Forties Fabric: Imperial War Museum's 'Fashion on the Ration' Exhibit

As World War II air raids in London kicked-off in the early Forties, British women had to become fashion practical – adding to the complicated clothing rations and textile shortages previously described in part one of our series. “Blackouts done purposefully to confuse German night bombers, caused a rise in the number of collisions on the streets, so there were calls to “wear something white”,” explains Laura Clouting, to the Financial Times.Clouting curated ‘Fashion on the Ration: 1940s Street Style’, which opens at the Imperial War Museum in London next month. Luminous accessories, from buttons to pin-on flowers, were suddenly en vogue in London – pushed by big-bucks retailers such as Selfredges; and handbags went compact and functional, designed with compartments for carrying respirators in the event of a gas attack.“These accessories were made in direct response to the dangers of wartime life,” Ms Clouting told The Telegraph. “But they are really lovely things. They are stylish and put a very fashionable twist on functional items.” Fashion and war aren’t usually mentioned in the same phrase, but next month’s 'Fashion On The Ration' exhibition aims to show just how important clothing and fabric were to women in war-time London. The exhibition displays the functional accessories women adopted in warding-off danger, and the more utilitarian fashions (such as slacks, which suited walking during transport disruptions on the tube) as women took to work in factories or joined the services. The exhibition is split into six sections: Into Uniform; Functional Fashion; Rationing and Make Do and Mend; Utility Clothing; Beauty as Duty and finally; Peace and the New Look. All sections focus on the textiles and fabrics of the time, namely rayon and wool (note the absence of silk), allowed for women’s clothing during the rations. Julie Summers has released a book to go with the exhibit. Entitled Fashion on the Ration, Summers suggests that women genuinely wanted to be stylish. “They wanted to be feminine because they had to hold on to that,” Summers told The Telegraph. “And of course they were extraordinarily inventive.” Overalls became essential attire and bulk out the display at the Museum. So too did headscarves, whose seemingly simple construction offered huge creative avenues for women to express themselves as individuals; personalizing the scarves with the little that they had. A scarf was worth two coupon points from a woman’s allocated 66 points for a year, too; so it was well worth the price to look a little different.   One of the must-see images of the exhibit is of factory worker Ruby Loftus wearing her colourful turban. Painted to promote femininity in the factory, the headpiece would become one of the biggest looks of the 1940s.  The exhibition also highlights the style rivalry between branches of the services. “The Wrens officer’s uniform was a lovely dark navy and it was the most coveted uniform by a mile,” Clouting told The Telegraph. “A lot of women wanted to join the Wrens purely to get that uniform.” As women grew to embrace the practical fabrics of fashion on the ration, it was a French designer, Christian Dior, who brought silk and chiffon back into the wardrobe of English ladies – but not until the war was far over. The final part of the exhibit retells of Dior’s ‘New Look’ and its rebuke of war chic. The British were eventually tired of being functional, and Dior’s creations - whimsical skirt pleats, sweeping brimmed hats, long silk gloves and blazers with buttons and trimmings – were lavished upon the London high-street from Paris. Not wanting to appear excessive or greedy, it took two years before women felt ready. By 1949, British women were playing around with luxury fabric and fashion once more.