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Dressing for austerity : aspiration, leisure and fashion in post-war Britain / Geraldine Biddle-Perry.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Biddle-Perry, Geraldine, author.
- Series:
- Dress cultures
- Dress Cultures
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Fashion--Great Britain--History--20th century.
- Fashion.
- Clothing and dress--Great Britain--History--20th century.
- Clothing and dress.
- History.
- Great Britain--Social conditions--1945-.
- Great Britain.
- Social conditions.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 214 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- London : I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2017.
- Summary:
- 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 colored 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.--Adapted from dust jacket.
- Contents:
- Introduction: austerity, aspiration and affluence
- Austerity by design: fashioning a new Jerusalem
- Austerity in transition: demobilization/remoblization
- Austerity by consensus; democratizing desire
- Lessons in austerity: styling postwar citizenship
- Austerity and affluence: another look at the new look
- Austerity and aspiration: a boy, a girl and a bike
- Conclusion: the autonomy of austerity: postwar affluence by design.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-211), filmography (page 211), and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781780766287
- 1780766289
- OCLC:
- 967851742
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