Deco Modiste

Recession, Rations, and a Question for Readers:

Recession was a strong behind-the-scenes force on the NYFW runways this Fall, according to the NY Times Fashion Diary, as designers attempted to do something bold, daring and experimental to please audiences, while behind the scenes, models made do- changing “in freight containers parked curbside on 21’st street.”

The NYT article quoted Celia Dean of Visionaire as saying, “Creativitiy blossoms when resources are limited.”  With consumers looking for pieces that will hold up wear-after-wear, while still being seaosnally relevant, designers are being challenged to think out of the box, and to also create items that will be continuously wearable as the recession rolls on.

Today, in the spirit of creativity, we’re looking back on those women who had to creatively endure in times of Depression, Recession and Rations: In the 40’s when materials like silk were rationed for WWII, women had to selectively choose what they could afford to wear based on War Ration Coupon Books like the one pictured above.

As Pauline Weston Thomas writes at www.fashion-era.com :

This meant that women were forced to wear clothes that they had in their wardrobes before the [1941] announcement [of rationing clothing], adding items only as if essential. The coupons were also reduced as the war progressed. Mid war they fell to 48 a year and by 1945 clothing coupons were as low as 36 a year. The scheme continued to issue coupons until 1949 with all forms of rationing ended in 1952.

One aspect that never seems to be much accounted for is the fact that even with the coupons some women and families were simply too poor to buy new clothes at all. To some having the coupons made no difference as money was still needed to pay for the goods.

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Imagine you’re living in wartime Europe, and you’ve been given a coupon book that rations not only your groceries and household items, but your clothing as well.  The notice for clothing rations reads:

Rationing
Of Clothing, Cloth and Footwear
From June, 1945

Rationing has been introduced not to deprive you of your real needs, but to make more certain that you get your share of the country’s goods – to get fair shares with everybody else.

When the shops re-open you will be able to buy cloth, clothes, footwear and knitting wool only if you bring your food ration book with you.  The shopkeeper will detach the required number of coupons from the unused margarine page.  Each margarine coupon counts as one coupon towards the purchase of clothing and footwear.  You will have a total of 36 coupons to last you a year; so go sparingly.  You can buy where you like and when you like without registering.

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If you were a 40’s version of yourself you would be allotted clothing items out of your food rations.  If you could only afford to buy yourself 3 things for the coming season, what would you buy?  Stockings?  One new dress?  A coat?

Say you only had enough to buy yourself 10 items for the next year; what would you buy?  Think about it, and leave us a comment!

For extra credit, read more about rationing here: Fashion-era.com

As an example, here is a chart of how clothing was rationed for women and girls:

Tags: designer thoughts, fashion, vintage
Filed Under: news