Small Home Gazette, Spring 2018

What It Costs to Be a Well-Dressed Flapper

This magazine article text and photograph were originally published in 1926. For price comparison, a two-door Ford Model T sedan sold for $580 in 1926. We suspect Clara Bow could afford to dress more expensively than the average flapper.

Among the many things that the male of the species can never understand about feminine wearing apparel is the fact that simplicity is one of the most expensive effects a designer can achieve.

That is why a really well-dressed flapper presents such a shock to the average man’s mind when he reads the price tags on the chic and deceptively simple garments that make up the flapper ensemble.

As a matter of fact, it costs about as much to dress a modern girl in a genuinely modish flapper outfit as it does to equip completely a reasonably well-furnished three-room flat.

The jaunty costume illustrated by Clara Bow is an excellent example of what it costs to be a well-dressed flapper. The various items cost as follows:

• Large white gardenia, $5
• Pearls, three strands, $50
• Doeskin gloves, $8.50
• Rose beige shoes trimmed in appliqued designs, $18.50
• White chiffon velvet tam, $25
• Black silk coat, lined with white crepe, and trimmed with ermine fur, $150
• White silk blouse, $25
• Black silk box-pleated skirt, $30
• Lizard-skin handbag, $30
• Rose beige chiffon stockings, $4.50

The total cost of this outfit comes to the very interesting figure of $346.50.