February 17, 2008...11:56 pm
From WW2 rationing to 50s retro things
Continuing my love of the 50s era, I wanted to learn more about the events that preceded the style of this century. I frequented various libraries to get a wealth of information regarding the subject and, fascinated, I became inspired to create more works!
Here is my take on things:
After the hardship of World War 2, Britain long remained a rationed country and it wasn’t until the 50s that rationing finally ceased for us. In the meantime, America who had seduced the British ladies once before with their nylon stockings, again wooed the female public with their shiny new household technology.
Advertisements depicting the perfect housewife absolutely spotless, in her pristine kitchen, baking cookies and washing with her new washing machine-o-mat, far belied the actual financial capabilities of the average post-war housewife.
In fact, much dissatisfaction occurred amongst women and it was noted that their esteem took a tumble after the war. Many who had relished the relative freedom of being able to unchain themselves from domestic duties at home and become accustomed to new skills as war workers, found the return to the homestead extremely suffocating.
Of course for some women the return to family life was met with joy since not everyone was happy with their war work. Discrepencies with the rationing of work uniforms occurred, with many Land Army women were forced to use up their personal clothing allowance to afford their uniforms. Realising that women working in other parts of the ‘effort’ did not have to do the same, they fought against this unfairness with fierce public demonstrations.
The clothing rationing was in many ways just as difficult as the food rationing because although people could grow the extra fruit and vegetables they needed, they couldn’t simply ‘grow’ the extra fabric needed to anticipate adverse weather conditions, wear and tear and growth spurts.
Summers would be blistering but as expected the winters would be bitter and people simply did not have enough cloth to make warm clothing and bedding and local groups were set up to teach women how to make new outfits from old.
These groups were soon ceased however, when it emerged that women were using the curtains from their own homes (which were meant for blacking out their windows at night during air raids) to make much needed outfits.
So as the mid-50s dawned, there was a sense of wealth emerging, although families did not see this immediately. The adverts told them it was here though and that they too could soon have all these wonderful new gadets for the home. The beginning of consumerism was right around the corner and as jobs and wealth increased, so did too the hunger for bigger and better homes, cars and the obsession with new fashion began.
The 40s utility fashion, with it’s austere, often itchy materials were thrown out in favour of full skirted designs featuring rich and opulent fabrics. New bright cheery colours replaced the drab grey and browns that had gone before, almost to signal to those viewing that the war was truly over.
These exciting elements can be seen in many examples of 50s design because the household appliances came in a large range of colours. Sets of pastel as well as primary coloured fridges dominated kitchens all around the Britain and the USA and flowers featured heavily in textiles and wallpaper patterns all set amidst a background of deeply coloured linoleum flooring.
Advances in technology and manufacturing meant that the use of plastics throughout all industries including cloth manufacture became widespread and output increased massively with production lines churning out hundreds of thousands of products daily.
Hifis, televisions, clocks and fan heaters featured chrome materials echoing those found on the new 5os cars and the new obsession with space and science meant that amoeba-like blobs adorned many a curtain print and surface pattern alike.
The visual elements of this new modern living certainly matched the risque beginnings of a new form of music called Rock n Roll. This bright new form wasn’t in fact altogether new since it was adapted from it’s roots in Blues, but the record labels soon found they had something and they made their way onto newly revamped radion stations. With more and more people owning television sets later in the decade, people were at last finally able to see their favourite idols on screen and with that came television advertisements endorsed by many 50s celebrities.
Current increasing media and fashion fascination with the 40s and 50s eras means that people can look back fondly at the way things looked back then. Whilst nostalgia is a wonderful thing (and so too are the products that were pioneeringly designed back then), we really mustn’t ever forget the terrible hardship and suffering of the wars that came before it.
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