Wartime Fashion - by Geraldine Howell (Paperback)

About the Book

Wartime Fashion is a detailed overview of the impact of the war on women's dress in Britain, from haute couture to recycled and rationed fashion.

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive analysis of Second World War dress practice and appearance, this study places dress at the forefront of a complex series of cultural chain reactions.

As lives were changed by the conditions of war, dress continued to reflect important visual narratives regarding class, gender and taste that would impact significantly on public consciousness of equality, fairness and morale. Using new archival and primary source evidence, Wartime Fashion clarifies how and why clothing was rationed, and repositions style and design during the war in relation to past expectations and ideas about clothes and fabrics. The book explores the impact of war on the dress and appearance of civilian women of all classes in the context of changing social and economic infrastructures created by the national emergency.

The varied research elements combined in this book form a rounded and definitive account of the dress history of British women during the Second World War. This is essential reading for anyone with an active interest in the field, whether personal or professional.

Review Quotes

A rigorous, meticulously researched - and fantastically well referenced - text which will make a significant contribution to existing studies on women's dress during wartime Britain.
Professor Amy de la Haye, Rootstein Hopkins Chair of dress History and Curatorship, London College of Fashion

Readers interested in dress history, or in a more gendered or class analysis of the UK's home front during the Second World War, will find this book well worth their time.
TRC

This is not another book about wartime fashion, but a social history of wartime clothing as worn by the civilian population in the UK and the cultural conditions that produced it. As such, it is without equal.
Textile History

About the Author

Geraldine Howell taught Theoretical Studies for over twenty years on the Fashion Design course at the University of Westminster, UK and recently became a freelance writer on Dress History.