Saturday, March 26, 2016

The Roaring 20s

 Auntie Gertrude

I've been going through some old photos of relatives and came across rather battered one of a great aunt.  The photo was taken when she was around 18 or 19 at the time, sometime in the 1920s. I love sketching relatives from the past.  Looking at clothes and hairstyles and seeing what physical characteristics are passed down from generation to generation is interesting.

The hairstyle fascinated me and made me do a little research on hairstyles of the 1920s.  This is when the "bob" came into fashion which was a trend that caused a lot of controversy and perhaps was a push into women's rights and a break from the patriarchal society rules of the time.  Film stars of the time, such as Clara Bow, jumped on the bandwagon and I would imagine that my great aunt, like any other teenager, mimicked trends and fashion - and rebelled a bit too.  Apparently the introduction of the bob also spurred the creation of the bobbie pin.
I remember my great aunt as having the characteristic thick curly or wavy hair that ran in my mother's side of the family (I seem to have gotten the dead straight gene but kept the thick part), so cutting her hair into a bob must have been problematic in terms of maintenance as most curly or wavy hair has a mind of its own.

6 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

A beautiful drawing and a beautiful girl :) Yes, watching Downton Abbey, it was quite a scandalous thing for a woman to bob her hair (and not that attractive on Mary, IMHO), but less work, maybe? Not if you had thick, wavy hair, I imagine! ha ha Happy Easter weekend - hope spring is coming your way.

Jennifer Rose said...

that is great you have photos like that :D wonderful memories to keep and treasure :) and you sketch is a nice reproduction of the photo :)

Jeanette Jobson said...

Rhonda, yes, the scandalous bob! hah I would imagine my aunt's hair was a challenge to control. I must dig out and sketch more relatives.

Jen, there are a few still around but some seem to have been missing. These were in my mother's house when we cleared it out. I remember some old tin type photos of my great grandparents which would be lovely to have, just not sure what would have happened to them.

tru said...

Great blog today, wonderful drawing... I love the bob and still have it most times myself. Interesting to hear the history of it. Never realized there would be such controversy in the beginning, but alas, I'm assuming there had been 10,000 years of long haired women, so I guess it was quite a shock!

Sue Clinker said...

Lovely drawing ... I enjoy looking at old/sepia photographs but its such a shame so many of my own family album pics don't have information regarding 'who's who' ... so many unidentified people where a brief note on the back would have helped.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Tru, thanks, glad you enjoy it. Any changes to women's fashions or hairstyles seemed to go through a lot of controversy as it was such a male dominated society then (still is in some ways).

Sue, it is good to have some of the old photos of 100 years or more but as with yours, there are unidentifiable people and those who could identify them, no longer around. Its good to get this information while you can before it is lost.