IV. Wardrobe Emergencies:
Fashion and the Second World War Conflict
Focusing on European and American newsreels, instruction and documentary films made in the Second World War (1939-1945), the first part of this programme looks at the rhetorical shift that occurred in fashion during this time of widespread hostile conflict. Confronted with the War, fashion responded by entering into a dialogue with politics. Suspending its autonomy, it rearticulated not only its own logic and purpose but also spoke of the society and the world around.
Programmed in collaboration with Imperial War Museum, London.
War newsreels will be followed by the Norwegian film director Elsa Kvamme presenting her 1999 documentary Lady with a Hat.
→ Read Marketa Uhlirova and Bakri Bakhit’s essay ‘Wardrobe Emergencies’.
Saturday 20 May 2006, 20:00 | The Horse Hospital
Wednesday 24 May 2006, 18:30 | ICA Cinema
Lady with a Hat (En Dame med hatt)
The film is a staggering journey through the life and career of the Jewish hat maker May Aubert, with a special focus on the Second World War period.
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".
Safety Styles
A short instructional film produced by the American US News Review Safety Styles, identifies the classic Hollywood film star Veronica Lake as a trendsetter, capable of pulling the rest of the country onto her side.
Evening and Day Frock
Pathé short showing a young woman using a sewing pattern to convert a pre-war evening dress into functional day dress.
Fashion for Shelter (Mode pour abris)
Great Britain 1941. Dir Pathé News.
Clothes Distribution to Children in Athens, Greece
Great Britain 1945. Dir Ministry of Information.
Fashion Inspired by the War
(La mode inspirée de la guerre)
This film with other Pathe’s films demonstrates how fashion also became a tool which could feminise war, easing the traumatic transition from peacetime to wartime.
Germ Masks for the Crowds
Pathé’s film Germ Masks for the Crowds (1941) demonstrates how fashion also became a tool which could feminise war, easing the traumatic transition from peacetime to wartime. Shown in a good light, the new civilian accessories such as gas masks, shelter suits, tin hats and germ masks could be made familiar, "normalised" and even, bizarrely, sold to women via news items as fashionable and desirable.
Stockings
Day-to-Day Frock
This instructional film acts as a styling manual, demonstrating how the same dress can be worn throughout the week if accessorised accordingly.
How to “Make-do-and-Mend”
A glimpse into an exhibition arranged by the Board of Trade in Harrods, London, with the aim of instructing housewives on how to repurpose old possessions. Includes a fashion show featuring various upcycled garments.
France 1939. Dir Pathé Gaumont Archives.
Berlin Fashion School
Germany 1940. Dir UFA.
Rationing in Britain
Great Britain 1944. Dir Ministry of Information.
Shoes Distribution to Greek Refugees in the Middle East
Great Britain 1945. Dir Ministry of Information.
Clothes and the Man
Great Britain 1941. Dir RAF/Analysis Films.
Fashion Show of Recycled Garments
Germany 1944. Dir Deutsche Wochenschau.
Clothing for War and Peace
Great Britain 1945. Dir War Pictorial News.
Fashion Show for WAAF Women
Great Britain 1945. Dir GEN Special.
Stockholm: A Fashion Show in Miniature
Germany 1945. Dir Welt in Film.
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