Can't Get Enough of the 20s

Jadi, mulai dari mana ya?

Gw lemah sama vintage stuff. Dari dulu. Mungkin pengaruh lagu dan buku yang dikonsumsi semenjak SMP: Norah Jones, Agatha Christie, Michael Buble, Kings of Convenience. Mood setting yang menjadikan gw melankolis dan klasik romantis. Dengan demikian maka sekarang ketika berhadapan dengan apapun yang sifatnya vintage, I'm instantly turned on.

And what kind of "vintage" do I mean? Egyptian tale? Too ancient. Renaissance era? Too aristocracy. The 60-70s retro? Too colorful and too recent. So that leave me a Victorian, Edwardian, the (so-called) roaring 20s, the 30s, and the WW2 setting 40s type of "vintage". I fancy the pallette, the creepy photograph, the houses, the furniture, the fashion, and the story in those eras.

Ketika nemu video 100 years of fashion, gw langsung jatuh cinta rasanya. Bless you, whoever made this. This kind of video is brilliant. Can't pick up my favorite, but these two make me swoon every time.

Dan selalu aja the 1920s fashion that gets me. I mean, look at those shoes and dresses. So pretty and wearable. Kemudian gw pun melihat lagi baju yang menurut gw nyaman dipake. I'll wear something that hides any curve, including thighs and waist. Well, that resembles something, isn't it?

Abaikan betis-betis bule di belakang

So that's why I feel so relatable to 20s fashion. I loooooooove the drop waist, the boxy figure, the below-knee length dresses (you can see the inspirations in my earlier post). I looooooove the mary jane, the T-strap shoes. Gw punya 1 tipe heels mary jane dari Adorable Project (the one that I wore with the white bridesmaid dress).

And it's not just about fashion, what fascinates me is the story behind every fashion style of the era. There is a reason why women wanted to look like that in the 1920. Go watch this old-school video, the ultimate fashion history:

I'll make some bullets about the 20s fashion style;

• Yes, what you see is the Western fashion style. Budaya barat sangat dijadikan kiblat dari dulu. I mean, tidak semua wanita di dunia pada tahun 1920an punya style kaya gini. Tapi memang, apa yang diperlihatkan Barat, menjadi sebuah mainstream di beberapa negara, termasuk Indonesia. Gw pernah lihat beberapa foto orang Indonesia tahun 1920 yang gayanya pake pakem Barat ini. Gitu juga dengan negara Asia lainnya, Jepang misalnya. Karena dia besar dan mainstream, ulasan mengenai style Barat ini gampang ditemukan dimana-mana. Kalau ada the ultimate fashion history of Indonesia 1920, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT. Which probably ga jauh dari kebaya tradisional aja sih (cmiiw).

Dutch East Indies 1922

• The 1920s is also known as "the roaring era". Info yang mau sampaikan berikut ini mungkin info sepotong sih, tapi sepengetahuan gw adalah karena Amerika menang perang di WW1, harga saham naik, generally keadaan ekonomi membaik. Orang sana lalu pengen hura-hura, no more banned alcohol drinks. Teknologi banyak diciptakan di tahun tersebut, like automobile, it's basically a modern era after the war. Hence, it was roaring. Hingar-bingar.

• Keadaan ini kemudian diterjemahkan ke fashion. Perempuan seolah embrace the modern era with "rebellion". Mereka menghilangkan korset yang selama ini sangat gak nyaman dipake, mereka menaikkan rok mereka sebetis yang sebelumnya gak diterima sosial (the long dress of 1910s), dan basically they wanted to look boyish dan leluasa bergerak. Hence, the icon is curveless and boxy. Not to mention the flat-chested was the ideal beauty back then. Quite the opposite of the full bosom of the 1900s.

• Now move to the face and hair. Women cut off their hair into a very short hair as a rebellion to a long, flowing hair of 1900s. The accesories then fit their hair like the cloche hat and the iconic hair piece like Daisy of The Great Gasby wears. Make up dengan dark eyeshadow and the slopey thin eyebrow seolah mencerminkan kalau lo abis party so hard last night that you look tired. The more tired you look, the fancier you get. But of course, you have to look exhausted in your big fur scarf, wearing pearls around your neck, holding a cigarette, and a glass of champagne. What a 1920s western typical look.

• What else? Oh, the jazz age. Yep, one of reasons I love the 1920s. Tahun 1920, katanya, adalah dimana musik jazz lahir. Yang menurut gw menarik adalah jazz ini dulunya dianggap asing, makanya komunitas musikus jazz ini diam-diam menggelar performnya di basement-basement gedung. Lihat deh The Great Gatsby atau Fantastic Beast and Where To Find Them, when they want to approach someone secret in a jazz bar, they have to step down on stairs or walk in a dark alley to get inside. Ibaratnya jazz ini kayak rap/hip-hop di tahun 80an yang belum diterima masyarakat. Tapi, gak lama, mungkin karena semua hingar bingar, jazz mulai keluar dan akhirnya menjadi ciri khas dari era ini.

• Flappers. The populer term to describe the era. But this is so western style. Basically, flappers are the entertainers (women) who wear a revealing, sequin, fringe dress. They basically dance in a provocative move.

• Art deco. Ini adalah style tahun 1920 secara umum yang kemudian diaplikasikan pada banyak hal, gedung, lukisan, desain kursi, meja, termasuk motif pakaian. Art deco mengusung kesimetrisan yang rigid, kotak-kotak yang rapi. Mungkin itu juga alasan kenapa 20s dress berbentuk "kotak", the boxy figure, remember?

Art Deco design. Yes, you probably have seen this as an opening in The Great Gatsby

• The end of this era, kalau merujuk ke video di atas, is quite interesting too. Dimulai dengan hingar-bingar, diakhiri dengan kehancuran. Katanya, tahun 1929, saham di Amerika anjlok--which then led them to The Great Depression. Term tersebut sering banget gw denger tapi baru tahu gitu alasannya. And what's more interesting is that the depression also affected the way women wore their clothes. Cukup jauh juga dari style 20an. Sangat menarik. Kalau gw lanjutin bakal panjang banget nih.

Phew, what a long post. Can't get enough of the 1920s, though. Love to browse and analyze more. Maybe next time I'll write some fact points from the 30s and 40s (I also looooove the 40s--but more like to its history, not the fashion).

Alright, folks. Cheers!