Late Edition - 05 March 2015

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Beneath the Seams of WW2

Fashion On The Ration

This exhibition explores six main themes: Into Uniform, Functional Fashion, Rationing & Make do & Mend, Utility Clothing, Beauty as Duty, and Peace and a New Look? Each section neatly explores these themes with clothing, accessories, film, original publications, photographs and various ephemera. Particular items of interest include: An original ‘siren suit’, newspaper clippings illustrating luminous paint to apply to hair flowers and halo-hats in blackouts, British propaganda scarfs, an underwear set made from RAF maps, gas-mask handbags and much more.

The exhibition looks at how fashion changed, survived and even overcame adversity during wartime. The Second World War saw massive changes which infiltrated all areas of people’s lives, even reaching into their wardrobes.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War; as such, the Imperial War Museum London is launching a new exhibition – Fashion on the Ration.

Fashion on the Ration shows how the nation overcame tribulations and loss; to forge the way to triumph and victory. Where there is fashion, there is hope. And where there is hope, there is survival.

Visit Fashion on the Ration at the Imperial War Museum London, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ from March 5th – 31st August 2015.

Fashion on the Ration

05 March 2015