This is the Making of a Clothing Exhibit from my Personal Collection that Tells the Story of Fashion from the 1920s-70s.
I’m currently getting the exhibit ready to go on tour. Extra pieces are being sold in the shop. Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen
A History of Fashion from the 1920s-1970s
The story
Flappers to Fringe tells the story of how people places and events influenced what women of the 1920s through 1970s wore, how they behaved and the choices they made.
From the Owner & Curator:
Here on these pages, I invite you to step back in time by scrolling through the images portraying what the fashionable young lady of the day had in her traveling wardrobe. The outfits are all created from my own personal collection of vintage clothing and come to life through my friend and model Oakley Boycott. So, here we go. Traveling through time with Oakley as she models the looks of the day.
Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen
The bold new woman of the 1920s was revelling in her freedom, even smoking in public, albeit very fashionably by using a long-stemmed cigarette holder known as a quellazaire.
The History
I picked this time frame because of the symmetry. The women of the 1920s and 1970s were coming out of wartime and throwing off their corsets and burning their bras.
Also, women of this time period were not wearing just anything they wanted, like the young women of today. That insight, in itself, seems an important piece of history to pass on to our daughters and granddaughters.
I would venture to say, in fact, that in most cases, these women of the past were more often than not wearing what was expected, and sometimes even dictated, by the mores, expectations and demands of the day.
— Explore!
By the swinging sixties and seventies, the women’s freedom movement was in full swing and all the rules governing women and fashion had been thrown out the window.
The Cues
And, think about this. During this time frame, there was no MTV, Project Runway or America’s Next Top Model for young women to see the latest styles because there was no internet, social media or cable TV.
The mass media market we know of today did not exist. The only fashion cues available in the 1920s through the 1970s were those in one’s own personal sphere, which varied throughout the country and social strata.
For some, the cues came from magazines, catalogues and even the fashionable girl next door. Others might have looked to their favorite film stars of the day, that they might see in a traveling show or at the movies. And still others, may have been influenced by what they saw on their travels or through the presentation of the latest discovery and worldwide events that were written about in the newspapers.
That, they did have. Newspapers, that is. Newspapers, with fashion ads and even mail-order patterns and clothing. Those were a good source for fashion information throughout the decades.
— Be Inspired!
In the 1930s, actress Marlene Dietrich was famous for wearing men’s tuxedos and pants in public, thus influencing a whole generation of women.
The Link
So, you see, all three – the people, places and events – played a part in shaping the fashions of the day.
The one thread that weaves the story together is that women, throughout this era, were always moving forward, trying new fashions, getting braver in choices and becoming stronger of spirit.
So, by the end of the 1970s, they came of age, you might say, and stripped away all the rules and restrictions governing what they should wear, how they should behave and what they should become.
And women and the women’s fashion scene were never the same.
— Create Your Look!
“Flappers to Fringe” Features the Vintage Clothing Collection of Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen.
All copy and photos on this site are copyright Leslie Kay Productions unless otherwise noted.
“My COLLABORATOR on the project is Oakley Boycott. She’s the actress and model who makes the clothes come to life as I create the looks for each decade. This is a documentation of the process and an invitation for family and friends to come …
‘Live Life on The Fringe.’ ”
Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen