At the beginning of the 20's the everyday dress was cut wide and loose. The low  waist was draped with scarves, bows and fashionable belts as eye-catchers. 

In 1924 that style came  into fashion which stayed for 4 years and is well-known as the "charleston look" up to this day. The tight cut dresses reached barely to the knees, the upper part was straight and the pleated skirt on one level with the hips. Many of them were high closed and had a straight shirt collar. Ties, jabots, colourful blends, bows and belts enlivened the dresses. The difference was more in the detail than in the cut.

Evening dresses corresponded in their straight line to the everyday clothing. Different were the neck-lines that often had the same size at the front and back. Thus many dresses were held from small straps only. Expensive fabrics and eccentric trimmings made up for the simple cut. From the middle of the 20's on even the legs were shown. Nevertheless the hem was soon longer again (since 1927). Especially fashionable was a skirt with a short front and a longer backside. At the same time the waist drew nearer to its natural place.

At the end of the 20's the fashion lead to a new, very feminine line. A dress that accented the shape and reached to the calves dominated the fashion of the 30's. The dresses were clinging around the hips and wide-flared near the hem.
From 1933/34 on some modification was visible. The silhouette of the upper part was more accented, especially the shoulders with the help of  puffed sleeves, ruffles, pleats or short boleros. An asymmetrical draping of the top passed for very stylish.

1938 came a  new,  more severe line into fashion. The shoulders were extremly accented and grotesquely widened. Simultaneously the skirt, mostly a pleated or a wide-flared one, reached to the knees only. Patterns of pepita, stripes, points and pastel shades dominated. 
 

The rationing of materials and the compulsion to dress practically and simply stopped eyery fashionable development during World War II. The pre-war fashion with  wide, male shoulders and short skirts varied scarcely. The mottos "save material"and "mending is better than ending" in lady's journals propagated combinations of different fabrics (rests) and reparations of torn parts. Trimmings and decorations were economized.
 

1947 Christian Dior put a new lady's fashion on the market. His "New Look" dominated up to the 50's. The dresses, with natural shoulders again, were wide-flared, waisted and reached to the calves.