Life In Paris, In The 1920’s
By: Malia Bence
Despite the French victory as part of the Allied Powers of World War I, their victory cost them great losses, which then affected the French morale. France, as well as the rest of the world’s countries, entered the “great war” with extreme enthusiasm and views of what the war would be like that consisted of the thought that, the men who served were honorable, brave, and great and the attitude of the people as a whole was similar and they headed strait into the war joyously and excited.
The truth of war was painful and hard to cope with. Their falsely ecstatic mindsets were soon crushed as many of the young soldiers began to return home with serious mental disturbances, injuries or did not return home at all. In the 1920’s the citizens of Paris and the world felt betrayed by their governments and with the experiences of death developed a new morale in which they took on the view of life is too short and began to go out and party more and enjoy the lives that they had. The people of Paris wanted the First World War to be the “der de ders” or the “last of the last” and adopted an anti-war mentality as well.
The main difference in Paris in the 1920’s was the change in the people’s habits and their demand for personal freedom. The people were more lively and full of exhilaration; their behavior was unbridled and exuberant as they transitioned into what seemed to be a carefree time in history. Paris in the 1920’s was a wick for people coming from all places around the globe. Influences came from places such as the United States as expatriate American writers flocked from their hometown to soak up the jubilance of Paris as they wrote and debuted their great pieces of literature. Just a few of these great writers of 1920’s Paris were Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Earnest Hemmingway all of which who were also main figures that were part of the “Lost Generation”. The Lost Generation was a group of American writers who gave themselves and even technically their entire generation this title because it defined a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. During this time period, Paris was also receiving great influxes of immigration from Italy and Poland.
The 1920’s were a time when the Parisians adopted a more modern lifestyle. For example, it was a time of feminine emancipation. Because most women were alone during ww1, they gained a new status in society and had to take on more responsibilities so as a result, they became more independent after the war. They learned to live in accordance to their aspirations. Some of the more famous women who endorsed and helped move this change forward were, Gertrude Stein, Coco Chanel, and Kiki of Montparnasse.
Along with the rise of independence for women and the Parisians new modern lifestyle came Lesbianism. During the 1920s, opting out of the heterosexual contract and traditional womanly roles was a fundamental condition of artistic identity and professional achievement. Paris was a popular place for lesbians during the 1920’s because France’s Napoleonic Code, which did not criminalize homosexual practices in private between consenting adults (male or female), licensed a way of life that would have been unthinkable in the US. Paris was also very cultured and had a growing population of homosexual men since in the previous years, which drew lesbians to the city.
During the 1920’s in Paris, people knew how to have fun and this was amplified by the fact that the middle class could finally have access to leisure the same as wealthy people. During this time period, people often went out. They would commonly go to music-hall shows (especially the reviews, like Josephine Baker’s who was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in Paris, France). People would also go to Operettas (which were lighter operas in both humor and topic), theatres, and circuses. Another thing that they would like to do was go to the cinema, which was becoming more and more popular at the time.
The consumption emerged during this period with the success of department stores and the institution of correspondence catalogues. The Parisians also began to have a different view on money and the "nouveaux riches", (which were the people who had just become wealthy thanks to the aftermath of the inflation that happened after the First World War). Technologically wise, the TSF (Téléphonie Sans Fil) was created and allowed the society to benefit from the radio at home. In the 1920’s, the car industry was in full development and it completely changed the means of transportation not only for those who lived in Paris, but for the world as well. During this time period it was seen as a symbol of modernity and elegance.
Paris was a watershed of culture during the 1920’s. André Breton introduced the surrealism, which was a literary movement that attracted numerous writers to Paris. Jazz was very fashionable at luxurious parties for the Parisian elite and this contributed to the title that the 1920’s earned, “the jazz age”. This title was more popularly used for the 1920’s in America but still technically used as a title for the time when the introduction of jazz which added to the result of a new cultural movement in not only the United States but in France and England as well.
A new conception of the aestheticism also emerged. It had some impact not only on the painting, sculpture, and design (for example the artistic movement called “Art Deco”), but also on the appearance and more particularly on fashion.
Fashion in Paris in the 1920’s had a huge impact on the world. With the changing overall attitude and blending of gender roles in Paris came a huge shift in the fashion of the people as well. Bouffant hairstyles became short, flat bobs which Coco Chanel popularized, and long, evening gowns became short, above the knee, flapper or “garconne” dresses. The cloche was a type of hat that became very popular in Paris during the 1920’s.
Coco Chanel was one of the most influential fashion icons ever and she made her fashion debut in the 1920’s in Paris. She popularized the use of jersey knit for women’s clothing and the “little black dress”. She elevated the status of both costume jewelry and knitwear and she helped popularize women’s style, shifting from womanly figures with corsets to thin, board-like figures with loose men’s-style clothing. Another important designer was Jean Patou. He also made a huge impact on the fashion world because he used women’s dress fabrics in order to invent the men’s tie. A major reason for the shift in style in the 1920’s was because of the woman’s shift in traditional roles and expectations after the First World War. Women were not only looked upon as a housewife anymore, but as an active and independent woman. They wanted to feel more feminine and like being involved in fashion. The 1920’s were a new opportunity for women to taste a new freedom, which was shown through them cutting their hair, wearing makeup and perfume, smoking in public, and wearing high heels and bare legs which was newly popular at the time as well.
The First World War produced an economic outcome disastrous for all parties, not just for the German losers. The heavy war compensations imposed upon Germany not only were insufficient to fuel French economic recovery, they greatly damaged a Germany which might have become France's leading trade and industrial development partner, thereby seriously damaging France as well. This contributed to the economic crisis of 1929, which had a social and political impact that put an end to this period of lack of concern and “joie de vivre”. On top of the economic issues that lead to the downfall of the jazz age, the French feared the tensions increasing between the states and the rise of the nationalism might lead to another war that no one wanted to happen.
"Coco" Chanel was born in 1883 as Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Her mother was unwed when she had both her and her sister and when her mother died in 1895; their father sent twelve-year-old Chanel and her sister to an orphanage. Because Chanel had learned to sew when she was six, she soon got a job as a seamstress and set her life into a forward motion. Later on in her life she made a huge impact on the fashion world and she also partook in the 1920's Paris cafe culture just like Earnest Hemmingway and the rest of the lost generation did as I learned in the other novels I have read on the topic.
This book was especially interesting to me not only because it had to do with my topic of Paris in the 1920's, but also it was all about fashion, which has been a love of mine since I was in fifth grade. I have always found fashion to be extremely interesting and enjoyable to partake in, but I have always been especially interested in Coco Chanel and her fashions in particular. I love her proper yet laid back style of clothing and bags and I particularly love her costume jewelry that she pioneered the use of in fashion. This book taught me many things about Chanel that I had not previously known about such as how she had many affairs throughout her career and lifetime, that she was not born as, "Coco" Chanel but as Gabrielle Chanel and got the name "Coco" from being a cabaret dancer, and that she was a Nazi Agent spy for Germany while she was in Paris.
From reading this book, I also learned about how Coco Chanel revolutionized fashion for women in the 1920's and her effects have lasted into today’s world. She was responsible for several elements of fashion that are still in use and are recognized in today's fashion world such as the suntan, the "little black dress", the Chanel suit, and costume jewelry. I learned how before Chanel, being tan was something that labeled you as being an unfortunate laborer who was doomed to a life of unsheltered difficult work. Chanel made sunbathing fashionable. Chanel was also the creator of the "little black dress" which she created with the idea that it was a simple garment that you could then pair with several accessories such as jewelry, belts, hats, scarves, etc. The Chanel suit was made of wool jersey, which jersey was a huge deal being used in women’s clothing and it soon became the image of women’s casual expensive clothing. Finally, Chanel was the person who first brought costume jewelry into popularity especially since she herself wore it all of the time.
Before reading Chanel I had no idea that Chanel was once a Nazi spy for Germany. Chanel first had to formulate a strategy and then she and her superior came up with a plan to press England to end hostilities with Germany. Chanel's SS master, Schellenberg said that she was “a person who knew Churchill sufficiently to undertake political negotiations with him.” This mission was called, "Operation Modellhut" and after the war Chanel was even able to escape being persecuted for her crimes of being a spy because the rumor was that Churchill had her set free because of their relationship.
Overall, I enjoyed Chanel by Edmond Charles-Roux very much. It combined my interest in France and in fashion into one book while still accomplishing the task of providing me with a complete understanding of what it was like in Paris in the 1920's. I would recommend this book, however I would only recommend it to someone who also holds an interest in fashion because if I were not interested in fashion at all I would not have enjoyed this book because it would hold no meaning to me. However, to the right audience, this book was a very interesting and educational book to read.
Comparing The Paris Wife By: Paula McClain and The Sun Also Rises By: Earnest Hemmingway
Both The Paris Wife and The Sun Also Rises provide a perspective of what it was like for Earnest Hemmingway and his wife at the time to be living in Paris during the 1920's. I purposely chose to read both of these books sequentially because I knew that they would provide a thorough and interesting picture of the topic that I chose considering one was written from the perspective of Hemmingway and the other was written from the perspective of his wife.
One aspect of their live that was clearly portrayed in both books was how they would regularly attend bull fights. In the book written from the wife’s perspective, the bullfights are portrayed simplistically and stated matter-of-fact without any kind of canalization of them at all. In Hemmingway’s book, he thinks far more in depth about the bull fights and describes in a more romantic way what happens and the meaning of it all. There is a scene in the book where the wife is handed the ear of a bull by the matador as a small sign of affection which from her perspective, she thinks nothing of, but when this scene is portrayed in Hemmingway’s novel, which follows his real life very closely, it is described more dramatically in a way that it sounds almost as though Hemmingway is over-exaggerating or making a big deal out of what really happened according to the wife.
Throughout both novels, both from the wife’s and Hemmingway’s perspective’s they reference meetings with their friends which consisted of the other members of “the lost generation”. The lost generation was a group of writers during the 1920’s that consisted of authors such as Earnest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Others who were the lost generation were, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ford Maddox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. The term is suiting because it was during a time when the adopted idea that was held that if you do good things, good things would come of it had been completely crushed after young soldiers who had gone away to war were either coming back handicapped or not coming back at all so this generation was therefore “lost”.
Both novels also gave a very descriptive account of what the café culture was like in Paris in the 1920’s. Cafes are and have been for many years, not just a place to eat and drink but also a cultural place. People (such as Hemmingway) would do their work, have their meetings, write, or simply socialize in the cafes of Paris. As mentioned in The Paris Wife people also lived above the many cafes in Paris and would simply walk downstairs for a nice meal of place to relax and socialize.
The food that they described they ate in both novels was a large part of the Parisian culture in the 1920’s. For example, in The Paris Wife, there is a part when Earnest Hemingway rushed home to describe to Hadley that he had just had "the best fish he'd ever eaten" which was described in the book as being a, "perfectly crisped river trout stuffed with fried ham and onions" and that he was taking her to that cafe to try it right then. Hemmingway’s writing includes several references to food as well. It portraits a Parisians life during the 1920’s to revolve around café life and eating and drinking.
After reading both of the novels, The Paris Wife by: Paula Mclain and The Sun Also Rises by: Earnest Hemmingway several similarities came to my attention, but one main question also surfaced. After reading these two novels I began to wonder if Hadley Richardson (Earnest Hemmingway’s wife at the time of writing The Sun Also Rises) ever read The Sun Also Rises and if she therefore knew that it was about her and Hemmingway’s life together in Paris. It was clear to me after reading both books that the story of The Paris Wife was almost exactly similar to Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which is supposedly fiction.
Both novels provided me with a better understanding of what it would have been like to live in Paris during the 1920’s. They each described how life was for Earnest Hemmingway and his wife Hadley Richardson during the historical time period, rich with culture especially literature in Paris.
The Crazy Years: Paris In the Twenties....By: William Wiser
After reading two books already that focused on Earnest Hemingway’s time in Paris in the 1920’s, I wanted to read a novel that had a more broad focus that described the other well-known icons from the era and their time spent in Paris.
The Crazy Years, Paris In the Twenties by William Wiser is a fountain of knowledge about Paris and it’s icons during the 1920’s. It achieves the goal of giving the reader a broad, in depth understanding of what life was like living in Paris, France in the twenties while still providing important facts about members of the “lost generation, and maintaining a story line for the reader to enjoy.
The Crazy Years touched on the subject of bisexuality and lesbianism during the Paris 1920s as well. Because of France’s Napoleonic Code, which did not “criminalize homosexual practices” when they were private, licensed this way of life. This and the fact that Paris was a populous city with everything to do was what formed Paris in the 1920’s into being a place for bisexuality and lesbianism to flourish.
There were historical images dispersed throughout this novel. This was very useful to me as I was reading because it added yet another element to describing vividly what Paris was like during the time period. The photos were sometimes of famous pieces of art that were relevant or were first created during the time, and sometimes the photos were of relevant people or places in Paris as well.
While this book by itself was extremely informative and useful, I felt that virtually all the tales of alcoholism and artistic squabbles that were in the book, I had read before in the other two books so the new information I was gaining was not very much. However I would recommend this book to someone who was maybe looking for his or her first 1920’s Paris-focused book to read.
