"Fashion is an expression of the world we live in, a picture of what is going on inside our minds as well as outside in historic fact." - Alison Settle, fashion journalist, 1937
I visited the Fashion on the Ration exhibition at the Manchester Imperial War Museum on 15th November 2016. The actual setting of the museum within Salford Quays was unusual and the building's architectural design was impressive from the offset. I was initially intrigued by the exhibition as it began by contextually introducing wartime fashion to the Manchester area, providing an excerpt of a diary description of Manchester's Piccadilly area from Vere Hodgson, 1943, who wrote "Piccadilly is such a thrilling place these days. All the uniforms of all the nations jostle you on the pavement... girls too in their service uniforms by the hundreds."
The most valuable aspect taken from the exhibition, in my opinion, was the exposure to genuine firsthand opinions of women about the clothing and fashion habits they were being introduced to during the war, so different to anything they had ever been used to before. In a letter from Stephanie Batstone in June 1943, she said that [the women] "were completely flabbergasted to discover that the bell bottoms issued to us are actually sailor's trousers and not made for girls at all", while Barbara Pym of the Women's Royal Naval Service said that "it felt funny being in uniform - more like fancy dress that anything". Examples of these brief but telling accounts of the women's experiences in wartime attire and uniforms were a frequent feature of the exhibition which increased the connection between audience and subject.
Wartime fashion played a significant role commercially as well as personally, as the exhibition successfully communicates. Cecil Beaton's fashion, portrait and wartime photography created a place for women wearing uniform in fashion, with her work appearing in the pages of Vogue magazine. The exhibition was successful in conveying an insight into views beyond the 'common people' and the working class, in order to place the facts, figures and garments into an identifiable context. Clothing manufactures quickly utilised the need for fashion with new wartime functions, so handbags began to be produced with sections to hold a gas mask and luminous accessories were sold in response to the government's advice to wear white clothing during blackouts, like hats and wearable flowers sold in Selfridges. Audio interview excerpts were provided through telephones dispersed around the circuit of the room, one communicating Winston Churchill's fondness for his 'siren suit' (a garment suitable for wearing during air raids) by his secretary, Elizabeth Nel.
The exhibition also discussed reaction to clothes rationing and displayed notable 'thrifty' and hand-made garments. While the idea of rationing has been heavily discussed in the majority of historically concerned fashion exhibitions I've visited, the Fashion on the Ration exhibition differentiated itself to others by providing numerous personal accounts. For example, Eileen Gurney wrote a letter in June 1941 which said "I'm rather pleased about the clothes rationing as the competition won't be so great", while a really interesting camisole set was displayed, constructed from a silk map of Italy which was previously given to a woman from her boyfriend in the RAF. The personal stories behind the garments intrigued me as the idea of rationing often seems so lost in another period of time so unimaginable in the contemporary world.
One particular story which stuck with me and interested me greatly was accompanied by Evelyn Higginson's exhibited floor-length wedding dress and floral crown veil, made from pre-war silk but shared by fourteen other women after her own wedding in September 1943. The woman's first husband, a sailor, died during the war, but her wedding dress continued to be worn to many more weddings after his death. This 'make do and mend' attitude was communicated so effectively here, by showcasing the wedding dress alongside a story of love, tragedy and the cycle of borrowed clothing in hard times.The cyclical structure of the exhibition by following maze-like routes around one room made it easy to convey narratives and more complex themes, such as the idea of morale and beauty/fashion being interlinked and important to society. A huge emphasis was put on the idea of looking good without seeming 'showy' or too frivolous during such an economically challenging period and this was successful discussed by introducing tips and tricks to make beauty products and clothing last longer - such as melting down the last of a lipstick or mending stockings repeatedly, in stark contrast to 'throwaway' habits of the past (and habits of the present, interestingly).
I left the exhibition feeling like I had learnt a lot, and while the room itself was in my opinion a bit too dark, its inclusion of sensory aspects - such as audio interviews and grainy film footage projected onto walls - made it an interesting visit which will stick in my mind. Fashion on the Ration runs from the 27th May 2016 to 1st May 2017 at the Imperial War Museum North, The Quays, Manchester, M17 1TZ.
Laura Clouting, 15th November 2016, Imperial War Museum, Salford Quays, Manchester
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