Vintage video and giveaway: Anne Edwards, fashion expert under fire
Pity Anne Edwards of Woman magazine. The onset of war catapulted her into the unenviable role of fashion guru during a time when stringent rationing and austerity measures must have taxed the creative powers of even the most inventive stylist. In this series of British Pathé shorts, Anne does her best to hearten and inspire the women of Britain by providing tips for dressing and accessorizing in wartime.
Here a model gamely demonstrates several ways of wearing a headscarf:
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This film shows how to make one dress do duty all week long by adding collars, waistcoats, false bodices and other embellishments:
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I showed that video to James, who wasn’t convinced. “‘Lancelot’s coming over — put on a pinny!’ That’s the best you can do for a Knight of the Round Table?“
Here are several ways to wear the ubiquitous turban — some more successful than others:
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Here’s her method for making your own handbag (assuming you could obtain a hide, which was a pretty big assumption at the time):
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And here’s her advice for making women’s hats from hubby’s. The amount of millinery skill she assumes is pretty impressive — how many women do you suppose actually owned a hat block?
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I like how some of these fashion ideas are so dubious even the models betray visible uncertainty. Still, it’s a great insight into how much innovation was required to stay smart in wartime.
And now for the giveaway!
Up for grabs is one copy of Complete Dressmaking in Pictures, a postwar British dressmaking guide edited by Constance Howard and published by Odhams Press. Those of you accustomed to freewheeling American vintage sewing books may be amused by the comparatively prim illustrations.
Others overwhelmed by the proliferation of sewing advice available in books and on the internet may enjoy how blessedly simple it makes sewing look by reducing the options to an acceptable few techniques.
The book also includes instructions for how to draft basic pattern blocks and adapt them to make the illustrated designs.
The Complete Dressmaking in Pictures giveaway is open to readers everywhere — just leave a comment below about your favorite wartime fashion tip! I’ll be picking a winner at noon (London time) on Monday, April 19.
A bit late, I know, but if the competition is still open, I’d love to be in it!
I really liked the turbans, I’m trying to learn how to use scarfs better and wearing them on my head is something I do way too seldom. Interesting with the idea of working two scarfs at the same time!
Isn’t anybody else experiencing deja vu? I love watching DIY videos showing how to make ladies skirts or girls dresses out of mens button-up shirts. The videos are always narrated with edited footage showing the how-to. Now I see where it all originated.
I love the tip for making a hat out of an old men’s hat. Such a great idea!
I mean really, doesn’t it seem a bit crass to be reusing all the hubby’s hats and clothes while he is off at war! I’m all for re-purposing, but it might have been better etiquette to wait and see if he died in the war before one started refashioning his belongings.
Hopefully the idea was that after the war was over, everything would be so new and different and wonderful that hubby would need an entirely different wardrobe and would never miss his old togs. Not all husbands felt this way, though — I read one account of a wife who caused domestic havoc by commandeering a tweed suit of her husband’s to make a skirt suit. She never dared wear it in front of him.
I love the Pathe archives! One of my favorite video sites.
Thanks so much for doing the giveaway.
These videos are so fun! I love how she cut that purse out of the smack-dab middle. Doesn’t seem to be a very responsible use of material?!
Wow, they were all interesting, but I really like the one about the many turban options open to the creative woman. I admit, I’m not much of a turban fan, but these have actually inspired me to try some of them for fun…
Thank you for posting all of these video tips – very fun and educational (and funny)
The Day to Day Frock clip was fabulous, just love it! I even had to make a post about in on my own blog !
I will definitely make use of some of the ideas from it. Oh, and I would really love to have a chance to win the dressmaking guide, it would be such a treasure to own!
oh, i really really love this, especially the hat-idea. i just have to get an old hat right now to make a new one out of it:)
although i like how they reuse old clothes to make new ones, that hat-thing is best and new for me.
Oh my, I just love the idea of changing up the same dress all week. Some of those turbans cracked me up, and when I got to the handbag one, I think my cat started to look nervous. Most excellent post. Thank you!
I so want to looks like a “natty little pussycat!” And I want French knickers like that! It’s so difficult to find good tap-pants patterns in larger sizes!
Garnet
I am intrigued by the ‘one dress all week’ concept. The issue of cleanliness sort of concerns me, and I also wonder how quickly that garment would wear out by being worn so much, thus possibly causing the need for a new frock. However, I loved the little waistcoats over it.
This is my favourite from Make Do And Mend, pg 38:
Blouse Fronts:
Often you will find, after cutting away the worn back and sleeves of a blouse, that you are left with a perfectly good front that you can wear under a jacket or coat frock. Attach the strings under the arms and at the waist to fasten it in the middle of the back. If you can spare a few inches of elastic, to let into the ribbon or tape this will give you a little play.
I think the following are some of my favourites because like so many of these “tips”, they’re well meant, SORT OF work, but really not well, and aren’t actually all that practical–just frustrating:
i. making wartime JEWELLERY from old beer bottle tops, cup hooks and corks
ii. supplementing a shortage of CLEANING MATERIALS by crushing egg shells for use as a scouring compound and cutting squares out of old stockings for use as dishcloths
iii. using the dregs of cold tea to clean WOODWORK
iv. varnishing the soles of CHILDREN’S SHOES to prolong the foot-wears life
They come from this site
http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/web_pages/hshf_squander_pg.htm
I also like the “Squander Bug”!
The video on the “day to day frock” reminds me of the Uniform Project (http://www.theuniformproject.com/), which is a direction I’ve been wanting to go in for my own wardrobe. Simple garments that can be dressed up with accessories. Of course, I’d probably wear more than one dress a week. Two days is about the max I can get out of a garment before it needs to be laundered. I know people used to put dress shields in the armpits of dresses, I guess they were removable and this let you go longer without washing your dress?
http://www.kleinertsshields.com/products.php?cat=15
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/WarnerBrosCoralineCorsets_page11.png
Excerpt from Advertising to the American woman, 1900-1999
By Daniel Delis Hill: http://bit.ly/cfbt5F
Oh! Thank you ever so much for sharing these! I have to admit, even though some of the ideas are a bit outlandish (some of those turbans! lol. Although the pussycat one looks quite fetching…), I really adore the innovation that restrictions and lack of new materials begets. It’s really amazing how creative a gal can get with what she has, just to pretty things up.
I really love the one dress for the entire week idea; it’s something that I’ve been knocking around in my head for years (even since I bought my first 40s sewing book that mentioned it; at the tender age of 15 or so! 
, and still makes a lot of sense if one thinks about it.
Anyway, thank you again for sharing all these great tidbits about 40s fashion with us! This is exactly why I adore the decade ever so much!
♥ Casey
blog | elegantmusings.com
I think my favorite wartime fashion trick, although I’ve never come close to trying it, is the make-one-garment-out-of-two concept. I have seen patterns from the era that use two-tone fabric, I wonder if they’re trying to encourage re-use of old dresses (or just using up scraps)?
I love that pussycat turban. I suspect my husband would laugh like a drain if I tried that though!
I’m not sure my “swanlike neck” is up to lace collars though!
What a great post! I thoroughly enjoyed the videos, thanks so much for posting them.
As for the giveaway, now that’s an exciting prize!!
I’m currently reading “Sew and Save” by Joanna Chase and I like the idea of the four years plan for a woman’s wardrobe.
Oh I love the make one dress last all week video, the front made out of an old blouse was clever.
Great set of videos – the fashion is sometimes as questionable as the announcer is witty. I really liked the making a handbag one – they don’t go into detail about the construction process but you can see that it’s a simple fold-over flap shape that really would work really well in a bit of leftover wool suiting, or these days, maybe some denim from worn-out jeans…
Ooo, what a lovely book that looks like! I think my favorite war-time fashion tip is the one of detachable and interchangable garment piecese. Honestly, I still remember loose turtlenecks and fake collars being tucked underneath the neckline of your sweater, and I’m not even that old! It’s funny to see traces of these things as they are being handed down collectively through generations.
How lovely! I would love to read more about those shapely darts!!
i think my favorite fashion tip/idea is the interchangeable collars and cuffs to dress up an otherwise basic dress. i wish there was more of that today. My other favorite tip is never throw anything away. i wish there was more of that today as well.
Thanks for the giveaway! I love the pintuck dress
My favorite supposedly helpful tips are always about making one new dress from two old ones, as if no one will think it strange that your sleeves are one color and your bodice another.
I think that’s where the 1940s two-tone look came from — one article I read on American make & mend fashion stated that the fashion for two-tone dresses was just a way of making a virtue out of necessity. I still think the tie-on fake bodices look weird, though.
What’s funny to me is that layers of destroyed or repurposed clothing have been very trendy in my college town several times – that first tie-on bodice looks like something I’d see in a coffee shop around here, especially with that rather severe dress under it!
my favorite wartime tip is simply to make do and mend – but the best execution of it I’ve seen is making a fashionable suit for a lady or a little outfit for a boy out of a man’s suit – he’s off at war, you might as well use his suit for your clothes! the Make Do and Mend book I have even recommends some specific Hollywood brand patterns to use! very clever indeed!
I quite like the first hooded headscarf, but my favorite thing about these films is the announcer. These (and really, your whole blog) are super! Thanks.
Oh, I forgot, I’m also very interested in how people kept clean (or not, Sarah!)–wearing a dress all dang week seems like a great way to be quite stinky by week’s end, and you’re always reading books–even pre-war–where the heroine has a coat and skirt, two blouses, and a shabby evening frock to her name.
My 6yo daughter was entranced by the “make one dress last all week” video. She was really impressed! I always wonder how successful tricks like that really were in real life–I know I would look like an idiot. So that’s our favorite. Some of the scarves were pretty dubious all right–the bracelet seems particularly desperate.
I love the book–I want a dress with pleats like that and silky camiknicks!
Love the turban video…what a great giveaway!!!
I love those videos, they are fascinating! I really want to try that first scarf idea. Also, that book looks awesome!
I would love a post on how people kept their clothes clean. I know depending on where people were during the war, the answer was sometimes that they just plain smelled sweaty – but surely there were also techniques for keeping dresses relatively fresh when they were worn many days in a row.
Actually, I’m reading Forties fashion : from siren suits to the new look right now (I think, Susannah, you’ve written it up here?) and there is mention of the terrible smell of body odor in public spaces in England as time went on and clothes (and people) were washed less and less. Things on the Continent were much worse, there is a section about hair — the last few years there was no dye, and virtually no soap. Turbans became popular because everyone’s roots were showing and their hair was filthy. It makes sense but I’d never thought about just how dirty people and their clothes actually got during the war!
My favorite was the bit from the handbag section about sewing a pocket into the lining for your mirror–”after all, a bit of reflection in war time is a good thing”! Ha!