1940: DIY in style

During the rationing the Ministry of Information launched a campaign encouraging women to not through out old or ripped clothes, but to instead fix them up and revamp them. This was a tactic to conserve precious material that was used in uniforms and to reduce the waste being produced. Women were taught how to fix clothes and even create entirely new garments out of old and unused ones. Darning is still done to this day, most commonly on socks and hosiery. I have darned many garments of my own and I think that the idea of make do and mend is brilliant but you definitely need the know how and the motivation to go through with up cycling an old garment into a new one.

Boiler suits came back with a bang as they were functional, durable and ideal for the workplace. Many women worked in munitions factories and gained the nickname canaries due to the sulphur and other chemicals tinting their skin and hair with a yellow hue. Everything had to be held out of the way to prevent hair and clothing from being trapped in the machinery. Glamorous hairstyles were the only customisable thing that women clung to. In the workplace women's hair was kept up in turbans but in their free time they let their hair loose in long flowing curls.