Fashion on the Ration

Love the pattern matching on the suit on the left! Image © Imperial War Museum

A bonus post for vintage-lovers this week, to tell you about this forthcoming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Fashion on the Ration looks at how fashion adapted to the limitations imposed by war. From how women in the forces ‘improved’ their uniforms to siren suits (the 1940s equivalent of the onesie), and from undies made from silk maps to Utility fashions, the exhibition presents a sense of what life was like on the home front for men and women during wartime Britain.

Bra and camiknickers made from a silk map. Image © Imperial War Museum

It includes not just clothes and photographs, but also accessories, film, official documents, wartime letters, interviews and ephemera, some of which have never been on display before.

Patriotic printed rayon crepe dress. Image © Imperial War Museum

Fashion on the Ration runs from 5 March to 31 August 2015. Click here to read more about it.