Dressing up in London: Imperial War Museum

Hello all – presuming there is more than one of you reading this – and welcome to Dressing Up In London. Some of you might know me from a similar blog called… Dressing Up In Paris (creativity abounds). In fact, it’s highly likely you do, simply because you are probably someone I know who has arrived here from Facebook (Hi Mum) and you may vaguely remember me spamming your newsfeeds with various Parisian posts. Well, it’s the same drill as DUIP folks, only in London and I’m launching this new blog at an oh-so-British location: the Imperial War Museum.

The IWM was set up in 1920 with the sole purpose of putting material from WW1 on show for the public. It bounced around from Crystal Palace to South Kensington and finally came to rest in Southwark in 1936, in the building which used to be “Bedlam” (the Bethlem Royal Hospital – Europe’s oldest existing psychiatric hospital). I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. Nowadays the museum belongs to a family of 5, along with IWM Duxford, IWM North, HMS Belfast, and the Churchill War Rooms, and all aim to “provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘wartime experience’”. They are stuffed to the gills with interesting military bits and bobs – from tanks and planes, to films and diary entries. And, to celebrate VE Day this year, and the 70^th anniversary of the end of WW2, they’ve gone for an exhibition which is right up my street…

“Fashion on the Ration: 1940s Street Style” is on until the end of August and “looks at how fashion survived and even flourished under the strict rules of rationing in 1940s Britain”. There are examples of the uniforms adopted by so many Brits – from land girls to soldiers – and testimonies to the feelings of pride/jealousy they engendered (apparently Wrens - Women’s Royal Naval Service – got the best stockings!) You can learn how to make a zillion and one things out of your old winter clothes in the Make Do and Mend section or feel relieved that you won’t have to share your wedding dress with 12 other brides, because the community only has so much silk. And you can marvel at the ingenuity of inventions such as the gas mask handbag. Seriously, it’s a brilliant exhibition, I’d recommend you go see it, even if fashion isn’t your thing, it’s fascinating.

I have to say – for better or for worse – London is a far friendlier place than Paris. Never in any of the previous shoots have I encountered so much…audience participation! It started with a gentlemen tourist asking if he could take my picture, followed by another who wanted a picture WITH me in an almost-amorous clinch. Then I tripped in front of two young lads, who also wanted in on the photos, all rounded up by an incredibly friendly security guard, who is a much better poser than I will ever be. If you want to make friends in this city, can I suggest a crazy hairdo, red lipstick, and flouncing about like a plonker in national heritage sites?

This week’s look is more gently 40s-inspired than accurately vintage. The wiggle dress is really more of a 50s creation, and although the wedge was about in the 1940s, I think these shoes are a tad less sturdy than their sensible predecessors. BUT a lot of Utility Clothing (which was brought in in 1941 as a response to the unfairness of the rationing scheme) did go in for fun floral patterns, and the synthetic material of this dress is not a million miles away from 1940s favourite Rayon. So I feel like it counts.