Explore the Jazz Age With This Quiz on '20s Fashion

Rayon was developed by Frenchman Count Hillaire de Chardonnet in the 1880s. Made from the cellulose from wood pulp, it is one of the first manufactured semi-synthetic fibers. Rayon became known as “artificial silk” and was especially popular in the 1920s, providing an affordable and versatile fabric for underwear, stockings, and dresses.

Victor Margueritte’s 1922 novel “La Garçonne” told the story of a young woman forging an independent life. The aspirational book linked the term “La Garçonne” to the new androgynous fashion that became popular with women. This iconic Roaring ‘20s style might have been boyish, but women playfully embellished their look with bright lipsticks and long strings of pearls.

Since the 19th century, men had traditionally worn knickerbockers, baggy pants cinched above the knee. But after World War I, a new style was introduced: trousers that were 4 inches longer (hence the name) and cinched below the knee. The freedom of movement given by plus-fours made them popular with golfers, but they were soon adopted for everyday wear by fashion icons such as Edward, Prince of Wales.

The small, close-fitting style of hat that came to be known as the “cloche” — after the French word for "bell" — was created by French milliner Caroline Reboux in 1908. The snug fit of the hat and its low brim meant those sporting the look would walk with their chins up and eyes down, in what became a characteristic 1920s pose.

Oxford bags were flannel pants with excessively wide legs. The style originated with the comfortable wide trousers that rowers at Oxford University would slip on over their shorts to keep warm — the legs were wide enough that the rowers didn’t even need to take their shoes off. The look caught on, and eventually fashionable men everywhere were sporting the extra-baggy pants, some with legs as wide as 44 inches.

As dresses got shorter, legs became the focus of fashion. This caused a huge boom in the sale of stockings during the 1920s. The most sought-after stockings were made from silk, but they were so delicate, they were sometimes only worn once. A garter belt was often used to hold up the stockings, but the most rebellious flappers would wear their stockings rolled down to expose the knee.

In 1926, “Vogue” magazine featured designer Coco Chanel’s “Little Black Dress” on the cover, launching a new fashion staple. The design represented a departure from the norm, as black dresses were previously worn for mourning or by servants. The elegant simplicity of Chanel’s design immediately caught the public imagination, and the LBD has never gone out of fashion since.

The fedora was initially a hat for women, but after the fashionable Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII of England), wore one in the 1920s, the soft felt hat with an indented crown became popular with men. The hat was linked to gangsters because it was a style staple among bootleggers during the Prohibition era.

Before the 1920s, women nearly always wore their hair long, but the rebellious young women of the Jazz Age adopted a cropped haircut known as the “bob.” It was a radical move to cut your hair short, and at first many women recreated the look by pinning their long hair up. The bob haircut perfectly complemented the new androgynous style of the ‘20s and became an iconic look of the decade.

The 1920s saw a new sense of independence for women in the U.S., with the end of World War I and the introduction of the right to vote. Fashionable young women, nicknamed “flappers,” embraced this new freedom with their style, discarding restrictive corsets and adopting dropped-waist dresses with shorter hemlines.