Cue the flappers, the fringe, the beads and the bobs.
The Roaring '20s are back in fashion — on the runways and on the movie screen.
It started in September at the spring 2012 fashion shows, with Ralph Lauren's "Great Gatsby" gowns, Tory Burch's sportswear inspired by Coco Chanel and 1920s Deauville, and Frida Giannini's Art Deco black-and-gold fringed flapper dresses at Gucci.
Those clothes won't be in stores for another month or so, and Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel "The Great Gatsby," sure to be a costume extravaganza, isn't due out until next Christmas.
But the trend has already hit Hollywood with the films "Hugo" and "The Artist," both of which are set in the late 1920s to early 1930s.
So why is that time period resonating now?
Sandy Powell, the costume designer for "Hugo," cites the popularity of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," which is set in 1920.
"It's been pretty influential," she says. "It's funny how these things turn around and suddenly a certain look becomes fashionable and it's in every film. It's bizarre. It's the zeitgeist."
When it comes to retro fashion, the 1920s look is "simple and sexy and romantic at the same time," says Mark Bridges, costume designer for the silent film "The Artist." "It's easy to wear but exclusive in that you need to be slim. And because the shapes are so simple, they are a blank slate for embellishment. It covers all the bases one wants for a successful fashion moment."
The 1920s were the beginning of the modern age in fashion, when women ditched their corsets, cut their hair and started wearing shorter, body-conscious dresses and skirts that allowed them the freedom to kick up their heels. It's also when women started to turn to Hollywood for fashion cues.
Whereas "The Artist" is about Hollywood glamour, "Hugo" is about the everyday glamour of ordinary people. The film, based on Brian Selznick's 2007 book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," tells the story of an orphan boy named Hugo living in a Paris train station, who unlocks the mystery of an abandoned automaton and discovers a forgotten filmmaker. His tale is intertwined with the stories of the everyday visitors to the train station — the florist, cafe owner, cafe patrons, bookseller and station manager.
"(Hugo) was set in 1931, but it really has the look and feel of Paris in the late 1920s," says Powell, who scoured the Paris flea markets for inspiration pieces, such as an Art Deco-style evening gown that was remade into the striking rose-colored dress worn by Hugo's friend Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) in the final scene.
"The Artist" puts '20s fashion on display in black and white, which posed a different set of challenges for costume designer Bridges ("There Will Be Blood," Boogie Nights").
The film takes place in 1927 and centers around a silent movie star, George, who must cope with the arrival of talking movies. The possibility of being replaced is epitomized by a young dancer.
"With costumes, you're always trying to tell the story subliminally," says Bridges, who was nominated for a Critic's Choice award for his work on the film. "So in the medium of black and white, we used a lot of textures and high contrast when the characters were at their pinnacle and more monochromatic looks when they were down on their heels."
In an early scene, George is on top of the world — arriving on the studio lot with his car and driver like the movie idol he is, dressed in a perfectly tailored, wool tweed three-piece suit with a jacket that has a half-belt in the back. The look was inspired by a similar scene in the 1928 film "Show People," featuring actor John Gilbert (who suffered a career fate similar to George's with the dawn of the talkies) driving onto the MGM lot.
Bridges also drew inspiration from Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Fritz Lang's 1928 film "Spies" and F.W. Murnau's 1930 film "City Girl."
Meanwhile, Peppy is fresh off the bus and hoping to make it in Hollywood. The first time we see her, she's wearing a flapper dress and cloche hat that look "medium-value gray" in the film but are actually coral-colored.
As the story progresses, Peppy's star rises and George's falls. In one pivotal scene, they meet on a staircase. She is walking up, and he is going down. After that moment, George's look becomes flatter and grayer, and Peppy's more sophisticated with lots of shine, jewelry and furs.
When Peppy visits George's house in the middle of the night in a rainstorm, she is dressed in a waxed cotton raincoat, copied from a 1920s original. He is in despair, a broken-down man, and she represents the sparkling promise of the future, her flower-lined umbrella in hand.
"I wanted Peppy to seem like flowers to George," Bridges says.
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