'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong

[MrBern]

thought some of you ladies would appreciate this article at collector's weekly.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-great-gatsby-still-gets-flappers-wrong/

 

[Lily Powers]

Love this article and the examples of Zelda's take on Flappers and the accompanying photos! While I like to think I could view the new Gatsby movie from a purely entertainment value (as opposed to a critique on how true to the times it is), and although I know it's not a documentary, I can't get past Carey Mulligan looking like a modern day soccer mom attending a Roaring Twenties theme party. My movie evaluation is full price, matinee, dvd, cable... I can easily wait for this version to come to cable.

 

[HadleyH]

Thank you for posting MrBern

Great article! ..... and they are right!

..."But these vain, manipulative characters wrecking havoc onscreen in their fabulous Prada shifts are not the true flappers, the ones who made the world as we know it."

 

[lframe]

I agree. I've seen quite a few women in costume as flappers this weekend with their breasts pushed as high and large as they could. It took all I could do not to go up to them and say "you know, flappers were known for being flat all over. Many bound their breasts".

 

[HadleyH]

I agree. I've seen quite a few women in costume as flappers this weekend with their breasts pushed as high and large as they could. It took all I could do not to go up to them and say "you know, flappers were known for being flat all over. Many bound their breasts".

I totally agree with you! This is the way to flapper kingdom .....

which is the opposite way to Vegas and big breasts and all that.

 

[Lady Day]

Really good article.
The product placement tie in of Prada really rang true to me when I was looking at the costuming for this movie.

 

[sheeplady]

That article really grates on me for the blaring and glaring inaccuracy that Fitzgerald based Daisy on his wife. Fitzgerald may have thought little of the newly rich (himself and his wife included), the old rich, and the flapper (perhaps even his own wife) but there is no evidence he based Daisy on his wife.

There is substantial evidence he based his female lead in Tender is the Night on his wife (and stole some of her writing for that book), but that character is nothing like Daisy. The author of this article can't even make the connection, Daisy didn't go jumping into fountains, nor was she the type to.

 

[Stanley Doble]

As for portraying flappers in a negative light, he portrays everyone in a negative light. That is the whole point of the story. All these glamorous people are rotten at the core while Gatsby, the phony, the bootlegger, the four flusher, the home wrecker is somehow ennobled by his love for Daisy.

 

[Albert.Tatlock]

Perhaps they need to take lessons from Millie?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVNcLUE87HQ

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Perhaps they need to take lessons from Millie?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVNcLUE87HQ

What's interesting is that the song lyrics references the setting as 1922 (the same time frame as The Great Gatsby) and what Julie Andrews/Millie starts out with at the beginning of the intro was still in fashion in 1922 -- the skirts were still much longer. The iconic flapper that she transforms herself into is more mid to late '20s.

 

[lareine]

A different article on the same topic:
The Great Gatsby's Fabulous Betrayal of 1920s Fashion

 

[Mojito]

It rather amuses me that the Billie Dove cover of "The Flapper" is one that I scanned a while back - it has the same corner crease and blotch mark on the upper right (here's the link with more scans from the same issue http://sydneyflapper.livejournal.com/5844.html). Someone took it and put it on the Wikipedia Entry for Billie Dove - telling me that they were doing it as it was public domain, and I had no objection - and while it's no longer on Wikipedia, it has appeared everywhere else!

Daisy is at least partly based on Zelda - the "beautiful little fool" quote, for example, is taken directly from what she said when coming out from under the ether after Scottie was born, and there are similarities in their courtship. It's generally accepted, though, that Ginevra King contributed more to the character.

 

[CantorFan]

I agree. I've seen quite a few women in costume as flappers this weekend with their breasts pushed as high and large as they could. It took all I could do not to go up to them and say "you know, flappers were known for being flat all over. Many bound their breasts".

I'm right there with you. I'm in a band & our other female singer tried to pull off a Flapper dress with her HUGE breasts stretching it out. I even had seen "side-boob"! The arm holes exposed her. I didn't know how to tell her. :-/