The 1920s is a decade that fashion continues to return to. Partly, no doubt, because of its hedonistic spirit, but also because so much of the decade’s sartorial innovations remain a blueprint for how we get dressed today.

Coco Chanel helped usher in a new kind of women’s fashion, replacing restrictive corsets and floor-skimming hemlines with looser silhouettes, comfortable jersey fabrics and menswear-inspired designs. Madeleine Vionnet popularised the “bias cut”, cutting fabric diagonally to the grain so it draped fluidly over the body, while Jean Patou introduced early knitted athleticwear.

For all the practical innovations of the era, it is the geometric beadwork, sequins, fringe and metallic lamé fabrics, influenced by the Art Deco movement and the exuberance of the jazz age, that is inspiring our party season styling this year. More specifically, the flapper dress – beloved by the champagne-sipping, Charleston-dancing women who came to define the decade’s best dressed – is making a rather glamorous return across the autumn/winter 2026 runways.

Paul Poiret dress from the 1920s.

offered up “two contrasting versions of the evening mode” in 1927. This sleek, darker version came courtesy of Jean Patou.

“Art Deco-leaning silhouettes and finishes are timeless,” wrote ’s Alice Cary in her autumn/winter 2026 trend roundup, which identified a renewed appetite for the Roaring Twenties. “Some designers took a more literal interpretation – Lanvin and Prada’s beaded tunic dresses, for example – while others offered a more subtle nod via flapper-coded embellishment and lace. A welcome departure from the structured quiet luxury of seasons past.”

Linda Evangelista wearing a black fringed flapper-style dress in New York, 2005.

Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss celebrating the launch of Kate Moss for Topshop in 2014.David M. Benett/Getty Images

Unlike the hourglass, full-skirted silhouettes of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the flapper dress embraced the boyish style. Dresses were typically straight, boxy or tubular in shape, with dropped waistlines sitting around the hips rather than accentuating the natural waist. For evening, they were often rendered in black (a particular favourite of Chanel’s), or adorned with intricate beadwork, sequins and cascading fringing designed to move with every twist and turn.

The look has enjoyed several revivals since, not least during the Noughties, when Kate Moss was a particular champion, regularly wearing slinky, shimmering styles both on the red carpet and out in Soho. In the early 2010s, she even put her own gilded, fringed spin on the look for her Topshop collaboration.

Miu Miu AW26.

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This season, it seems the flapper spirit has danced its way back into fashion’s imagination. The runway offering ranges from intricately beaded tunic dresses to shorter, party-ready styles with swinging fringing, while the high street has plenty of interpretations of its own. Whether you favour something that channels full Daisy Buchanan or a simpler design with just a little Art Deco sparkle, there is no shortage of ways to embrace the new flapper dress trend.

Shop ’s edit of the flapper dress trend below…

Fiocchini Embellished Lace-Trimmed Organza Minidress

Limited Edition Minidress With Beads And Sequins