Dr Geraldine (Central St Martins, London, UK) Biddle-Perry 
Dressing for Austerity [PDF ebook] 
Aspiration, Leisure and Fashion in Post-War Britain

A new look for Austerity…The coldest winter on record, rationing, successive economic crises, bombed out towns and cities; with some justification »Austerity Britain» in the late 1940s is coloured in the popular imagination in tones of drab. Dressing for Austerity shines a light on alternative visions of post-war optimism and aspiration. It traces how, set against the Labour government»s philosophy of »Austerity by design» in a climate of post-war idealism, the desire for affordable fashionable clothing, access to leisure, and the health, time and money to enjoy them became totemic symbols of post-war ambition that impelled new strategies of state control and consumer agency. The book examines the immediate post-war period — its politics, its fashions and its people — in new ways and on its own terms as a critical tipping point in the making of modern Britain.