Put to the Blush

Definitely not sitting like a lady!

I was intrigued a few months ago when I came across a reference to women rouging their knees in the 1920s. I had never heard of this practice before. Subsequently I stumbled upon a reference from the musical Chicago: “I’m gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down and all that jazz…” sung by Velma.

Jaynie Van Roe at Here’s Looking Like You, Kid suggests that flappers, like courtesans who rouged their breasts, rouged their knees to attract attention to them. Most likely they applied it after they had pulled on their silk or rayon stockings, however. (Consider the unattractive red smear created if one dragged stockings over the top.) Skin toned stockings gave the impression of nudity, making the short skirts and blushing knees seem more shocking still.

Flappers are notorious for being the first to wear short skirts that revealed so much of their legs. For two centuries women’s legs had remained hidden beneath skirts that swept the floor. A change came in the Roaring Twenties, a decade of sheer excess and joie de vivre after the terrible years of war. Women were freed from their constricting underclothes and voluminous skirts. Worn by the working girl, practical and comfortable tubelike dresses no longer hugged the body, or exaggerated the bust, waist or buttocks.

Goodbye corsets, hello short skirts

Not only had fashion changed; so had the zone of erotic interest. The décolletage was no longer the primary focus: it was now the legs. Goodbye corsets, hello short skirts. Hemlines crept steadily upwards from 1922; by 1926 they were right on the knee where they hovered for three years – and truly shocked the old Edwardian generation.

Whenever a girl danced or walked into a breeze, one might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their knees, hitherto hidden delights. Although Charleston era dances were so energetic any loose skirt – regardless of length – might fling up, revealing the forbidden flesh made more titillating by powder or rouge.

Flapper style evening dresses have been a mainstay in fashion ever since the Jazz Age, although today you might apply a bit of shimmer powder or bronzer to your limbs, rather than a puff of rouge to your knees. It won’t scandalise anyone though.

Reference:
Dusk till Dawn – A History of the Evening Dress, by Alexandra Black, Scriptum Editions 2004