1920s Fashion Essay

The Italian Sub-culture has been around since the 1800s after the Italians started emigrating to the United States of America for a chance to live the American Dream. This sub culture was dominated by the Italian Mafia and gangsters. During the Prohibition era these gangsters became increasingly popular and influenced America as well as the fashion of the 1920s fashion. The most notorious gangster of this time was Al Capone, infamously known for his style as well as the Valentines Day massacre.

Much like the other fashion trends of the 1920s such as the flapper girls, the gangsters fashion showed the rise of organised crime in America during the Jazz and Prohibition age. Prohibition was a law passed by the American Government that made the
For many however, he was seen giving large amounts of money to charity and open soup kitchens for the unemployed which gave him the image of “ a real life Robin Hood” ( S, D. & brook: 2012). Al Capone had “a life of wealth as leisure” (Beshears 2010:197) and chose to portray it with his excellent style of hand tailored suits and by drinking expensive whiskey. This was a common practice among the gangsters and his style of a “three piece suit, fedora, tie overcoat and polished shoes ” (Beshears 2010:197 ) had made a huge impact within his community as well as in America. Other items of gangster fashion included overcoats, spectacular shoes and watches.

The Oxford Dictionary describes style as a characteristic of a particular period, place, person or movement. Al Capone was known for his amazing style sense which epitomised the Italian American sub-culture as well as the Prohibition gangster era of the 1920s and the 1930S. The gangster style impacted the classification of the American urban working class as well as their change from disadvantaged backgrounds to the wealthy men they became. This style formed a major part of the 1920s fashion and influenced movies such as the Godfather, which is one of the most well known movies