Fashion in the 1940s by Jayne Shrimpton

Author:Jayne Shrimpton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fashion in the 1940s
ISBN: 9781784420260
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

The Board of Trade’s ‘Make-Do and Mend’ initiative aimed to encourage good clothing-care practices to extend the life of existing garments before new purchases were considered.

A good winter coat was considered essential and skilled dressmakers might make their coats using paper patterns, like this McCall pattern from 1940. During the war some women cut down and altered their absent husband’s overcoat.

One of the most useful materials of the 1940s was knitting wool. Many women knitted ‘comforts’ for the troops – socks, mittens, mufflers and balaclavas – and also made sweaters, hats and scarves for their families, from any colour and quality of wool available. No spare wool was ever discarded and adult garments were often unravelled and knitted into new clothes for children. Many women, who spent their evenings at home sewing, darning and knitting while listening to the radio, knew that such tasks were essential but found them laborious. It was easy for busy mothers to become exhausted and demoralised from running the house single-handedly, caring for children, completing never-ending chores and from broken sleep due to the wailing sirens and nights spent shivering in air-raid shelters, but neighbours, family and friends rallied round and helped to keep up one another’s spirits. Many women experienced a heartening sense of comradeship during the war and readily pooled their clothes, sharing, swapping and borrowing items, particularly for special occasions, such as a wedding. Sometimes certain articles, for example hairnets or knicker elastic, would suddenly become unavailable for months at a time, but scarce goods could often be purchased on the black market. Second-hand shops and pawnbrokers also flourished as women who once would not have dreamed of wearing cast-offs clothed themselves and their families by whatever means necessary.

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