Postmodern Aesthetics: The Legacy of Punk.

Postmodern Aesthetics: The Legacy of Punk.

By Deborah Counsell

Introduction

In this analysis on Punk, I intend to deconstruct its social significance in the 1970s. And consider the legacy on fashion and where its influence can be found in the postmodern and 21^st century.

How did punk rock the world?  My main research shall define specific aspects of punk and how it came to influence not only fashion but also popular culture in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.  These aspects are anti-fashion, subversives, Dada, expressions of isolation, and magpie, bricolage.

What is Punk?

At a time of civil unrest and high youth unemployment, adolescents with time and no money hung together in areas such as the Kings Road, London, dissatisfied with the previous “hippy culture and ageing rock stars” (Polhemus: 1994: 14) young people sought a new sound and look to express the feelings of disquiet and unrest.  Instead of civil unrest the revolt took the form of anti-fashion and subversives, an aggressive look and attitude, which began on the kings road and the ‘Bromley set’ (Figure 1).  This small clique of a couple of hundred people were served and swayed by SEX a clothing shop opened by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in 1975.  The shop sold clothing and experimental sex items for fetish and bondage.  These influenced the youths that hung there.  The Punk look of slashed t-shirts, ripped trousers, safety-pin piercings, brightly coloured Mohican hair was re-enforced when Malcolm McLaren’s “Sex Pistols” gave its infamous TV interview during which they swore.  Popularity of the group increased when their first album was banned from TV and shop windows for its offensive title of “Never Mind the Bollocks”.  The album cover used a distinct Dada style of lettering looking like type tor from a newspaper as in the works of Dada artist Kurt Schwitters, ‘Kleine Dada Soirée’, (1922).

The late 70s and 80s will be remembered as a time of riots and vandalism; strikes and poverty.  As part of the ‘Winter of Discontent’ my father, a mature student at the time, turned away a beer lorry at a picket line this almost caused a riot.

Punk appeared in our village in the early 80s in the form of one brave individual.  The funny man, my mum explained, he had green or orange spiky hair and wore a kilt over ripped jeans with Dr Martin boots, he looked like Johnny Rotten.

What started as a gang became a global phenomenon with rise of pop rock music the Damned were the first in the charts but were quickly out shone by the Sex Pistols.  The Sex Pistols clothes were Styled and designed by Vivienne Westwood.

Street Style and Counter Culture

An interesting twist to the Punk movement came in the form of “Minor Threat” a North American Punk band.  They released a song called “Out of Step (with the World)” that spoke about “self restraint, personal responsibility and social awareness” (Atkinson: 2003).  This turned away from the usual nihilistic theme of punk.

Although the music and style were the same tattoos took on another meaning of group/tribal belonging.  They advocated clean living, “no drink, no smoking but at least we can fucking think” (Atkinson: 2003).  The movement comprised of young white urban middle class that had not experienced the tougher side of life.

This time was a melting pot of many anti-fashion styles and culture.  Among the many was Biker, Ska, Skinheads, and Mods, almost all linked to music.  Some embraced the multi-culture society forming in urban Britain, while others created their own sense of family such as the Bikers.

Bikers’ style took a more functional approach to clothes needing certain items to enable safe riding of their motorcycles.  These were denim jeans, leather jackets and t-shirts.  Other items worn were waistcoats made from leather or denim.  All garments were personalized with insignia pertaining to the biker’s regional gangs.  They also used body adornment such as piercing and tattoos.  These groups were often seen as a family unit which comprised of loader males mainly of a working class, as bike were cheaper to run and license than cars.

Punks used clothes to express their discontent.  They rebelled against the establishment in a shock and awe way using violent music and language to enforce the obscene and disturbing attire.  This subculture comprised mainly of working class youth that were affected by the high unemployment rate of that time.  The look took elements of Biker with its leather jackets and denim jeans.  Punk also took on the personalization of deconstructing by slashing and ripping.  Items were bricolaged such as straps and chains which were draped rom one area to another in swathes like a draped curtain of sash around under arms or hips.  Rips in jeans or trousers were held together with safety pins these were known as bondage trousers.  Garments were often written or painted on and mimicked in vandalism. 

Clothing meanings are often intangible in words but when compared with each other as style of clothing as in Hippy and Punk we know that the two are very different and stood for different things.  Hippy – peace and harmony.  Punk – offensive language and anarchy.   Also when we compare Punk and Biker as in figures 1& 2 noticeable differences are apparent even though descriptively they have similarities.

 “When we dress we wear inscribed upon our bodies the often obscure relationship of art, personal psychology and social order.” (Wilson: 2003: 210)

Young adult/adolescents form gangs as a reaction to a social gap created by the lack of community.  As young people reach an age ready to leave the family home but not yet ready to form families of their own.  There is a void left and gangs fill the vacuum.

A form of attire usually denotes gangs and all members are known to each other and within a certain location of territory.  When a look becomes popular it moves form gang to style tribe as numbers are increased and personal awareness within the social group is lost, clothing and music are the links between its members. Style tribes can become national and global as in the Punk era.

“Construction of identity is based on leisure rather than business clothes.  Popular culture redefines social phenomena and social identities.” (English: 2007: 78)

Many groups or gangs use clothing as a uniform and not a fashion statement clothes become a symbol of whom they associate themselves with as in Bikers.  Often using tattoos and piercings are used as a rite of passages and an initiation into the group.  In figures 1 & 2 we can see each group has a distinct style, which is used with in each group.  Giving each a symbol to each other as well as society.  Their clothes state I’m with you guys and guys I’m part of this group.

To choose to dress differently is a brave one that often incurs prejudice, threats and abuse from people frightened of difference.

The Influence of Vivienne Westwood on Postmodern Fashion.

Westwood said, “I am never more happy than when I parody the British in context of a classical perspective”. (Hennessy: 2012: 390)

Initially selling Teddy boy clothes Vivienne West, partners with Malcolm McLaren rebranded their shop on the Kings Road in 1975 to SEX.  This shop became a hub for local youths and sold fetish and bondage items as well as clothes.

As well as selling her Punk clothes in figure 3 we can see Vivienne wearing a tartan coat with straps hanging from it in homage to the bondage sex items she sold. 

Westwood’s finger was on the pulse of the time and met with the youth cultures demand of unrest and disquiet.  She learned from her surroundings and launched a collection of punk clothing of slashed trousers and porn t-shirts with offensive images and language.

Westwood bases her designs on research into the past using classical British garment and construction to inform her designs.  As a Postmodernist she regularly copies from the past to parody it on the catwalk with collections such as the Pirate dubbed the New Romantic look, and Anglomania.

On the feminist front Vivienne has also had her opinions in the mid 80s she produce a series of ‘mini-crini’ (Hennessy: 2012: 78) a shortened version of the 19^th century crinolines that were styled with tailored jackets in reaction to the masculine power dressing suits.  Westwood is also credited for reclaiming the corset using it emphasise women’s figures rather than imprisoning them within it.

Alexander McQueen also uses historical items in his collection especially in ‘Highland Rape’ collection where he uses Westwood’s influence and mixes tartan and leather, in appropriation of the past and fetish wear.

Why do we wear clothes and how we see ourselves?

“Humans as well as other species of animals, were consistently motivated by novelty and newness.  Thus it is constitutionally hard wired human behaviour to be attracted to the novel, to adopt it, and also to move on after only a short period of stability.”  (Wilson: 2003: 205).

Freud tells us that there are three parts to human personality the ego, super ego and the id.  The ego is the part we present to the world in the conscious where as the super ego and id is our unconscious selves.  The super ego good and modest the id that has wanton desires and easily tempted, each in balance controlling each other.  Super ego wants us to dress modestly whilst id wants us to wear more erotic attire while ego listens to social environs.  These personality traits coupled with our basic instinct for the novel governs our desire for change and novelty in the fashion world.

Our constant search for novelty and taboo breaking are seen on the international catwalk with innovative designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Rifat Ozbek.  Chalayan’s use of revealing nudity by varying the length of a burka is ironic and parodies the meaning of the garment.  He also objectifies the women models by keeping their faces covered with the full facial veil as can be seen in figure 7.

Through displacement our clothes serve a contradictory purpose covering up for modesty sake and the need to be sexually attractive.  This can be explained through psychology where men view women as object of desire and women place themselves as desirable objects, both complementing each other.  Woman wanting to look good and be desired under male gaze and man wanting women to be desired.

“Socially determined we maybe, yet we consistently search for the crevices in culture that open to us moments of freedom.  Precisely because fashion is at one level a game (although not just a game), it can be played for pleasure.” (Wilson: 2003: 210)

There is no free choice we simply follow an almost predestined path that hides.  We are first born with genetic heredity that is our blueprint that alters and updates along the way with environs that can affect us for good or ill.  As humans we live more than on instinct alone.  Our social network determines us.  In figure we can see the modern social group known as Chavs, their style is denoted by cheap sports/fashion wear such as tracksuits, baseball caps, hoodies, and trainers.

Punk Influence on Youth Culture

In today’s world of a multi-media existence we are continually bombarded with imagery that is not always screened or age appropriate.  These come from TV, computer gaming, film and Internet.

Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video with its erotic imagery and Iced-T’s misogynist gang rape lyrics help promote erotica and pornographic attire (Bordo: 1993: 247) TV and computer gaming’s portrayal of subordinate women back up these images.

Madonna pushed the erotic taboos increasingly through the 90s with Jean Paul Gaultier’s help using corsets and bondage crinolines as shown in figure 6 Gaultier draws his inspiration from Britain’s street style.

The wide spread use of risqué imagery is prolific especially in what poses as innocent with the use of low cut necklines and suggestive dancing in Disney films and the styles of Bratz™ dolls

The fashion industry has answered the erotica call with skanks – “sequined, belly baring, sparkly and made of fishnet materials which reveals children’s bodies in a more adult fashion.” (Clancy: 2011: 41).  Primark have marketed a padded bra thus sexualizing girls and marking them for paedophiles.

On the other hand if we consider the argument of intertextuality, that we innocently appropriate without truly understanding the meaning of what we are wearing.  When using this to view children wearing skank the garments become nothing more than frilly sparkly clothes as seen in figure 5.

In Japan women wear clothes that make them look like ‘Little Bo Peep’ or ‘Little Miss Muffet’, children.  They copy the anime` cartoons style of character dress as seen in figure 8.  People wouldn’t accuse them of pandering to paedophiles because we know they are merely playing with fashion.

Punk has also seen its influence spread through intertextuality in Steam and Cyber Punk.  Steam Punk is a vintage appropriation of Victoriana and the industrial steam age as seen during the Para Olympics closing ceremony as seen in figure 10.  Cyber Punk assimilates modern technology for their style looking like “Star Trek’s” “Borg”.

Conclusion

Punk emerged from a poverty struck Britain to voice its discontent, as stated earlier Punk rose from small group of young people known as the Bromley Set at a time of great recession.  It became global in its infancy but has continued as part of our culture, by some traditional Punks still existing and by reinvention and intertextuality such as Steam and Cyber Punk.  Its bricolage` nature has bee adopted y mainstream fashion and haute (figure 9) couture fashion to such an extent you can now buy designed damaged goods.  All ages of society has been affected by it anti-fashion ways as with skank clothes and Bratz ™ and the anime` dresser in Japan.  They questioned our silence with its subversive attitude and gave us the stomach to fight as in the Poll Tax riots of 1981.  Punk dared to be different as with all anti-fashion movement they give the confidence to express ourselves as we see fit.

Bibliography

·       Changing Fashion, Annette Lynch and Mitchell d.  Strauss, Berg, 2007

·       A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20^th Century, Bonnie English, Berg 2007

·       Street Style, Ted Polhemus, 1994, Thames and Hudson.

·       Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads & Skaters: Subcultural Style from the Forties to the Ninties, Amy De La Haye and Cathie Dingwall, 1996 The Overlook Press.

·       Fashion: The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style, Senior Editor Kathryn Hennessy, 2012, D. K.

·       Micro-Pedia – British History, General Editor Proffessor Eric Evans, 1999, Paragon.

·       The Fashion Reader, Linda Welters & Abby Lillethun, Berg, Oxford & new York, 2007

1.     Material Girl: Madonna as Postmodern Heroine, Susan Bordo, 1993, University of California Press.

2.     Punks and Pirates:  The Costiff Collection of Vivienne Westwood, Sonnet Stanhill.

3.     Feminism and Fashion, Elizabeth Wilson, 2003, I.  B.  Taurus, London & New York.

4.     Vivienne Westwood and Postmodern Couture: A Competer of Modernism and ‘Good Taste’, Catherine Baxendale, 2012.

5.     Fashion at the Edge, Caroline Evans, 2003, Yale University Press.

·       From Childhood to the Tweenhood: An examination of the impact of Marketing Fashion to tweens on Tween self-image and Mother-Child Interaction, Sarah Jane Clancy 10^th January

2011.

·       Body Art and Social Status: Cutting, Tattooing and Piercing from a feminist Perspective, Sheila Jefferies, April 14^th 2007.

·       The Civilizing of Resistance: Straightedge Tattooing, Vicheal Atkinson, Memorial of New Foundland, 2003.

·       What’s Up Sisters?, Catlin Moran, Style, Sunday Times, 10^th March 2013.

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Machine Age Aesthetics: An Investigation of the Significance of Modernism into Cubism in the Modern Era.

Machine Age Aesthetics:

An Investigation of the Significance of Modernism into Cubism in the Modern Era.

What is Modernism?

Modern is any thing that brakes with the way things have been done before.  Change began with the Industrial revolution when everyday chores were made a little easier and time was left to spend thinking of other things to do and having more time to do them.  The invention of tube paint was a real brake through for art as this freed the artist from the alchemy of paint making giving him/her time to express themselves in their art.  The first appearance of this is with impressionism but Cubism is where the radical change from tradition began.  In Cubism we see the artist question what they see and apply this in geometric shapes and muted palette.  Altering perspectives to analyse the object before them to change the three-dimensional object into two-dimensional canvas.  Synthetic Cubism is probably the ultimate change when as well as abstracting the object they use collage of everyday materials applied to canvas as well as paint.  Picasso and Georges Braque were the main artists of this movement and could be judged as the founders of modern art, as many movements derive from their inspiration.

In 1913 just before the Russian revolution (1917), Constructivists in Russia wanted change their world to a utopian and utilitarian society affecting their environment as well as their society.  The movement began in 1913 as a reaction to the way Russia was ruled by the Tsar.   Constructivism embraced machine production, manufactured materials, photography and any mass produced communication, they believed in easing hardship for the down trodden masses.  Theorist Aleksei Gan wrote the ideology of constructivism.

Constructivism like Popova had a short time of popularity in fashion and textiles.  The ideology is sound but in practise proved too tricky, the unquenchable thirst of the fashion animal proved to difficult to keep up with, and so the bright geometric patterns all but disappeared.  It was also found that society was not ready to embrace utility clothing as fashion, clothes that had practical purpose but looked beautiful.

This movement led by architects affected sculptors and designers; writers and poets.  The aspiration of the movement was to provide a better life for the majority of the people.  This ideology included clothing and fabric when artist Liubov Popova entered the world of textile design for mass-production.

Popova spent some time in Paris and painted in the Golden Fleece salon under Cezanne, an influence of cubism is noted in her work.  The 1920s was when Popova began in textile design after being invited to work at the First Textile Factory (Tsindel) in Moscow in 1922.  Previous to WWI designs had come straight from Paris and almost no factory had an in-house designer.  Popova was at the height of her creative ability during this period.  Although prolific her time at the factory was brief it lasted only six months before her untimely death.  About a hundred textile designs (fig. 1) and several dozen clothing designs (fig. 2 & 3) were found in her studio; at this time she was also designing posters, books and magazines, not forget she was teaching in The Material Design of the Performance.

Popova said “That no single artistic success gave her such profound satisfaction as the sight of peasants and workers buying pieces of her material.”  ‘And indeed this past spring all Moscow was wearing fabric with designs by Popova without knowing it – vivid, strong drawings full of movement, like the artist’s own nature.’ (Dmitri V. Sarabianov : 1990).  Her brief success in clothing the masses was not truly in utility clothing the style and time not ready for this change in  class and social system despite the Revolution.  Her aim chiefly to bring art to the masses rather than actual utility clothing is what drove Popova.

Futurists and Dada influenced Sonia Delaunay, an accomplished painter who took up embroidery whilst pregnant.

 “Embroidery became a means to break free from the academic traditions of line structure dominating colour, allowing her to apply colour directly to the ground.”(Matteo de Leauw-de Monti : 2011)(fig. 4)

Delaunay is said to have had a more prolonged affect on fashion than Stepanova and Popova as artists in the fashion industry.  These women were artists first and foremost where as Chanel barely showed any influence from the company she kept such as Picasso.

Social Changes for Women and their Significance on Utility Clothing

After the scandal of V-neck/pneumonia blouses, that were denounced form the pulpit and advised against by doctors in 1913, came an even greater shock – the rise of the hemline in 1925!  Again the clergy denounced this show of flesh and blamed an earthquake in Amalfi as an act of an angered god upon this!  In America they fined and imprisoned women for skirt lengths that were more than three inches above the ankle!  Thankfully women rebelled and continued to follow fashion and went on to shock the men folk further by cutting their hair.

Shocking as this seems even crazier to us now that women at that time were not equal to men and in marriage were lost to their husbands voice and rule (Sir William Blackstone 1723 – 80).

A feminist, Mary Wollstone Craft wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” in 1792 to highlight the double standards that were applied to women as reaction to Thomas Paines “The Rights of Man” that every man was entitled to a pension, free education and votes for all man.  Women’s liberation trickled forward slowly until 1906 when the Women’s Social and Political Union, which was formed in Manchester in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and daughters whose motto was “Deeds not words,” moved to London. 

Militant action ceased in 1914 when the out break of WWI when Emmeline Pankhurst called a halt to re-focus energies for the more important purpose of the war effort.  It took till 1918 for most women aged thirty and above to get the vote (Representation of the People Act), this age was lowered to twenty-one in 1928.

The empire dress that was freer than the previous corseted figure, no longer pushing the bust forward, narrowing the hips.  Wider hats gave the illusion of narrowing the hips further.  Before war started the silhouettes shifted towards the looser fitted garment.  An overskirt was worn over a narrower skirt, which was then abandoned during WWI. 

With men being drafted into the armed forces and in particular the army, women were left to fill job vacancies, a shift occurred in how clothes were perceived and worn (fig. 8).  This meant that clothing had to radically change to suit the more active roles that women were fulfilling, garments with military uniform style was adopted, although certain dress codes were still adhered to and trousers were never worn.  Even in munitions factories dresses were worn with long overalls and turban-like headscarves to protect themselves from dust (fig. 9). The only exception appears to be the Land Army women who wore long tunics with jodhpurs and knee length lace up boots.

All very unappealing, come the end of the Great War women wanted a radical change.  In came the barrel shape dress where women were enclosed in a tube with dropped waistlines and flatteners to minimise the bust appeared (fig. 6).

After the shackles of ill-designed clothing women wanted clothes that would suit their needs as well a looked good and make them feel good.  The pace of life had sped up women wanted their clothes to help them not hinder.

Society was never the same again, where some reverted to previous dress codes some wanted to retain the freedoms that war had initiated.  Rising in Paris at a similar time to Popova, was Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel who helped change society and radically altered clothes.  Coco was in step with social pioneers and although from a lowly background had great ambition.   Chanel manoeuvred into an elite social circle and as a self-styled role model affected change from within.  Her slender flat chested frame became the fashion reaction to the corset and ‘s’ figure of previous decades (fig. 5).   As an accomplished dressmaker she stripped clothing design to a simple cut and line taking inspiration from men’s tailoring and workwear.  Her designs fitted with times, expectations and requirements of modern women who wanted to move more freely and unencumbered.

Money was returning along with the rise of middle class, ‘new money,’ affluent times lay ahead.  A business savvy Chanel purchased a bulk order of jersey fabric that had previously had been used for navy uniform and sportswear and transformed it into haute couture material.  Her position in society allowed her to encourage informal wear as a way of day-to-day attire that became a fashion, ‘dressing down was the new mode.’   The middle class enjoyed this new more level field of dress and had the wealth to afford holidays and to pursue a sporting interest (fig. 7).

Mass Production

An icon of this time was Edward VII, before abdication was known for his trend setting style and brought about the popularity of wearing plus-fores both off and on the golf course.  For the most part women didn’t really take up sports but sportswear a term coined in America was used to cover all casual clothing in pursuit of leisure, such as swimming, relaxation and sport.  “In 1930 Mary Bagot founded the Women’s League of Health and Beauty.  Her daughter became poster girl of the league with its motto “Movement is Life”.  The League organised several performances of exercise routines en masse- one occasion involved 5,000 women.  The official uniform consisted of black satin shorts and a sleeveless white “waist” (blouse).  Apparently members were advised to shave their armpits and use deodorant.”(Kindersley : 2012)

“Attitudes to mass produced goods changed in the 1920s, ‘Ready to wear fashion was beginning to loose its former stigma as a working class necessity, and instead was seen a modern response to the industrial age.” (English: 2007). 

Patou, Lanvia, Vionnet, LeLong, Molyneux, Piguet and Chanel saw America as the land of opportunity and took advantage of the wealthy American dollar.  Export from Paris fashion was at its highest in the 1920s with design houses expanding and employing as many a five hundred people per house.  Business stepped in and with new technologies in fabrics and machinery piracy was not far behind.  Soon the American market was flooded with cheap copies of Paris originals.  American buyers would purchase dozens of each line to sell at high prices and make many more in the new synthetic materials.  The simplified designs of the 1920s meant that machines could be altered quickly with minimum effort with the new standardized sizes. 

To combat piracy and recover control ‘Ready to wear’ and designer labelling came.  Paris designers tried to close the loopholes by introducing licensing and copyrights, all were swimming against the tide except Chanel who embraced the new machine age and swam with it accepting the copies as flattery and knowing her designs had become a fashion. Her aspirations of no longer wanting to dress a few clients but a desire to clothe a few thousand were fulfilled in mass production.

When the depression began with the Wall Street crash in the 1930s America closed it’s doors to the foreign imports and would only allow small amounts of Paris fashion in at low duty prices.  To continue to reap the American dollar Paris fashion houses supplied ready cut pieces with full instructions of assembly.  This further played into the mass market and piracy and the end of haute couture.

The ties with Paris severed meant the American designers now had their chance to demonstrate and hone their abilities.  The perfect place to show their new styles was the new talkie films of Hollywood (fig. 10).  Movies were the Internet of their day.  People would watch entertainment features and newsreels to learn of world news and escape their austere lives.   Cinema was watched globally and Hollywood films and fashion promoted American design and ideals internationally.

Styles in the late 20s and 30s produced the elongated figure with and aerodynamic feel and an enhanced smoothing of line.  Backs were exposed, as the rear neckline dropped to reveal it.  Clothes were snug across the hips, which emphasised the bottom for the first time.

Preparations for war began in the late 1930s silhouettes altered again to conform to leaner times produced by rationing. 1939 saw the beginning of the Second World War bringing new restrictions of cloth, as with many other things, but with the ambition of maintaining morale.  Rations were imposed on almost everything to ensure that provisions that were in short supply were divided evenly.  Clothes and fabric were strictly controlled because fabric was needed to make uniforms and parachutes.  The ration system where clothes and fabric was purchased using coupons meant everyone got a share of what was available.  People were encouraged to patch and darn; to be creative with remnants and old clothes to get them help themselves during shortages. 

A utility scheme was introduced with arrange of staple wardrobe pieces and label of ‘CC41’ (Civilian Clothing 1941).  These garment were deigned by the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers of Inc. Soc.  headed by Molyneux. 

“Molyneux was Irish born in 1894, he worked in London with the first ‘Grande Dame’ dressmaker, Lucile, and after a distinguished war career (WWI) he opened his shop in Paris 1919.  In 1930 he opened in London under the direction of his sister Kathleen.  I speak of shops because I cannot bear the word ‘salon’ – but of course dress houses were like grand private houses.  At Molyneux’s at 48 Grosvenor Street you were greeted by a butler.  ‘I remove everything not necessary’, he said.  ‘Plainness is all.’  But he paid great attention to cut, finish and above all, proportion.” said Hardy Aimes. (McDowell: 1997).   Hardy Aimes, was one of the designers in Inc.Soc.  with Norman Hartnell, Degby Morton and Victor Stiebel.

The depression heavily influenced design of WWII wardrobe where costs in production and change in societies purse meant people couldn’t afford to produce or purchase volumus clothing or extravagant clothes.  Waistlines become high at just above the norm and hemlines lowered.  The brassiere changed from flattening the bust to support and separation with two formed cups came about in the 1930s.  The look was of square shoulders nipped in waist and skirt hemlines just below the knee, which had a military appearance.  These designs met the clothing regulations of features and fastenings (fig. 11).

To encourage women to enlist in military roles uniforms were designed to flatter the female figure (fig.14)(fig. 12).  It also helped women to be accepted by men into ‘their world’. 

Women were encouraged to keep up appearances as a form of morale boost for them as well for their men to come home to.  Duty, pride and a belief in doing the right thing helped women suffer many restrictions of the war effort.  For as well as being left to look after the home without the husbands many were stripped of their children with evacuations of cities.  Women were expected to work for the war effort filling the vacancies left by men that had been enlisted into the armed forces or conscripted into vital war work.

The Government knew that all would fail if the women of Britain would not step up and take an active role on the home front.  We should not forget those that actually went to war themselves, maybe not on the frontline but not far from it in hospitals; in airplanes on test and transportation, in the blitz as wardens, on the land farming (fig13), factories making munitions (fig. 17), aircraft, equipment (fig. 16), fabric and garments (fig. 18).  Last but not least at home, maintaining the family trying to keep it all together for everyone. 

The use of military style is still visible today in fashion, shops such as Urban Outfitters where the modern uniform of combat gear is clearly used in urban clothing with cargo trousers and large pockets even epaulettes.  Clean line garment construction is used in the upper end high street and design wear too, where understatement of wealth is still preferable to outlandish adornment just like Chanel’s first designs and the utility clothing of WWII.   Seen in retail outlets such as The Loft (Bath), Toast and Jigsaw.

Bibliography

é Dmitri V. Sarabianov, Natalia Adaskina , 1990, Liubov Popova, Thames & Hudson, London

é Dorling Kindersley, 2012,Fashion – The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style, DK, printed in China

é James Lever, 1995, Costume and Fashion, Thames & Hudson, printed in Singapore

é Bonnie English, 2007, A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20^th Century from the Catwalk of the Sidewalk, Berg, printed in Great Britain.

é Colin McDowell, 1997, Forties Fashion & The New Look, Bloomsbury, printed in Great Britain.

é Matteo de Leauw-de Monti and Petra Timmer, 2011, Colour Moves Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay, Thames & Hudson.

é Christian Lodder, Tate Papers Issue 14, 1 Oct 2010. ww.tate.org.uk  16 January 2013

é Lyubov  Popova:- Her textile and dress design, 10 April 2009,www.queensof vintage, 16 January 2013

é Pocket histories, Suffragettes,www. Museumoflondon.org.uk, 16 January 2013

é British History, general Editor Professor Eric Evans, 2002, Parragon. Printed in Indonesia.

	Figure 11 Utility Clothing