flat.  The cloche hat affected body posture as it was pulled well over the eyes which meant young women held their head at a specific angle in order to see where they were going as showing your forehead was considered unfashionable in the 1920s. 

Information from: http://www.fashion-era.com/flapper_fashion_1920s.htm



Clarke Historical Museum
240 E Street
​Eureka, California 95501
[email protected]
(707) 443-1947
Open Wednesday - Sunday
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday

​Open until 8:30 p.m. during Friday Night Markets
Open until 9 p.m. during Eureka Arts Alive
Copyright © 2025. All Rights Reserved.