POSING A THREAT: Flappers, Chorus Girls,

Fashion is a performance and the author of this study of women's fashions in 1920s America, the era of the Flapper, looks at how women use fashion as coded ways of expressing certain social attitudes. In the public sphere, there was controversy over women's costumes in staged entertainment, for instance in the hugely popular Ziegfeld Follies where sexually provocative displays by women were a constant source of censorship. Florenz Ziegfeld's motto, "glorifying the American girl", was an example of the doublethink possible in the entertainment world. Proper and improper ways to dress, including not only skirt lengths but also posture and demeanour, were a staple source of copy in the women's magazines of the period, and the author shows how debates about fashion negatively impacted the feminist agenda when it came to pressing for votes for women, jury duty and other aspects of full citizenship. The debate on fashion was closely linked with pronouncements about morality, and "no aspect of fashion so kindled the fury of moralists as short skirts". Moralists tried to argue that most women's figures were not up to the exposure of more flesh. Looser corsets were a particular subject of moral concern when combined with dancing to jazz music, and the assumption was that looser clothes meant looser morals. But equality was unstoppable in the postwar years. As one poster put it, "Men do not walk on pegs - why should women?". Swimming costumes of the one-piece, clinging sort were condemned, but the athletic image was gaining ground, as contemporary adverts and cartoons demonstrate. The "long civil war of swimwear" lasted for three decades, with the final taboo being broken when men discarded the upper half. 204pp, paperback, illustrations.