The 1920's were all about monement,from the flying fringes of the charleston dress to the streamlined silhouette of the new automobiles, and handbags reflected this desire for the new and the modern at the vibrant patterns of the Art Deco movement and the decade's obsession with all things Egyptian.Aspects of modernism had existed since 1914 in Cubism,Expressionism,Futurism,and abstraction in painting,but was not until after the war that modernism made its mark on everyday life,from Marcel Breuer's tubular chair,designed 1925,to the architecture of the Bauhaus,founded in 1919.Manifestos of cultural revolution appeared the arts influenced fashion and the avent garde became mainstream.
The heavily decorated Victorian interiors and restrictive corsets were rejected,so too,was the impractical reticule with its dainty flounces and drawstring opening.Certainly,there was an element of androgyny about the rangy,elongated silhouette of a new phenomenon,the 1920's flapper girl.
http://www.google.gr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Breuer_Marcel_Bauhaus_Wassily_Chair_1925.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.shafe.co.uk/art/Marcel_Breuer_-_Tubular_Chair_-_-Wassily-_Chair-_1925.asp&usg=__fN69UgImcvLlgBC-H0K8pOw82MM=&h=402&w=400&sz=10&hl=el&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=WlbYOzICWcDorM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMarcel%2BBreuer%2527s%2Btubular%2Bchair%26hl%3Del%26biw%3D1437%26bih%3D590%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=136&vpy=97&dur=1620&hovh=225&hovw=224&tx=105&ty=139&ei=CuQITcn_PJDxsgaD_PGUAw&oei=CuQITcn_PJDxsgaD_PGUAw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0
Marcel Breuer's tubular chair
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The heavily decorated Victorian interiors and restrictive corsets were rejected,so too,was the impractical reticule with its dainty flounces and drawstring opening.Certainly,there was an element of androgyny about the rangy,elongated silhouette of a new phenomenon,the 1920's flapper girl.
http://www.google.gr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Breuer_Marcel_Bauhaus_Wassily_Chair_1925.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.shafe.co.uk/art/Marcel_Breuer_-_Tubular_Chair_-_-Wassily-_Chair-_1925.asp&usg=__fN69UgImcvLlgBC-H0K8pOw82MM=&h=402&w=400&sz=10&hl=el&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=WlbYOzICWcDorM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMarcel%2BBreuer%2527s%2Btubular%2Bchair%26hl%3Del%26biw%3D1437%26bih%3D590%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=136&vpy=97&dur=1620&hovh=225&hovw=224&tx=105&ty=139&ei=CuQITcn_PJDxsgaD_PGUAw&oei=CuQITcn_PJDxsgaD_PGUAw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0
Marcel Breuer's tubular chair
Flapper's represent freedom from all the constraints of the previous century,replacing the whalebone corsets,her breasts flattened and concealed.The close-fitting cloche hat replaced towering confections of tulle and flowers,and no reticule dangled from her wrist,rather a clutch bag was securely tucked between her upper arm and body,or carried in the hand to be opened with a decisive snap as she reached for her lipstick or powder.The clean,pared-down silhouette of the body was also refrected in the simplicity of the face: the plucked,high-arched eyebrows,almond shaped eyes,the small rosebud mouth and the flat,head-hugging shingle bob all reflected the influence of the Romanian sculptor Brancusi,whose works included "Sleeping Muse".
Brancusi The Sleeping Muse 1910
This visage appeared repeatedly on the cover of Vogue throught the decade,illustrated by great artists such as George Barbier,Georges Lepape and Benito.
This new generation of woemn was perceived as decadent and hedonistic,pursuing pleasure with a single mindedness that went hand in hand with social emancipation.The flapper embodied the spirit of the Jazz Age and moved to the syncopated,rhythmic dance music that originated in black America and was yet another symbol of modernity.When hemlines are raised,the waistline changes,in 1925 it dropped to below the hips and gave to flapper the freedom of movement to embrace her partner for the Turkey Trot or to enjoy the uninhibited Charleston, a show dance first performed by Ziegfeld Follies in 1923.A the flapper frolicked energetically around the dance floor,her bag had to fulfil certain requirements.It needed a secure clasp,and to be lightweigh and small,often no more than palm sized,as she neede to be able to grasp it securely.
Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
Dresses that were mere slips of fabric,in a neutral palette of various shades of shimmering pastels,were the perfect backdrop for the dramatic accessory.The clutch bag was the ideal canvas on which to showcase the decorative styles of the decade,its streamlined modernism made other bags appear over designed and fussy.As the decade progressed,the clutch bag evolved into the pochette.While still retaining the rectangular shape of the clutch,some now had the addiction of a small handle at the top or back,through which the fingers could slip.Others closed with an envelope flap,either angled to one side or covering the whole bag,which provided a perfect space for the fractional,faceted shapes and sweeping curves of the Cubist inspired Art Deco movement.
INFLUENCES
ART DECO style began in Europe in the early years of the twentieth century,though it was not universally popular until the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Indrustriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts),and fell out of flavour in the late 1930's and 1940's.It was a confluence of many trends,from the arts of Africa,Egypt and Mexico to the streamlined technology and materials of the "speed age",from modern aviation and the growing ubiquity of the motorcar.These design influences were expressed in the fractional forms of Cubism and Futurism.
The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 provoked a craze for ancient Egyptian styles of ornament that endured well into 1930s.It was an event that held a fascination with the puplic,fuelled by newsreel footage of archaeological digs and press reports.Howard Carter's remark on peering into the tomb for the first time,that he could see "marvelous things",heralded an obsession with all thingsEgyptian,from scarabs,snakes and pyramids to hieroglyphs and sphinxes.The French jeweller Cartier relished the opportunity for Art Deco decadence,with their handbag clasps of pave on plain black bags.
The use of cosmetics was perceived as dangerously provocative,"decent" women wore no make up.In contrast,the flapper brazenly outlined her lips in public and rouged even her earlobes.This daily maquillage required constant refreshment,and handbag took over the role of vanity cases to transport powder,rouge,lipstick and perfume.The shape of the vanity case was attributed to the japanese inro,a small box with compartments for medicinal herbs and perfumed water.Exclusive vanity cases were made by jewellers such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels in silver or gold,enamel,mother of pearls,jade and lapis lazuli.Cheeper versions were made from coloured plastic and decorated with glass stones.
Fashion and art were inextricably linked for the Ukrainian artist Sonia Delauney.Together with her husband,Robert Delauney,she was a significant pioneer of abstraction.Though her "colour rhythm" paintings,first shown in 1921,the artist endeavoured to provoke a simultaneous response to form,colour and movement.The angular abstraction and solid blocks of colours of her work provided an ideal way to decorate the flat planes and angles of a clutch bag,it was a perfect synthesis of form and decoration, and it was perfectly in tune with the era.A more spontaneous approach to colour was to be found in the work of the avant-garde artists of the time,including a group of French painters called the Fauves ("Wild Beasts"),known for their uncontrolled use of violent,brilliant colour.One of these artists,Raoul Duffy,was introduced to a carreer in textile design by the couturier Paul Poiret , and from 1912 to 1928,he created more than 2.000 textile designs for the French silk-weaving company Bianchini-Ferier.Dufy's strong graphic style,which was evidence of his earlier practice of wood engraving,encomprassed a wide range of design genres including narrative,figurative and abstract.His textiles found their way into handbags that had a particular appeal to the 1930s bohemian set.
the Ukrainian artist Sonia Delauney
With its roots in the Arts and Crafts Movement,the progress from producing exclusive furnishing fabrics to gradually introduce a broader range of products,including bags,usually created from dark hand-crafted leather with gold tooled patterns,their designs eventually shifted away from the curvilinear forms of Art Nouveau to embrace the formal stylization of Art Deco.
Coco Chanel
The inventor of the little black dress,she also brought a new,relaxed elegance to informal clothes,being influenced by the sporting garb of her aristocratic English lover, the Duke of Westminster,she popularized the caedigan and the use of wool jersey in a subtle colour palette of navy,taupe nad cream,and introduced trousers into her collections.She told to her friend that because she was "sick and tired of holding my handbags and losing them,i stuck a strap on them and wore them across my shoulders".She was inspired by military satchel to produce a version of the shoulderbag.Her first styles in 1929 were made from black or navy jersey,and lined in re or blue grosgrain.This design evolved into one of the most significant fashion items of the twentieth century,the 2.55 bag (named for the month and the year of its creation) and requiring 180 different processes in its manufacture.Inspired by the checked shirts of racetrack stable boys,the quilted jersey or leather bag hung from a long gold chain interlaced with leather,and featured a rectangular gold-plated lock.
During 1920s,Coco Chanel was one of the first couturiers to realize the potential of accessories as a way to increase sales,and opened a boutique in her Paris salon dedicated to accessories and jewellery.All the other couturies (Jeanne Lanvin,Jean Patou) while not specializing in handbags design,added to the total look of an outfit by designing matching clutches.
The machine age brought innovation and the invention of new materilas.It was inevitable that these would infiltrate fashion from their architectural or product-design origins.Plastic was one of the most significant cultural phenomena of the twentieth century.After the arrival of the first plastics (celluloid 1868,casein 1897,cellulose acetate in 1926) it became possible to imitate expensive natural raw materilas,such as horn,tortoiseshell and ivory.The plastic simulation of these substances enabled bag manifactures to rpoduce more affortable ranges for the average woman.Eventually,plastics came to be used for their own properties rether than as faux animal products.
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