Tin Hats for All

In British Pathé’s Tin Hats for All (1941), fashion speaks about anti-bourgeois sentiments and national pride. The film shows the mass-production of steel helmets in a British factory, referred to by the male voice-over as “the latest British style of metal millinery in the making”. This is followed by a sequence showing two women dressed in sober civilian clothing, supposedly representatives of the general public, who try the helmets on and look at each other, and in a pocket mirror: helmets too can be fashionable if worn with the right flare!