MILITARIA
Ingenuity and inventiveness were key weapons in a pivotal war on waste that kept wartime Britain’s mobilised population and workforce fully clothed
When it comes to clothes, we are spoilt for choice these days, with many different styles available at cheap prices from a plethora of High Street and online retailers. The 21st century penchant for disposable or fast fashion would have been unimaginable to our wartime forebears, when clothing was made to last and, in doing so, helped to win the war.
Clothing of the 1940s was more standardised according to gender. In general, women wore a dress or skirt and blouse, while men wore a suit and tie. One thing both had in common were hats – as archive photos testify, headwear was ‘the done thing’. In the case of men, this was usually a cloth cap, trilby or homburg, and which style you wore was a distinguisher of social class. T-shirts were a thing of the future and clothing, no matter your class, was mostly formal.
