Art Director Cedric Gibbons surpassed himself on this sumptuous set... wow! Crawford and the gang spill from one stunning Art-Deco room to another. From the wallpaper and murals, to furniture and fittings, this movie is a riot of cool sleek decor. The screwball inter-title lingo alone is worth a gander.
The films portrays an era when young people first began asserting themselves through fashion. I'll bet not many viewers know where the term "FLAPPER" comes from? Well, back in the 1920's, the VERY FIRST fashion "craze" began to spread across the youth of America. Suddenly young ladies displayed unbridled zest while energetically dancing to the hip new sounds of jumping jazz music. They sported stylish short bobbed hair cuts and donned their brothers galoshes. If you're unfamiliar with galoshes, ...they are rubberized ankle boots that usually fit OVER the shoe with a zipper or buckles in front to hold them in place. Well these gals decided to wear their brothers galoshes DELIBERATELY unzipped so that when swinging the Charleston, (and other aberrant dance steps), their open boots would FLAP around!
They also wore dropped waist dresses to appear more vertical while binding their breasts to be as flat chested as possible. The whole idea was to shock society and scandalizing parents by trying to look like a boy. It must have seemed OUTRAGEOUS at the time, given that the Edwardian period was still clinging to the decade. Of course boys egged on this behaviour and swooned over these fun "new" girls who seemed far more approachable and therefore touchable... not surprising.
Anyway the fad of flapping boots rather quickly faded away but the "FLAPPER" label stuck. Our Dancing Daughters is a somewhat forced time capsule of the era but Joan Crawford certainly dishes up some frantic flapper moves for the ages.
The films portrays an era when young people first began asserting themselves through fashion. I'll bet not many viewers know where the term "FLAPPER" comes from? Well, back in the 1920's, the VERY FIRST fashion "craze" began to spread across the youth of America. Suddenly young ladies displayed unbridled zest while energetically dancing to the hip new sounds of jumping jazz music. They sported stylish short bobbed hair cuts and donned their brothers galoshes. If you're unfamiliar with galoshes, ...they are rubberized ankle boots that usually fit OVER the shoe with a zipper or buckles in front to hold them in place. Well these gals decided to wear their brothers galoshes DELIBERATELY unzipped so that when swinging the Charleston, (and other aberrant dance steps), their open boots would FLAP around!
They also wore dropped waist dresses to appear more vertical while binding their breasts to be as flat chested as possible. The whole idea was to shock society and scandalizing parents by trying to look like a boy. It must have seemed OUTRAGEOUS at the time, given that the Edwardian period was still clinging to the decade. Of course boys egged on this behaviour and swooned over these fun "new" girls who seemed far more approachable and therefore touchable... not surprising.
Anyway the fad of flapping boots rather quickly faded away but the "FLAPPER" label stuck. Our Dancing Daughters is a somewhat forced time capsule of the era but Joan Crawford certainly dishes up some frantic flapper moves for the ages.