Inside World War II’s female beauty campaign.
The following excerpt was originally published in The WORN Archive, which compiles some of the best material from WORN Fashion Journal's first 14 issues.
The WORN Archive: A Fashion Journal About the Art, Ideas, and History of What We Wear / Drawn and Quarterly / Via drawnandquarterly.com
Julia Rogers' first-ever grown-up ball wasn't quite what she'd hoped for. In 1942, her soldier father took 16-year-old Julia and her mother to the Annual Regimental Ball. Just one year after Britain's Utility Clothing Scheme was implemented, there was nary a ball gown in sight. "All the women in short dresses," says Julia of the occasion. "It was disappointing."
Her own dress was all practicality. Her mother, a dressmaker by trade, had fashioned the frock for Julia as she did all of her family's clothing. Cherry red, lightweight, and easily washable, with a sweetheart neckline and a flowing skirt that came just past the knees, the dress was undeniably pretty — but hardly the elaborate gown one would expect to see (or wear) at such a fancy occasion.
Julia, who grew up in a family in which money was scarce, was used to having homemade clothing intended to last for years. "When the war broke out I had all the clothes I needed," she says. "My mother made my dresses with enough seam allowances and hem lengths to make alterations as I grew." When the British government introduced a system of clothes rationing during World War II, Julia hardly felt the blow. For others, however, the new system of policing the amount of clothing, fabric, and shoes civilians could purchase was an enormous adjustment.
