Make-Up Artist Mark O'Neill

Photographs of Real People

These are original family photographs of ordinary people in everyday clothes and taken 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929.  My special thanks to Helen Dudzic of Pennsylvania, USA and Carol Morgan of Cardiff, UK who gave me these marvellous costume history photographs which are such great images.  You can read more detailed text about 1920's fashions in flapper fashion.

This is a wonderful happy relaxed old USA photograph from Helen Hudzic of two sisters in the 1920s.  Both wearing their best partying flapper frocks.  The old studio photo may well have marked a special birthday or an engagement.  It could even be a wedding photograph as the woman on the right is wearing a white or light toned lace dress and both appear to wear exotic magnificent orchid corsages.  Orchids were a very popular decorative floral fashion for both women and men of the 1920s.  If you see the film Aviator you will notice orchids used throughout the 1920's scenes.

The dresses are very fashionable looking for any era and look more than just ordinary fashion wear. These were special dresses in my opinion. I'd estimate the old photograph above was taken circa 1929 - 1930.  Elements which suggest this include the softer waving hair of the late 1920s and the rounded necklines.  Most importantly the dress on the left shows evidence of a more normal waist which returned circa 1929-1930 dependant on how fashionable the dress. 

The skirts are also longer than those of 1926 when skirts were at their shortest and interestingly both of these have curved scalloped hems a favourite feature of late 1920's dresses.  These women appear to have a confidence and assurance that came to ordinary women as they became more and more emancipated and acquired a new sophistication.  Have you noticed those really stylish shoes.

Helen also sent me this old mid 1920s photograph of 2 younger girls in wrap coats with fur trims.  The whole look from coat, to hair to footwear is so very representative of flapper fashion styles then. 

The old photo of Helen's relatives wearing coats is in the same time frame as the photo below. The old photograph below was known to be taken in 1926 and is of Emily Lewis of Cardiff, South Wales.  When you enlarge the image you can really see the deep hem on the skirt which appears to have been shortened in tune with the ever rising hemline of the era.  The picture shows it is not as short as fashion plates or commercial fashion photos in magazines of the same date, but shows a woman trying to keep up to date with the rapidly rising hemline.

Finally I have a hat photo on the right that Helen sent to me from PA and it compares very much with a similar style in the image of Emily Davies taken in 1926 in Cardiff, UK, but 6000 miles or so apart. The hat fashions are amazingly similar which shows how modern communications and in particular silent movies had begun to make a real impact on fashion and style.