Fern's Guide to Dressing Fancy - Jazz Age Theme

Jazz Age (Roaring Twenties and Depressed/ Dirty Thirties)

Jazz age is a very popular theme amongst posher folk and only the irritably pedantic get all uppity about the distinction between twenties and thirties.
However, I am one of them, so to resolve dispute before I start, I have rolled the 2 decades into one, since that is what most people will do anyway. The ordinary approach to the theme for ladies is to find a suitably drop waisted/ baggy strappy dress, wrap something sequinned around the forehead and spend a lot of time wagging one’s hands around Charleston style; and for gentlemen, the white/ black tie comes out possibly improved with a moustache or scarf. As ever, this ordinary approach shows at least the basic commitment to the theme so should not be derided as such… its just that I think you can do so much better than that, people. These two decades possibly appeal to party themers because they saw an explosion of cultural activity that today seems positively riotous, by comparison with our own process of recycling and regurgitation that passes for invention. You’ve got the following movements to draw on for inspiration:
The Movies – Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Louise Brookes, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton for the players, or in Toonland, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat…

Prohibition, Crime and Gangland – Either the real stuff, filtered through Godfather films: violin cases, speakeasies, Molls and Mobsters; or the Bugsy Malone version with custard guns?

Music: Tap dancing, Minnie the Moocher, Cab Calloway, cabaret and all that JAZZ, Cotton Club is a good place to look for inspiration.

Books: Agatha Christie’s cast of Doomed Aristos come in handy – you could even be Poirot or Miss Marple themselves, alternatively the assembled ranks from her cruises and trains number tennis players, cads, bounders, oriental gentlemen, princesses, safari-suited adventurers, playboys, cocktail waitresses… Then there’s Jeeves and Wooster – what about a nice tweed suit with knickerbockers and a big flat cap sir? Perhaps one could recommend a rather natty silk cravate and a dolly bird from the Shows on one’s knee? Or Phillippa - Big Girl, Sporty? (wears tennis dresses and cloche hats and looks rather fierce). We haven’t even touched upon the Modernists or the Bloomsberry set but then it rather depends on the level of your audience. But in general I would counsel you to look beyond the Formal in your attire: you will look lovely and stand out a great deal more if you consider a nice wrap, a pretty tea dress and a cloche hat

Wars: Don’t forget the uniform rule. Sure, we are Between the Wars here but there was plenty of fodder for a young man’s rifle in distant pats of the empire and I’m sure no one will take issue with your historical veracity if you show up in a pith helmet and regalia. Think The English Patient (the bit before he shows up at the French Lady’s place) You could be in very Poor Taste and be an injured/ shell shocked serviceman?

Depression: Its not the fun bit but there are highly original costumes to be had from the Great Crash: urchins, suicidal financiers, workmen in overalls and so forth.

International Affairs: Again, how highbrow or controversial you want to be will depend on your audience and whether you are a prominent member of the royal family or not) but there are costumes to be had in the rise of Hitler’s Nazis, in the Russian Revolution, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Spanish Civil War

Hair and Make up: Ladies, I think cutting ones hair into a Bob for the occasion is above and beyond the call of duty so those with long hair have the option, as did their more timid counterparts at the time, of taking a page from Princess Leia’s book and coiling it into two plaited ‘earphones’ on each side of the head, or rolling the whole lot into a wide chignon at the back and maybe pin curling the fringey bits round the side. Short haired ladies can oil it like the gents – there’s a lot of mannish cross dressing in the thirties, and you could add some sexy pin curls round the forehead to remind people that you are female. As for make up I would go heavy on the lipstick and light on everything elsewhere.

Gents: Just comb it a bit more than usual, consider a parting for a change and add plenty of hair gel/ oil/ whatever is left in the bathroom cupboard. Gents with long hair are going to have to consider a hat.

Notes for hosts: Ways to play the theme to its best at your do could include a Bath of Moonshine, projecting films from the era on a spare wall, violin cases propped up about the place (what you put in them is up to you); glasses at strategic points with cigarette holders in them (what you put in them is up to you); casino paraphernalia, signs for the speakeasy, and lots of room for people who don’t know how to do the Charleston to hop about and flail their arms in an approximation of the Tiller Girls.