Garçonne

A style which, starting in Spring 1924 in Paris, definitively revolutionized contemporary and future fashions. The inventor of this simple and natural new look was Chanel. She created it for women after World War I who were engaged in an active life on several fronts. Loose blouses and pleated skirts hid unshapely bodies and revealed legs in flesh-colored stockings. The style required short and flat haircuts which over time took on a more and more masculine shape and ended up identifying the garµonne with a woman enclosed in a man’s suit with shirt and tie, little make-up, and flat shoes. This was the clothing style of the emancipated and sexually free protagonist of a novel by Victor Margueritte titled La garçonne (1922). It was read avidly by ladies who were shocked by the situations in which a girl studying at the Sorbonne found herself. She adopted not only men’s jackets, shirts, and ties, but also their habits. That book title gave its name to the signature style of those crazy years.