The Jazz Age

One of the best known flappers was the silent film star, Louise Brooks, whose first screen role was in a film called A Social Celebrity. Her brazen off-screen behaviour epitomized the vibrant spirit of the Jazz Age – a time when music and dancing went underground, accompanied by the illegal consumption of alcohol during the American Prohibition.












Another notorious star of the time was the flamboyant songstress Bee Palmer, whose ‘sinuous and suggestive’ dance style shocked audiences of the day and became known as ‘the shimmy’. Her unique theatrical costumes and flapper dresses were quite something, as you can see left.




We’ve got similarly show-stopping 1920s fashion at ShopCurious – take a look at this dramatic sheer and shimmering original wrap style evening gown – it’s a stunning work of art.












No reference to the Jazz Age would be complete without mentioning the literary genius F. Scott Fitzgerald (style with brains personified!) He and his wife, Zelda (left), defined all that was glamorous and excessive about the era - the lifestyle of the beautiful and damned, as immortalized through his poetic studies of the American Dream.




‘Can’t repeat the past?’ as Gatsby exclaimed ‘Why of course you can’. Well, you can certainly still buy and wear stylish vintage ‘20s clothing … and you can also enjoy the lively music that characterized the age. I was recently pleased to discover that Jazz FM is now back on the air as a digital radio station, so you can listen to it all over the world. I was so happy to hear the voice of delightfully down to earth DJ Robbie Vincent again after quite a few years – it made me smile all day long.

‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’

Are you?