Following World War I, young women began to change their styles. Setting a new standard for the lives of women throughout the country, the flapper soon became the "heroine" of the Jazz Age. In cutting her hair to a bob, reducing the lengths of her skirt, rolling her hose, and powdering her knees, the flapper drastically changed previous standards of fashion.

Particularly offending the older generation, the young ladies of the Twenties "defied the conventions of acceptable women's behavior." They tended to wear make-up (some even had the nerve to apply it in public) as well as baggy dresses which exposed arms and the lower portion of their legs. To draw attention to these parts, women would roll down their hose to just below the knee and sometimes applied powder to the skin itself so it would not look so rough.

During these years of bobbed hair, women began wearing cloche hats that were close fitting and showed only the bottom portion of their hair. Wearing these hats became one more way for the young women to rid themselves of the conventionalities placed on the generation before them.