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5 ways to live like a modern-day flapper

Alison Maloney's Bright Young Things is the perfect guide to the Roaring Twenties.

For lovers of the glamour and scandal of the Roaring Twenties, Alison Maloney’s Bright Young Things is an illustrated lifestyle guide to the fashion, the parties, the notorious personalities, and all the glittering trappings from the unforgettable era of the flapper. It’s the bee’s knees.

To start your transformation into a modern-day flapper, add these Jazz Age trends to your social repertoire.

Learn the lingo – the true flapper shot from the hip, with slang phrases designed to show how hip and modern she was.
Dimbox – taxi
Duddling Up – getting dressed
Hooch – liquor
Munitions – makeup
Wurp – killjoy

Host a themed scavenger hunt – don’t forget the deviled eggs to munch on while points are being tallied. Include:
A tube of bright red lipstick.
Something with fringe.
A feather boa.

Start your own Roaring Twenties book club – many of the decade’s most celebrated writers immortalized flappers in novels, poetry, and essays.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
The Plastic Age by Percy Marks (1924)
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes (1926)

Imbibe 1920s cocktails – the popularity of cocktails soared in the twenties, when the manufacture and sale of alcohol was banned and illegally distilled spirits had to be drowned in fruit juices, cream, and soda to make them vaguely palatable.

Sidecar Reicpe
This classic cocktail is thought to have been invented toward the end of World War I.

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice, plus more for the glass
2 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 ounce Cointreau
11/2 ounces cognac

Rub the outside rim of a cocktail glass with lemon juice and dip it into the sugar. Add the 3/4 ounce of lemon juice, the Cointreau, and the cognac to a cocktail shaker filled halfway with cracked ice, and shake well. Strain into the prepared glass.

Dress the part – flappers were pioneers in the makeup department.

For the ladies:

Lips – dark lip liner and deep red lipstick accentuated the vampish flapper look. Twenties film star Clara Bow inspired a craze for cupid’s bow lips in the mid-twenties, with her deep red, perfectly sculpted mouth.

Fancy Footwork – dancing was the key to a flapper’s life-style. Shoes were fairly low, with practical yet modish Cuban or Louis-style heels and straps or T-bars across the arch of the foot, similar to those worn by professional Latin and ballroom dancers today.

For the men:

Hats – the 1920s gentleman never left the house without a hat. Popular styles included the sophisticated Panama and Boater, the classic Fedora, and the casual or sporty golf cap.

Ties – Bow ties, short, narrow neckties, and ascots were all popular accessories for bright young men. As the decade went on, the colors brightened, featuring art deco designs and bold stripes.

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