Society was changing by the time the 1920's came along. Historians call it the Roaring 20's; Americans were prosperous, free-spirited and very laid back. Fashion was becoming less flashy and less formal. At the same time, improved production methods enabled manufacturers to easily produce clothing affordable to the working class. The average persons fashion sense became more sophisticated. The feminine liberation movement had a strong effect on women's fashions. .
Before the 1920's, women were wearing tight corsets to push up their breasts and make their waists look very slim and tight. Women would wear long full skirts and not show they're legs. For example, think of the Titanic women and the way they dressed. They were very conservative and proper, displayed by the style of that era. By contrast, in the 1920's women were proud of showing off they're legs as more emphasis on sex appeal was put there. Women taped down they're breast to make themselves look "flat."". Bobbed hair was becoming popular as well. For the first time women were looking more masculine.
One of the first major changes in women's style was the cut of dresses. In the early 1920's, waistlines were loose, sometimes baggy around the waist. Some women wore suits with long hemlines and somewhat full skirts with belts at the waist of jackets. The silhouettes of most women in these first years was long, cylindrical, and curveless. The skirt fell to 7- to 10- below the knee. Most women's garments were proportional to the body in the early 1920's, however, around 1923, waistlines began to drop to a point in between the natural waist and the hips. In 1924, they were even lower; the waistline had dropped to the hips. In 1925, dresses with no waistline emerged as "shift- type dresses and at the end of the decade, dresses were being worn with straight bodices and collars. Tucks at the bottom of bodices were popular, as well as pleated skirts with a hem about an inch below the knee.