Dressing for Austerity
Author | : Geraldine Biddle-Perry |
Publisher | : I.B. Tauris |
Total Pages | : 224 |
Release | : 2017-05-30 |
ISBN-10 | : 1780766289 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781780766287 |
Rating | : 4/5 (287 Downloads) |
Download or read book Dressing for Austerity written by Geraldine Biddle-Perry and published by I.B. Tauris. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.