Dressing for Austerity : Aspiration, Leisure and Fashion in Post-War Britain PDF

by Dr Geraldine (Central St Martins, London, UK) Biddle-Perry

Part of the Dress Cultures series

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A new look for Austerity...The coldest winter on record, rationing, successive economic crises, bombed out towns and cities; with some justification 'Austerity Britain' in the late 1940s is coloured in the popular imagination in tones of drab.

Dressing for Austerity shines a light on alternative visions of post-war optimism and aspiration.

It traces how, set against the Labour government's philosophy of 'Austerity by design' in a climate of post-war idealism, the desire for affordable fashionable clothing, access to leisure, and the health, time and money to enjoy them became totemic symbols of post-war ambition that impelled new strategies of state control and consumer agency.

The book examines the immediate post-war period - its politics, its fashions and its people - in new ways and on its own terms as a critical tipping point in the making of modern Britain.