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| Me, Clemmie and Adrienne Williams |
Anyhow, now that we are well under way with the Knits for a Cold Climate collection, I want to give you some more general background on the period we cover with the patterns. The 1920s and the 1930s were some of the most fascinating decades in terms of fashion, art and culture.
The 1920s were very much a reaction to the desolation and change brought on by the Great War (also known as World War 1). Many things had changed as a result of the War: Women had been thrust into industry (and had received the right to vote), air travel and modern media were both making the world smaller and larger, and a whole generation was permanently scarred by the losses incurred by the War. Is it any wonder that people decided to drown their worries and anxieties in fashion, art and music? Berlin, London, and Paris became fashionable cities where penniless artists could mingle with rich socialites - the world may have changed irrevocably, but the noise of despair was drowned out by jazz, cabaret, flappers, fast cars, cinema and bohemian artists.
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| The Bright Young Things |
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| Cecil Beaton |
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| Marlene Dietrich |
All this decadence, hedonism and care-free behaviour hid a lot of darkness - and eventually it all came crashing down. I'll discuss it more when we get to the 1930s, but I hope you enjoyed a brief glimpse into the Roaring Twenties.
If you really want to immerse yourself in this most decadent of decades why not indulge in some movies, books and art from my lists below:
1920s films:
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
Get Your Man (Clara Bow)
Pandora's Box (Louise Brooks)
Safety Last! (Harold Lloyd)
1920s books:
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie)
Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
Good-Bye to All That (Robert Graves)
1920s Art and Design:
If you want to watch an entertaining British film about the Roaring Twenties, I can also recommend Bright Young Things, a 2003 film by Stephen Fry starring notables such as James McAvoy, Emily Mortimer, Peter O'Toole, David Tennant, Michael Sheen and Richard E. Grant (many in "blink and you will miss them" roles) and the vicar in Our Zoo!
What other films, books, music or art would you recommend from, or about, the 1920s?
for now,
Susan xx
2 comments :
Humphrey Carpenter's "The Brideshead Generation" is the book that first got me into this period, it's a tome but extremely readable and interesting. Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies is worth reading and I always associate P G Wodehouse with the 1920s although he was prolific across many decades, likewise Richmal Crompton's "Just William" stories.
Also I was thinking about this some more and Rosamund Lehmann's "Invitation to the Waltz" gives an impression of the effects of the war on social life and Winifred Holtby's "Anderby Wold" gives an idea of how tough life could be for returning soldiers. Less hectically hedonistic, but still important?
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