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The 1920s is the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. It was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear more comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or trousers). Men likewise abandoned overly formal clothes and began to wear sport clothes for the first time. The suits men wear today are still based, for the most part, on those men wore in the late 1920s. Their hats were somewhat rounded

The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion. In the early 1920s change progressed slowly, as many were reluctant to adopt new styles. From 1925, the public passionately embraced the styles associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continue to characterize fashion until early in 1932.

Clothing changed with women's changing roles in modern society, particularly with the idea of new fashion. Although society matrons of a certain age continued to wear conservative dresses, forward-looking and younger women now made sportswear into the greatest change in post-war fashion. The tubular dresses of the 'teens had evolved into a similar silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion.

The straight-line chemise topped by the close-fitting cloche hat became the uniform of the day. Women "bobbed," or cut, their hair short to fit under the popular hats, a radical move in the beginning, but standard by the end of the decade. Low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline allowed women to kick up their heels literally in new dances like the Charleston.

In the world of art, fashion was being influenced heavily by art movements such as surrealism. After World War I, popular art saw a slow transition from the lush, curvilinear abstractions of art nouveau decoration to the more mechanized, smooth, and geometric forms of art deco. Elsa Schiaparelli is one key Italian designer of this decade who was heavily influenced by the "beyond the real" art and incorporated it into her designs.

In menswear there were two distinct periods in the 1920s. Throughout the decade, men wore short suit jackets, the old long jackets (on morning suits and tail coats) being used merely for formal occasions. In the early twenties, men's fashion was characterized by extremely high waisted jackets, often worn with belts. Lapels on suit jackets were not very wide as they tended to be buttoned up high. (This style of jacket seems to have been greatly influenced by the uniforms worn by the military during the First World War.) Trousers were relatively narrow and straight (never tapered) and they were worn rather short so that a man's socks often showed. Trousers also began to be worn cuffed at the bottom at this time.

By 1925, wider trousers commonly known as "Oxford Bags" came into fashion, while suit jackets returned to a normal waist and lapels became wider and were often worn peaked. Loose fitting sleeves (without a taper) also began to be worn during this period. During the late 1920s, double breasted vests, often worn with a single breasted jacket, also became quite fashionable. During the 1920s, men had a variety of sport clothes available to them, including sweaters and short trousers, commonly known as knickers. For formal occasions in the daytime, a morning suit was usually worn. For evening wear men preferred the short tuxedo to the tail coat, which was now seen as rather old-fashioned and snobby.