Proper leg postures and deportment-
1920s fashion report for Glamourdaze.com from Carolyn Van Wycks in 1924.
“MEN WILL anyway and a girl ought to be prepared. We asked a Max Sennet beauty to model the good and bad postures which can dictate our lives for us! With an ever rising hem and an ever increasing amount of leg exposure – a woman’s 1920s hosiery drawer is now filled more and more with stockings for both day and evening, but it is to proper leg deportment
that the eye will be drawn girls!
No,this is not the first step of the Charleston. This is the way too many flappers stand. Careless and jaunty, they claim this slant
on life. but so was the leaning tower of Pisa – and look at it now!
On the other hand, or rather leg, a nice girl stands this way on the left. Remember that about “standing with reluctant feet where the brook and river meet”? If there was a brook, this would illustrate it. Rear elevation of the same cute legs. A rule to be remembered is that a seam must ‘always’ follow the straight and narrow. The only curves permitted in a pair of 1920s stockings are those that a girls legs supply! Given those, nothing else matters!
A girl who toes in, unless she lisps and keeps one finger in the corner of her mouth, never gets anywhere socially.
In other words, if you’re a cutie beautiful, try this out on your front porch only!
The riddle is changed now from why does a hen cross the road to why does a flapper cross her legs?
A Sennet beauty would never sit in this way. For this report however she agrees to demonstrate.
Sweet and low, that’s what these legs are. The knees have clearly retired from public life. The feet are shy and modest.
This is a pose that even the sourest maiden aunt would approve. Correct, and, wonder of wonders, also comfortable!
Sitting position to accompany the proper standing position shown above. Recommended before twenty and after forty, to fiancees trying out before his mother and to sweet things who can’t imagine what big prices on the menu are all about!
Transcription – copyright Glamourdaze.com
Originally published in Photoplay
Many thanks to The Media History Project – for sourcing,scanning and preserving these wonderful articles.