Women in wartime : dress studies from 'Picture Post' stories,1938-1945

Picture Post magazine was made famous by its pioneering photojournalism, which vividly captured a panorama of wartime events and the ordinary lives affected. This book is the first to examine this fascinating primary source as a cultural record of women's dress history. Reading the magazine s visual narratives from 1938 to 1945, it weaves together the ways in which design, style and fashion were affected by, and responded to, the state of being at war - and the new gender roles it created for women. From the working class of Whitechapel to the beach sets of the Bahamas, and from well-heeled Mayfair to middle-class New York, Fashioning Women in Wartime takes a wide-angled lens to the fashions and lifestyles of the women featured in Picture Post. Exploring the nature of femininity and the struggle to be fashionable during the war, the book reveals critical connections between clothing and social culture. Drawing on a unique range of photographs, Fashioning Women in Wartime presents a living history of how women's clothing choices reflect changing perceptions of gender, body, and class during an era of unprecedented social change. "Picture Post magazine was made famous by its pioneering photojournalism, which vividly captured a panorama of wartime events and the ordinary lives affected. This book is the first to examine this fascinating primary source as a cultural record of women's dress history. Reading the magazine's visual narratives from 1938 to 1945, it weaves together the ways in which design, style and fashion were affected by, and responded to, the state of being at war - and the new gender roles it created for women. From the working class of Whitechapel to the beach sets of the Bahamas, and from well-heeled Mayfair to middle-class New York, Women in Wartime takes a wide-angled lens to the fashions and lifestyles of the women featured in Picture Post. Exploring the nature of femininity and the struggle to be fashionable during the war, the book reveals critical connections between clothing and social culture. Drawing on a unique range of photographs, Women in Wartime presents a living history of how women's clothing choices reflect changing perceptions of gender, body, and class during an era of unprecedented social change"--Bloomsbury Publishing. "Picture Post magazine was made famous by its pioneering photojournalism, which vividly captured a panorama of wartime events and the ordinary lives affected. This book is the first to examine this fascinating primary source as a cultural record of women's dress history. Reading the magazine's visual narratives from 1938 to 1945, it weaves together the ways in which design, style and fashion were affected by, and responded to, the state of being at war - and the new gender roles it created for women. From the working class of Whitechapel to the beach sets of the Bahamas, and from well-heeled Mayfair to middle-class New York, Women in Wartime takes a wide-angled lens to the fashions and lifestyles of the women featured in Picture Post. Exploring the nature of femininity and the struggle to be fashionable during the war, the book reveals critical connections between clothing and social culture. Drawing on a unique range of photographs, Women in Wartime presents a living history of how women's clothing choices reflect changing perceptions of gender, body, and class during an era of unprecedented social change"--Bloomsbury Collections "Picture Post" was made famous by the range and quality of its photojournalism which vividly captured a panorama of wartime events and their effects on ordinary lives. Drawing on an absorbing range of photo-stories this book is the first to use this fascinating primary source as a cultural record of the dress history of the period and the way it reflects the impact of war on women's lives. Across classes and communities, changing times and roles, this book takes a wide-angled view of fashion, the fashionable and perceptions of femininity and explores the critical connections between clothing, social culture and the contexts of war Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introducing Picture Post 10 1 Beauty’s blueprint 34 2 Fashion stories from everyday life 50 3 Picture Post shows life on less 68 4 Britain and the first fashions of war 80 5 Practical living with Picture Post 98 6 Picture Post reports on wartime clothing initiatives 122 7 Making and looking after clothes 134 8 A fashion for fitness 146 9 Epilogue: Picture Post reports on fashion news from France 160 Conclusion 168 Notes 176 Select bibliography 213 Index 217