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

By Geraldine Biddle-Perry

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1780766289
• ISBN13: 9781780766287
• Release Date: May 2017
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.6"