May 25, 2016 • 40 mins
Fashion historian April Calahan joined Holly for a talk about the surprising ways that women of France protested German occupation during WWII.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Callie Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson and uh Tracy, as
you and our listeners will recall, Back in January, we
had fashion historian and author April Callaghan of the Fashion
(00:24):
Institute of Technology on to talk about the stenciling technique
of poshoir and her amazing book on fashion plates that
covers a hundred and fifty years of style as it developed.
And not long after that interview, as April and I
were emailing back and forth, she mentioned a lecture that
she gave a few years ago about World War two
fashion in France, and I was immediately intrigued, and so
(00:47):
she had sent me some of the info about it,
and I asked her to please please please come back
and talk about that. So that is what we were
talking about today. Yeah. I remember when that conversation happened,
and you were immediately so excited. It's kind say try
to say, yes, this cool thing, I want to talk
about it. Uh. Yeah, Well, in addition to it being
something that is is one of your personal interests, the
(01:08):
subject itself is incredibly interesting and not something I ever
had thought out of before. Right, We've talked on the
show when fashion has been dictated by world events because
of things like there was a shortage of fabrics, so
everybody wore things that required less fabric. But this is
a whole other way, more involved, uh, timeline and and
(01:31):
factors that that we're looking at today. Yeah, it's one
of those things that if you are maybe a listener
who is not into fashion stuff, I encourage you to
give it a listen because it might surprise you. We
are going to talk about fashion, but it's really about
how fashion became a tool for the people of France. Yeah,
So what Holly and April talked about in this interview
(01:51):
is how fashion reacts the times of conflict and how
fashion became a form of political resistance in France specifically.
So if you think of fashion is something frevolous that
people shouldn't really spend the time talking about, these insights
that April shares about the place of style and the
greater marketplace and economy of a culture might really change
your mind on that. Yeah, So let's pop righting alrighty,
(02:20):
So today, listeners, we once again have one of my
favorite guests ever, April Callahan back to talk about some
fashion history. Welcome back to the podcast, April. Thank you.
I think I'm blushing right now. Thank you for having me.
I'm always delighted to talk to you because you always
have cool information. And today we are going to talk about, UH,
fashion as a form of rebellion, but not necessarily in
(02:44):
the sense that people might think of in terms of
young people bending rules, but an actual historical moment in time,
which is France during the German occupation in World War Two. Uh.
And April did a lecture on this particular topic at
Yale some years back, and she was kind of have
to share the notes on it with me. So uh,
it seems like just way too rich and cooler topic
(03:05):
to let go by without doing a show on it.
So first I have to ask you what inspired you
to research French fashion during the German occupation? Yeah? Sure, so, UM,
I think I mentioned this last time I was on
the show. But um, the intersection of war and fashion
has always been kind of one of my special interests
as a fashion historian. Um, how does fashion react in
(03:27):
times of crisis? To me, this is a really fascinating
question and a lot of really creative, interesting things happened
to fashionable clothing and dress during these periods of extreme conflict,
when people are forced to balance the basics subsistence that's
required for their daily lives with this innate human desire
(03:48):
to outwardly define ourselves to others as human beings. Closing
as of course, one of the main ways that we
practice defining ourselves to others. Um. So a few years ago, I,
when I was in I had to speak at that
symposium that you referenced at Yale. UM. It was actually
on street style, so I decided I didn't really want
to speak about contemporary street style because I figured my
(04:11):
fellow presenters were going to cover this with a great prowess. UM.
I wanted to do something a little bit different. So
I started digging back a bit and I became entirely
smitten with how these frenchwomen were using fashion during the
Nazi occupation as this really active form of political resistance.
And ever since then, UM, this is something I've been
(04:31):
into and I actively collect both French and German fashion
magazines from the time period UM basically nineteen thirty nine
to nineteen and to some it may seem a little
bit odd for the idea of clothing and specifically style
to be a really vital aspect of a country's wartime experience.
But this really, really was a massive concern in France
(04:55):
when the German occupation began. Can you talk about why
that was the case? Yeah? Yeah, I think that thinking
about fashion and war together can seem absolutely antithetical at first.
And I'm gonna speak fairly generally here when I say
that many people view fashion as this sort of frivolous,
unnecessary luxury and they don't give any do weight to
(05:18):
its role in our economy. But fashion is truly a
cog in this wheel of capitalism. For capitalism to work,
the desire to consume has to be sparked, and the
fashion system is a catalyst for igniting consumers desires to
replace still useful objects with new ones that are perceived
(05:38):
to be more in line with the current mode. And
this is a huge part of what drives the marketplace. Um.
But in terms of France, the sun King himself, Louver
the fourteenths recognize the significance of fashion way way back
in the seventeenth century, and I'm talking to sixteen hundreds here,
and he started actively and aggressively cultivating France's luxury industries
(06:02):
as a way to strengthen his nation's economy. And then
what happened was, over the ensuing century, France really established
itself as this arbiter of style for the whole rest
of the world. So by the time World War Two happened,
by the nineteen forties, there was an international casher associated
with all things French, and especially French clothing. Fashion was
(06:26):
therefore both a matter of economic stability for the country
but also a matter of national pride. So it's not
really that surprising that it was a hot topic when
the Germans seized control of a large person of France
UM and also with resources in nineteen forty and I
mentioned resources UM. These resources were super important to the
(06:49):
Germans to keep their war machine functioning. It required all
sorts of basic things like food, metal, fuel, UM. It
required wool and other for clothing, and silk for parachutes
so UM. Under the terms of the armistice, the Germans
retained the right to make demands of France's raw materials
(07:12):
and and this pertains. This is what happens. A system
of rationing starts to be implemented fuel was the first
thing to go scarce. Um. Three months into the occupation,
food started being rationed. UM. Food stuff like meat, bread, milk, butter,
and eggs, really basic things. Sugar also, Um, those became
(07:33):
subject to rastioning. But more important to what we're talking
about now, Um. Later that year, the Nazis instituted restrictions
governing the manufacture and sales of clothing. And you mentioned
in your in your paper that they set up this
point system for allocating wardrobe vouchers. And I'm really curious
(07:53):
how exactly that worked and moreover how it was received
by the French. And then you also talk a little
bit about a trend called system D and I want
you to talk about how that arose from this whole
voucher situation. Yeah. Sure, So how the bachelor system works
was or worked, um, was each French citizen who held
(08:14):
a food ration card, because the food ration system was
implemented first, Um, they were also issued coupons which total
thirty points, and this was where their annual clothing consumption.
So were you to go into a store of boutique
to buy something, you would have to present your coupon
and also pay for the pay for the pay for
(08:37):
the garment or accessory um and this allotment, this number,
how they assigned the points, the value systems to things.
This is really at barely at subsistence level. Um. So,
if you in a single year purchased one woll skirt,
one short sleeved blouse and a pair of cotton stockings,
(08:57):
this was essentially all you could buy for the air.
That was it. Um So you can imagine how this
was really demoralizing to the French. You know, fashion had
been part of their national identity for centuries. This is
this is something that they're very proud about and and
and for um. So what emerged in the wake of
(09:19):
this clothing restriction system is really super inspiring to me
at least. Um A lot of French women decided that
they were not going to take this lying down. It
was really important to them that they retain their reputation
for chic, and they started coming up with all sorts
of creative workarounds to these clothing restrictions. The first tactic
(09:44):
they employed became known as the stand in French pronunciation
or system D. You know, it wasn't choice A, B
or C, it was choice D. It was like your
fourth option, you know, the one that you had very
little choice but took a step UM. And what it
was was a more extreme form of the UM American
(10:08):
campaign that got dubbed Make Do and Men from the
same time period, and both of these campaigns encouraged the recycling,
the reuse and repurposing of garments. So, for instance, UM
they would take old sweaters and unravel them for the
yard and then re nit them into new garments. Or
(10:28):
a man's old suit might be ripped open at the
seams to be used for the textiles and re cut
into a boy's suit or maybe a woman's jacket. UM
women would take lace or trimmings off old garments that
couldn't be repaired and then transfer them onto new garments.
But UM. One of the funny and most interesting examples
of system day that I've seen was detailed in a
(10:51):
French fashion magazine UH, which provided the really detailed instructions
like practically step by steps of how to take dog
hair groomed from long haired breeds like poodles, and how
to spin and card it and turn it into knitting yarn.
That's fantastic, And I imagine if you had rabbits you
(11:14):
would be set with Angora, and I'm also wondering what
I have to say. I love system day in terms
of just the d I y angle to it is
so as you said, it's very inspiring and it's sort
of charming, even though it's really a very I'm going
to use the overword term of fierce, but it really is.
It's such a dig in, like just digging in your
(11:34):
heels and going Nope, you cannot dictate what we wear.
We're going to find our own way. I love it,
love it, love it absolutely. There was like these fashions
were defiant basically. Okay, so us now pick up my
(12:01):
interview with Aprokalahan to hear about how shoes in particular
during this time actually have echoes in contemporary fashion. I
know you talk a little bit about this in the
research that you did, but will you talk some about
how rationing changed footwear in France because I think that
(12:22):
is fascinating. Yeah, yeah, and it has an interesting twist
and in connection to contemporary fashion um which I'll speak
about here in a second, but shoes were a huge
problem and occupied France. UM In one alone, the Nazis
took for themselves five million pairs of the country's overall
(12:42):
production of eight million, so more than half UM at
this same time. Under under the governance and rules that
they instituted, the French were only allowed to resold their
shoes once a year and they were allowed to buy
no more than one new pair of shoes made from
rap shuned materials every four years, so this is a
(13:03):
huge problem. UM Leather was one of the main rash
of materials and seriously un short supply, so cobblers started
resoling their clients shoes with whatever materials they could get
their hands on, and some of these were very bizarre UM,
including old tires. They would waterproof cardboard and use that
(13:25):
and either braid or plate strips of straw and use
that to resol their clients shoes. UM. But manufacturers at
the time also recognize this problem, so they started turning
to these alternate materials that were unregulated by German mandates
and UM. It's through this necessity that one of the
(13:47):
most iconic looks of the nineteen forties was born. UM
shoemaker started using wood, cork, and plastic, all of which
were unrashed end materials, and they started using to create
heavy platform and wedge shoes, and the thickness of these
ensured the longevity of your purchase right because the height
(14:08):
would take longer to wear it down. So any of
you out there who are fans of wood or cork
wedge shoes that are like super fashionable today, you can
you can, you can thank French ingenuity of this period
next time you you strap them on. That is so
funny to me because we think of that as such,
like particularly in resort where cork cork shoes are so popular,
(14:31):
and it's all because of a time when the idea
of having resort time was really not in the picture
at all. So I love it. Uh. The next thing
I wanted to talk about was the rather brazen move
or plan on the part of Germany that ended up
thankfully getting derailed, which was that apparently there was a
plan to move the couture industry out of Paris, which
(14:55):
is terrifying. Uh. And how exactly did that get derailed?
Like how was that stops? So indeed, yes, um, plans
for the moving of the Paris coutur industry to Germany
were well underway. Um. The Germans recognized the physical significance
of not only French couture, but also their own domestic
(15:18):
fashion industries. Um. It's really curious and a point that
kind of underscores the hypocrisy of the Nazi Party. On
one hand, Um, they were on the domestic come front,
they were officially promoting this archetype of the wholesome German
house frout and mother wearing traditional dress. But on the
other hand, in practice they were actively supporting German high
(15:41):
fashion exports for a monetary game. Um. And I feel
like it's an important point here to make that the
general German populace were also subject um to clothing ration
ing starting in but by that point within Germany it
was almost a moot point because so much of the
country's own resources had already been drained um. For years
(16:03):
prior to nine nine, the German people had kind of
been railroaded into giving donating whatever they could spare to
the war effort. You know. There there there are instances
of young brides that donating their wedding gowns to the
cause because they thought that the silk might be able
to be used for parachutes. Um. But yes, Um. During
the occupation, the Germans raided the offices of the governing
(16:25):
body of Paris oculture industry, and they summoned to president
at the time, who was the couturier, Lucian A Long.
And it was a little bit of a complicated process
of the Germans back and forth, back and forth, but
Lalong was eventually able to convince them that couture was
too inextricably tied to Paris, that to force it for
(16:45):
a wholesale deportment of the industry to Germany, that that
would kill its spirit, and and also that it was
really kind of an unfeasible proposition to export all of
these tangential industries that supplied the couture. You know, you
had the text plan on manufacturers, you had ribbon in
flower makers, you have dyers, you have leaders, bead makers, embroiners, milliners.
(17:07):
You know, to to move all of those peoples, with
all those people in industries is going to be a
herculean effort, essentially. And your lecture was titled Sleeping Cobras.
Will you explain to us what a sleeping cobra was
in the context of fashion in France in the nineteen forties,
and how was that style emblematic of France really kind
(17:27):
of hanging onto its national identity during this time of occupation. Sure, um,
So I think the term sleeping cobra can be can
apply in a couple different ways. Um. I was kind
of using it in two different ways. And my reference
there um. First it could be UM as a metaphor
for these women right who were kind of silently protesting
(17:47):
UM with the fashions that they were wearing. But the
phrase itself um is something that's loosely based um on
the writing of some one of the leading coutriers of
the period, elsascape Ali. In one of her autobiographies, she
wrote about the hats that friendshipmen were wearing during and
just after the occupation, and a lot of people were
(18:09):
legitimately shocked when the first images of Paris appeared after
the liberation, because the fashion seemed so strange, so bizarre.
The silhouette had really become extreme and exaggerated. It had
these really wide, heavily paddaged holders, these tall, clunky shoes,
(18:31):
and the headlines had risen, they become much shorter. Um.
But the hats, the hats, they were truly bizarre. Um.
Scaparelli called them an incredible horror, and she compared she
compared the giant turbans that these women were wearing. She
compared them two monstrous cobras that had eaten a huge
(18:52):
meal and crawled up to sleep. Um and and Ceasil Beaten,
who was like great, um, you know, cultural touchstone of
the time, and bomb vivante um. He said, they looked
suspiciously like domestic plumbing. Um, I know, I love it.
But the hats were really kind of one of the
main ways that French women were using fashion as a
(19:14):
form of political resistance during this period. And one of
the reasons for that is the materials. Um. Many of
the materials used to make hats that were used in
millownery were unrestricted, so this became the sort of unexpected
medium through which women were able to wage a silent protest.
And Um, how this kind of happened was is that
(19:35):
in the nineteen thirties hats were a little more trim,
a little more tidy um. But in the nineteen forties
they wharphed into these really sort of outlandish, oversized creations,
and turbans grew so large that some of them actually
required interior wooden architectures that then would be wrapped and
(19:56):
swathed with like yards and yards of fabrics. So the shapes,
the sizes, and the trimmings of these hats were exaggerated
to the point of being ridiculous. And this was intentional. Um.
When we were basically flaunting extravagance in the face of
the enemy. They had no choice right but to where
these threadbare dresses or things were kind of like mended
(20:20):
and passed. You know, they were making do They were
wearing shoes which may or may not barely be holding together.
So it was through these hats, um, this was their
way to express themselves. And sometimes these hats functioned explicitly
as objects of a revolt. UM. One of my very
favorite hats of the time period, which is in a
collection in France, um it was. It featured a really wide,
(20:43):
upturned brim and the brim had been printed with hash
marks that resemble, um, the hash marks of a radio dial.
And above that it was printed post Parisian and post
Prison had been a really popular radio station before the occupation,
and when the Nazis seized control of the media, it's
silence postprasion and replaced it with a different station of
(21:06):
the pro German you know, collaborators station. UM. So some
of these hats that they were wearing were actually quite
pointed in the political statements that they were making. And
speaking additionally of women who were really driving some of
this protest, will you talk a little bit about the
(21:27):
Mita nets and how they were really kind of the
arbiters of style in some ways. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Umnino nets were women who worked in the fashion industry. Um.
Oftentimes they were young women, and they were really kind
of the hands or the worker bees of the fashion industry.
So they had all these technical skills, right, so they
(21:48):
took system day or System D to a whole new
level of sophistication. Um. They would so old scarves together
to create these wild patchwork textiles from which they would
create garments. UM. And they had all sorts of fun
with ribbons because ribbons were unrationed, so they would sew
them together to make these really wide, whimsical skirts. UM.
(22:09):
But once again, it was with hats that they were
really sticking it to the Germans. Um. They made enormous
hats from loops and loops of ribbons and scraps of
cardboard and oil cloth, and sometimes they would build like
fully fashioned little vignettes and scenes into the hats. You know,
(22:29):
it might be like a reproduction of a French village
or a really important French chateau. UM. But there was
an article in Vogue about the Internets right after the
liberation of Paris in Um talking about them and how
many of their creations were intentionally made to annoy the Germans.
And and this is the point that wasn't entirely lost
(22:52):
on Nazi officials. UM. They actually complained to Lucy and
the long head of the sham person to Cow about it,
and his response, I think he was probably loving every
minute of what the midden nuts are doing. But his
official response was I can't do anything about this. These
styles are not being issued by fashion houses. And I
(23:14):
think this really underscores how a lot of these styles
of the period um were what you were saying, d
I y fashion, these are street styles created by the people.
I love the idea that just by virtue of walking
down the street in the garments that you have made
and chosen to where you are making a huge political statement. Uh.
(23:36):
And in talking about some of these sort of coded
rebellious messages, there is UH some stuff in your lecture
notes about coded messages on belts. You have to talk
about these, yeah, because these are kind of great. Um.
So women were painting or on boordering belts. This is
(23:59):
nothing new, um, but they started doing it during the
occupation with motifs that frequently held hidden meanings. Um. You
might see a very pretty belt decorated with little derek
delicate arabesques. Um, but they're actually vs to symbolize victory. Um.
(24:19):
Some of the belts you see have musical notes on them,
which seemed pretty harmless and charming, but if you could
read music, you would know that their score was actually
taken from patriotic French songs. And one of my favorites
of the period was a belt that was entitled long
Ago and it was hand painted. Um. And it was
hand painted with little images of favorite French dishes which
(24:42):
had disappeared given all the food short dishes. That's so cool, um.
I mean it's one of those things that I suspect
many people at the time, like most German officers, who
are not thinking, oh I bet they're coded messages and
most ridiculous belts. So it's such a wonderful sort of
(25:02):
sneaky way is still like assert your your feelings on
the matter of occupation. Yeah, so in some alternate universe,
the fashion industry moved to Berlin and probably died off,
(25:24):
and I being interested in fashion and clothing, I am
selfishly glad that it is not this universe. Thank you,
Lucien Loong. There's also I'm really interested in some of
the stranger trends that grew out of this time, like
the turban so big that you had to have a
wooden infrastructure under it. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a lot
(25:46):
to think about, uh, wearing on your head. And I
really love the secret messages that are that were embedded
in some of the fashions of the day, and the
way the Midinets were purposely making annoying clothes just to
anger the Germans. April is so good at like doling
out so many really inspiring and interesting tidbits, and now
I totally want to embed secret messages in everything I make.
(26:08):
So next April is going to share details of fashion
at the race track during the war. First, we're gonna
have another brief break for a word from one of
our sponsors. So this last segment is going to give
you a really wonderful Easter egg about the term clothes
horse as well as some pretty mind blowing information about
(26:30):
how salons, or one salon in particular, was using some
very unusual power to dry ladies hair. You also talk
a little bit about how race courses actually became sort
of de facto runways during occupation. You expound on that
a little bit, so, Um, the concept of the race
(26:55):
track as runway isn't actually something that's unique to the
period of the occupation. Attending the races was im mensely
popular pastime for decades prior um. Along with this theater,
it was kind of the place to see and be seen. Um.
So much so that fashion designers would send models or
actresses to the races dressed in their latest collections as
(27:17):
a form of advertisement. And this is really an established
practice by the nineteen forties. So the association between women,
clothes and horses was so strong. This is actually where
the term clothes horse comes from. Um. The models were
there to work showing off the clothes, just like the
(27:38):
horses were there to work racing. Um. And during the teens. Um,
during the nineteen teens, you also end in fashion periodicals
you sometimes also see professional models slangy referred to as
jockeys for much the same reason. Uh, there was some
some other really wonderful tidbits in your your notes, and
(28:01):
one of them that just delighted me and sort of
blew me away at the same time is this piece
about cyclists, like bicyclists being used to dry hair in
the salon of the hair dressers your vet. Well, you
talk a little bit about how that worked, right, so um,
hand in hand with all this other ration ng and
(28:22):
shortages that are that was happening at the time. You
can imagine it's wartime, right, so cold. It was also
in shortest supply, and at certain points electricity was being rationed,
so you may have, you know, a few hours of
electricity here or there. Um. But the hairstyles that were
really fashionable at the time required frequent visits to the
(28:43):
hair dresser to maintain that sort of quoft waved look,
and usually that would be set under a hair dryer.
So with all of a sudden spotty electricity, there was
one particular hairdressers your vese Um. He he installed a
tandem bike in the basement of his salon and he
(29:04):
hooked it up to this intricate contraption whereby he attached
his hair dryers to stove pipes, and those two fans
and then the fans were were powered by teams of
of two people riding the bike in the basement. UM.
And this is something that Lee Miller wrote about um
at the time, and she also took photos documenting this.
(29:27):
UM and this was another reason that turbans were popular
at the time. UM. So if your quoff was less
than ideal, if you hadn't been able to visit the hairdresser,
you could cover it. Or alternately, you could use a
turban to cover a wet set when you were leaving
the salon. I just love the idea of these poor
(29:47):
people trapped in the basement bicycling so people can have
beautiful hair. Um. She She writes that she writes that
they would power produce enough power to dry around like
a hundred women's heads a day. That's impressive. You talked
a little bit about uh wedge shoes still being a
(30:09):
thing today, but was there were there any other long
lasting echoes in fashion from this sort of stylish rebellion
that was going on in France in World War Two.
I mean, I don't know so much about the stylish
rebellion part, but the nineteen fourties are. It's always a
touchstone for fashion designers, so you always will see from
(30:29):
time to time these references coming back to those really
heavily padded UM, wide shoulders UM and the narrow nipped
waiste UM. Readily I can think of. I think Memo
did a really great collection in two thousand eleven that
was kind of loosely based on that silhouette that was
fantastic UM. But but yeah, really it's it's where we
(30:51):
are today with with the very explicit connection between rationing
and and fashion today would absolutely be with the shooes,
the platform of wed shoes that we were today. Uh.
And I have to ask if there were one style
from this moment in time, from this sort of forced
creativity that was going on, that you could bring back today,
(31:14):
what would you choose? You know, I don't know if
it's so much about a specific style that I would
bring back and more about embracing a certain energy or
mood um. And despite the fact that these were obviously
very very difficult times, I don't I don't you know,
want to um gloss over that these these were horrific
(31:36):
times for a lot of people. But in these fashions
you can still feel the certain vivra. Right. They were
very spirited, they're very optimistic, um, and sometimes they were
outright funny and laughable. So I guess what I would
choose to take away from that is like, really embracing
this sense of playfulness in fashion, you know, have fun
(31:58):
with fashion. Be bold, don't be afraid to make a statement.
These ladies were making statements all over the play. And
if you want to make a different statement the next day,
that's okay. You have her mission making and make you
another different statement, you know, the day after. You know,
you kind of catch my drift. I think that if
you're having fun with fashion, there aren't any mistakes, at
(32:21):
least in my book. Oh amen, I'm with you. Um.
I'm still gonna lobby though for the belts to come back,
some belts embroidered with potatoes. Well, maybe some designer will
hear this and a little spark will happen. We can
only hope. I really love the idea of music, you know,
laid out on your your belt or any other accessory.
(32:43):
It's so sweet. Um. Again, I always feel so lucky
when we get to talk to you, because you have
so much cool information about fashion and history. And last
time you were on, we talked a lot about your
book Fashion in the Art of Poshoir and also your
book Fashion Plate The hundred and fifty Years of Style,
which continue to be spectacular. But there is a cool
(33:04):
new development. Your fashion Plates book is coming out in
paperback this fall. Yes, it is true, it is true. Um.
It is actually already available for pre order on Amazon. UM.
So the previous edition was a luxury edition for so
for any of you listeners who may have been detured
by its hefty price point, um, there is now a
(33:25):
much more attainable accessible version available on Amazon order and
it will be out in a few months. And if
the cover is the same one that's currently posted on Amazon,
it's a very cool cover, like you get some it is.
I actually just approved the back cover last week. Uh,
and I will once again sing the praises of that book.
I love it so much. It's just such a feast
(33:48):
for the eyes, and it's really the soul. If you're
into design at all, whether you're into clothing or any
other kind of design, you see so much of like
how human taste is developing through the years just by
looking at the clothing. So it's absolutely beautiful and I
can't recommend it enough. Uh, April, thank you so much
for coming and talking to us about World War two fashion.
(34:10):
How can people find you if they want to hear
more from you online? Of course? Um So you can
follow f I T Special Collections on Instagram at at
f I T Special Collections, and you can also search
online for our blog where we cover really fun cool
things that we have, um and you can just search
f I T Material Mode blog. The blog is called
(34:33):
material Mode. I'm actually going to post something fresh and
new right after we get off the phone here. So's excellent,
and we will also put a link to that blog
in our show notes. April again, thank you so much.
You're just a delight Thank you. Like I said, so,
(34:57):
I personally hope all of our listeners embrace play fullness
in fashion is April encourages let's all start embroidering rebellious
sheet music into our accessories. And one more time, April's
new paperback version of fashion Plates, A hundred and fifty
Years of Style is coming out this fall, and you
can actually pre order that now. Yeah, and it's sort
of a much more affordable price point than the giant
(35:19):
uh sort of folio. Like she called it the luxury version,
so you will get all of that beautiful stuff, but
you will not have to pay quite as much. Uh.
And now we're going to read a little bit of
a listener mail. If that's cool. I would love to
hear some listener mail. This is one of those pieces
of listener mail where I was like, this is so cool. Uh.
It is from our listener June, and it is in
(35:40):
relation to our ladies of the United States Postal Service episode.
She says, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I was so excited
when I listened to last week's episode on women in
the USPS. Normally, postal history tends to have a narrow audience.
My family and friends just roll their eyes when I
relate an anecdote or I start gushing over the most
recent artifacts we've received. You cited the historian section of
(36:02):
USPS dot com is a source, so I know you've
read the sections. They're regarding women, postmasters, mail carriers, and
at postal headquarters. The podcast also made a brief mention
of their being separate windows for women. That is a
topic I have been working on for the past few months.
She has actually attached a copy of some of the
work she's been doing, which will end up on the
(36:23):
Postal Service website very soon. Uh, because she is a
historian for them. She is actually a research analyst for
them that studies postal history, which I think is just
the coolest. And she says the windows seem to have
been used primarily for delivery to segregate women picking up
mail at general delivery, but post offices of the era
often had separate windows for delivery money orders, registered letters,
(36:45):
and stamp purchases. Post Office regulations don't address ladies windows
in any manner, so it's hard to say if other
services were offered. Inclusion of a ladies window in a
facility seems to have been decided by local postmasters, although
architect Commy B. Young often designated separate ladies entrances and
noted a lady's delivery window or room which always makes
(37:08):
her think of a maternity ward. Uh. Newspapers seemed to
love anecdotes regarding the ladies windows. Some of these painted
women as being clueless regarding the ways of the world
once they ventured out of their home, while conversely, some
depicted ladies as being wiser and more discerning than the
male customers, tales of woe regarding women who received news
of an unfaithful partner, or call for weeks waiting for
(37:30):
a letter that does not come. The ladies windows were
often cited as being sources of moral turpitude, both from
young ladies engaging in clandestine correspondence and that madam's waited
near the window in in some cities, ready to tempt
women who had not received anticipated funds into a life
of vice. When I first approached the topic, I thought
(37:50):
the ladies windows were limited to big cities, but I
have found newspaper references to them being in more than
seventy five offices in cities and small towns. Some understudies
writers have asserted that the separate window was a way
to keep women away from the important business conducted by men.
Others have attributed it to a sense of chivalry. In
many cases, it seems to have given women the freedom
(38:12):
to keep their correspondence private, without their letters passing through
the hands of parents, husbands, or servants. The ladies windows
seemed to have died out less from women gaining rights
than from the wider availability of mail delivery, eliminating the
need to call for their letters. Uh, June, this is
the coolest. I feel like so lucky that we have
this insider information and we got to see her research
(38:34):
ahead of going public. Yeah, it's very very cool, and
I so appreciate her taking the time to write that
out to us. So, uh, thank you, thank you, thank you. June.
I genuinely just loved it. Uh. If you would like
to write to us, you can do so at History
Podcast at house stuff works dot com. You can also
connect with us at Facebook dot com, slash missed in
History on Twitter and missed in History at pitchest dot com,
(38:57):
slash missed in History and missed in History tumbler dot com, uh,
and on Instagram at mist in history. If you would
like to learn a little bit about kind of something
related to what we talked about today, you can go
to our parents site, how stuff Works. Just type in
w W two or World War two in the text
box and you're going to get so many articles. You
will get things about the aircraft of World War Two.
(39:19):
You will get quizzes about World War Two, basically things
to keep you busy for a long time. If you
are a fan of studying World War two history, If
you would like to visit us come and do that
at mist in history dot com, where we have all
of our back catalog of episodes from the very beginning.
We have show notes from the episode since Tracy and
I have been working on the podcast as well as
occasional other goodies, so we encourage you come and visit
(39:40):
us at how stuff works dot com and missed in
history dot com for more on those and thousands of
other topics to workst
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Callie Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson and uh Tracy, as
you and our listeners will recall, Back in January, we
had fashion historian and author April Callaghan of the Fashion
(00:24):
Institute of Technology on to talk about the stenciling technique
of poshoir and her amazing book on fashion plates that
covers a hundred and fifty years of style as it developed.
And not long after that interview, as April and I
were emailing back and forth, she mentioned a lecture that
she gave a few years ago about World War two
fashion in France, and I was immediately intrigued, and so
(00:47):
she had sent me some of the info about it,
and I asked her to please please please come back
and talk about that. So that is what we were
talking about today. Yeah. I remember when that conversation happened,
and you were immediately so excited. It's kind say try
to say, yes, this cool thing, I want to talk
about it. Uh. Yeah, Well, in addition to it being
something that is is one of your personal interests, the
(01:08):
subject itself is incredibly interesting and not something I ever
had thought out of before. Right, We've talked on the
show when fashion has been dictated by world events because
of things like there was a shortage of fabrics, so
everybody wore things that required less fabric. But this is
a whole other way, more involved, uh, timeline and and
(01:31):
factors that that we're looking at today. Yeah, it's one
of those things that if you are maybe a listener
who is not into fashion stuff, I encourage you to
give it a listen because it might surprise you. We
are going to talk about fashion, but it's really about
how fashion became a tool for the people of France. Yeah,
So what Holly and April talked about in this interview
(01:51):
is how fashion reacts the times of conflict and how
fashion became a form of political resistance in France specifically.
So if you think of fashion is something frevolous that
people shouldn't really spend the time talking about, these insights
that April shares about the place of style and the
greater marketplace and economy of a culture might really change
your mind on that. Yeah, So let's pop righting alrighty,
(02:20):
So today, listeners, we once again have one of my
favorite guests ever, April Callahan back to talk about some
fashion history. Welcome back to the podcast, April. Thank you.
I think I'm blushing right now. Thank you for having me.
I'm always delighted to talk to you because you always
have cool information. And today we are going to talk about, UH,
fashion as a form of rebellion, but not necessarily in
(02:44):
the sense that people might think of in terms of
young people bending rules, but an actual historical moment in time,
which is France during the German occupation in World War Two. Uh.
And April did a lecture on this particular topic at
Yale some years back, and she was kind of have
to share the notes on it with me. So uh,
it seems like just way too rich and cooler topic
(03:05):
to let go by without doing a show on it.
So first I have to ask you what inspired you
to research French fashion during the German occupation? Yeah? Sure, so, UM,
I think I mentioned this last time I was on
the show. But um, the intersection of war and fashion
has always been kind of one of my special interests
as a fashion historian. Um, how does fashion react in
(03:27):
times of crisis? To me, this is a really fascinating
question and a lot of really creative, interesting things happened
to fashionable clothing and dress during these periods of extreme conflict,
when people are forced to balance the basics subsistence that's
required for their daily lives with this innate human desire
(03:48):
to outwardly define ourselves to others as human beings. Closing
as of course, one of the main ways that we
practice defining ourselves to others. Um. So a few years ago, I,
when I was in I had to speak at that
symposium that you referenced at Yale. UM. It was actually
on street style, so I decided I didn't really want
to speak about contemporary street style because I figured my
(04:11):
fellow presenters were going to cover this with a great prowess. UM.
I wanted to do something a little bit different. So
I started digging back a bit and I became entirely
smitten with how these frenchwomen were using fashion during the
Nazi occupation as this really active form of political resistance.
And ever since then, UM, this is something I've been
(04:31):
into and I actively collect both French and German fashion
magazines from the time period UM basically nineteen thirty nine
to nineteen and to some it may seem a little
bit odd for the idea of clothing and specifically style
to be a really vital aspect of a country's wartime experience.
But this really, really was a massive concern in France
(04:55):
when the German occupation began. Can you talk about why
that was the case? Yeah? Yeah, I think that thinking
about fashion and war together can seem absolutely antithetical at first.
And I'm gonna speak fairly generally here when I say
that many people view fashion as this sort of frivolous,
unnecessary luxury and they don't give any do weight to
(05:18):
its role in our economy. But fashion is truly a
cog in this wheel of capitalism. For capitalism to work,
the desire to consume has to be sparked, and the
fashion system is a catalyst for igniting consumers desires to
replace still useful objects with new ones that are perceived
(05:38):
to be more in line with the current mode. And
this is a huge part of what drives the marketplace. Um.
But in terms of France, the sun King himself, Louver
the fourteenths recognize the significance of fashion way way back
in the seventeenth century, and I'm talking to sixteen hundreds here,
and he started actively and aggressively cultivating France's luxury industries
(06:02):
as a way to strengthen his nation's economy. And then
what happened was, over the ensuing century, France really established
itself as this arbiter of style for the whole rest
of the world. So by the time World War Two happened,
by the nineteen forties, there was an international casher associated
with all things French, and especially French clothing. Fashion was
(06:26):
therefore both a matter of economic stability for the country
but also a matter of national pride. So it's not
really that surprising that it was a hot topic when
the Germans seized control of a large person of France
UM and also with resources in nineteen forty and I
mentioned resources UM. These resources were super important to the
(06:49):
Germans to keep their war machine functioning. It required all
sorts of basic things like food, metal, fuel, UM. It
required wool and other for clothing, and silk for parachutes
so UM. Under the terms of the armistice, the Germans
retained the right to make demands of France's raw materials
(07:12):
and and this pertains. This is what happens. A system
of rationing starts to be implemented fuel was the first
thing to go scarce. Um. Three months into the occupation,
food started being rationed. UM. Food stuff like meat, bread, milk, butter,
and eggs, really basic things. Sugar also, Um, those became
(07:33):
subject to rastioning. But more important to what we're talking
about now, Um. Later that year, the Nazis instituted restrictions
governing the manufacture and sales of clothing. And you mentioned
in your in your paper that they set up this
point system for allocating wardrobe vouchers. And I'm really curious
(07:53):
how exactly that worked and moreover how it was received
by the French. And then you also talk a little
bit about a trend called system D and I want
you to talk about how that arose from this whole
voucher situation. Yeah. Sure, So how the bachelor system works
was or worked, um, was each French citizen who held
(08:14):
a food ration card, because the food ration system was
implemented first, Um, they were also issued coupons which total
thirty points, and this was where their annual clothing consumption.
So were you to go into a store of boutique
to buy something, you would have to present your coupon
and also pay for the pay for the pay for
(08:37):
the garment or accessory um and this allotment, this number,
how they assigned the points, the value systems to things.
This is really at barely at subsistence level. Um. So,
if you in a single year purchased one woll skirt,
one short sleeved blouse and a pair of cotton stockings,
(08:57):
this was essentially all you could buy for the air.
That was it. Um So you can imagine how this
was really demoralizing to the French. You know, fashion had
been part of their national identity for centuries. This is
this is something that they're very proud about and and
and for um. So what emerged in the wake of
(09:19):
this clothing restriction system is really super inspiring to me
at least. Um A lot of French women decided that
they were not going to take this lying down. It
was really important to them that they retain their reputation
for chic, and they started coming up with all sorts
of creative workarounds to these clothing restrictions. The first tactic
(09:44):
they employed became known as the stand in French pronunciation
or system D. You know, it wasn't choice A, B
or C, it was choice D. It was like your
fourth option, you know, the one that you had very
little choice but took a step UM. And what it
was was a more extreme form of the UM American
(10:08):
campaign that got dubbed Make Do and Men from the
same time period, and both of these campaigns encouraged the recycling,
the reuse and repurposing of garments. So, for instance, UM
they would take old sweaters and unravel them for the
yard and then re nit them into new garments. Or
(10:28):
a man's old suit might be ripped open at the
seams to be used for the textiles and re cut
into a boy's suit or maybe a woman's jacket. UM
women would take lace or trimmings off old garments that
couldn't be repaired and then transfer them onto new garments.
But UM. One of the funny and most interesting examples
of system day that I've seen was detailed in a
(10:51):
French fashion magazine UH, which provided the really detailed instructions
like practically step by steps of how to take dog
hair groomed from long haired breeds like poodles, and how
to spin and card it and turn it into knitting yarn.
That's fantastic, And I imagine if you had rabbits you
(11:14):
would be set with Angora, and I'm also wondering what
I have to say. I love system day in terms
of just the d I y angle to it is
so as you said, it's very inspiring and it's sort
of charming, even though it's really a very I'm going
to use the overword term of fierce, but it really is.
It's such a dig in, like just digging in your
(11:34):
heels and going Nope, you cannot dictate what we wear.
We're going to find our own way. I love it,
love it, love it absolutely. There was like these fashions
were defiant basically. Okay, so us now pick up my
(12:01):
interview with Aprokalahan to hear about how shoes in particular
during this time actually have echoes in contemporary fashion. I
know you talk a little bit about this in the
research that you did, but will you talk some about
how rationing changed footwear in France because I think that
(12:22):
is fascinating. Yeah, yeah, and it has an interesting twist
and in connection to contemporary fashion um which I'll speak
about here in a second, but shoes were a huge
problem and occupied France. UM In one alone, the Nazis
took for themselves five million pairs of the country's overall
(12:42):
production of eight million, so more than half UM at
this same time. Under under the governance and rules that
they instituted, the French were only allowed to resold their
shoes once a year and they were allowed to buy
no more than one new pair of shoes made from
rap shuned materials every four years, so this is a
(13:03):
huge problem. UM Leather was one of the main rash
of materials and seriously un short supply, so cobblers started
resoling their clients shoes with whatever materials they could get
their hands on, and some of these were very bizarre UM,
including old tires. They would waterproof cardboard and use that
(13:25):
and either braid or plate strips of straw and use
that to resol their clients shoes. UM. But manufacturers at
the time also recognize this problem, so they started turning
to these alternate materials that were unregulated by German mandates
and UM. It's through this necessity that one of the
(13:47):
most iconic looks of the nineteen forties was born. UM
shoemaker started using wood, cork, and plastic, all of which
were unrashed end materials, and they started using to create
heavy platform and wedge shoes, and the thickness of these
ensured the longevity of your purchase right because the height
(14:08):
would take longer to wear it down. So any of
you out there who are fans of wood or cork
wedge shoes that are like super fashionable today, you can
you can, you can thank French ingenuity of this period
next time you you strap them on. That is so
funny to me because we think of that as such,
like particularly in resort where cork cork shoes are so popular,
(14:31):
and it's all because of a time when the idea
of having resort time was really not in the picture
at all. So I love it. Uh. The next thing
I wanted to talk about was the rather brazen move
or plan on the part of Germany that ended up
thankfully getting derailed, which was that apparently there was a
plan to move the couture industry out of Paris, which
(14:55):
is terrifying. Uh. And how exactly did that get derailed?
Like how was that stops? So indeed, yes, um, plans
for the moving of the Paris coutur industry to Germany
were well underway. Um. The Germans recognized the physical significance
of not only French couture, but also their own domestic
(15:18):
fashion industries. Um. It's really curious and a point that
kind of underscores the hypocrisy of the Nazi Party. On
one hand, Um, they were on the domestic come front,
they were officially promoting this archetype of the wholesome German
house frout and mother wearing traditional dress. But on the
other hand, in practice they were actively supporting German high
(15:41):
fashion exports for a monetary game. Um. And I feel
like it's an important point here to make that the
general German populace were also subject um to clothing ration
ing starting in but by that point within Germany it
was almost a moot point because so much of the
country's own resources had already been drained um. For years
(16:03):
prior to nine nine, the German people had kind of
been railroaded into giving donating whatever they could spare to
the war effort. You know. There there there are instances
of young brides that donating their wedding gowns to the
cause because they thought that the silk might be able
to be used for parachutes. Um. But yes, Um. During
the occupation, the Germans raided the offices of the governing
(16:25):
body of Paris oculture industry, and they summoned to president
at the time, who was the couturier, Lucian A Long.
And it was a little bit of a complicated process
of the Germans back and forth, back and forth, but
Lalong was eventually able to convince them that couture was
too inextricably tied to Paris, that to force it for
(16:45):
a wholesale deportment of the industry to Germany, that that
would kill its spirit, and and also that it was
really kind of an unfeasible proposition to export all of
these tangential industries that supplied the couture. You know, you
had the text plan on manufacturers, you had ribbon in
flower makers, you have dyers, you have leaders, bead makers, embroiners, milliners.
(17:07):
You know, to to move all of those peoples, with
all those people in industries is going to be a
herculean effort, essentially. And your lecture was titled Sleeping Cobras.
Will you explain to us what a sleeping cobra was
in the context of fashion in France in the nineteen forties,
and how was that style emblematic of France really kind
(17:27):
of hanging onto its national identity during this time of occupation. Sure, um,
So I think the term sleeping cobra can be can
apply in a couple different ways. Um. I was kind
of using it in two different ways. And my reference
there um. First it could be UM as a metaphor
for these women right who were kind of silently protesting
(17:47):
UM with the fashions that they were wearing. But the
phrase itself um is something that's loosely based um on
the writing of some one of the leading coutriers of
the period, elsascape Ali. In one of her autobiographies, she
wrote about the hats that friendshipmen were wearing during and
just after the occupation, and a lot of people were
(18:09):
legitimately shocked when the first images of Paris appeared after
the liberation, because the fashion seemed so strange, so bizarre.
The silhouette had really become extreme and exaggerated. It had
these really wide, heavily paddaged holders, these tall, clunky shoes,
(18:31):
and the headlines had risen, they become much shorter. Um.
But the hats, the hats, they were truly bizarre. Um.
Scaparelli called them an incredible horror, and she compared she
compared the giant turbans that these women were wearing. She
compared them two monstrous cobras that had eaten a huge
(18:52):
meal and crawled up to sleep. Um and and Ceasil Beaten,
who was like great, um, you know, cultural touchstone of
the time, and bomb vivante um. He said, they looked
suspiciously like domestic plumbing. Um, I know, I love it.
But the hats were really kind of one of the
main ways that French women were using fashion as a
(19:14):
form of political resistance during this period. And one of
the reasons for that is the materials. Um. Many of
the materials used to make hats that were used in
millownery were unrestricted, so this became the sort of unexpected
medium through which women were able to wage a silent protest.
And Um, how this kind of happened was is that
(19:35):
in the nineteen thirties hats were a little more trim,
a little more tidy um. But in the nineteen forties
they wharphed into these really sort of outlandish, oversized creations,
and turbans grew so large that some of them actually
required interior wooden architectures that then would be wrapped and
(19:56):
swathed with like yards and yards of fabrics. So the shapes,
the sizes, and the trimmings of these hats were exaggerated
to the point of being ridiculous. And this was intentional. Um.
When we were basically flaunting extravagance in the face of
the enemy. They had no choice right but to where
these threadbare dresses or things were kind of like mended
(20:20):
and passed. You know, they were making do They were
wearing shoes which may or may not barely be holding together.
So it was through these hats, um, this was their
way to express themselves. And sometimes these hats functioned explicitly
as objects of a revolt. UM. One of my very
favorite hats of the time period, which is in a
collection in France, um it was. It featured a really wide,
(20:43):
upturned brim and the brim had been printed with hash
marks that resemble, um, the hash marks of a radio dial.
And above that it was printed post Parisian and post
Prison had been a really popular radio station before the occupation,
and when the Nazis seized control of the media, it's
silence postprasion and replaced it with a different station of
(21:06):
the pro German you know, collaborators station. UM. So some
of these hats that they were wearing were actually quite
pointed in the political statements that they were making. And
speaking additionally of women who were really driving some of
this protest, will you talk a little bit about the
(21:27):
Mita nets and how they were really kind of the
arbiters of style in some ways. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Umnino nets were women who worked in the fashion industry. Um.
Oftentimes they were young women, and they were really kind
of the hands or the worker bees of the fashion industry.
So they had all these technical skills, right, so they
(21:48):
took system day or System D to a whole new
level of sophistication. Um. They would so old scarves together
to create these wild patchwork textiles from which they would
create garments. UM. And they had all sorts of fun
with ribbons because ribbons were unrationed, so they would sew
them together to make these really wide, whimsical skirts. UM.
(22:09):
But once again, it was with hats that they were
really sticking it to the Germans. Um. They made enormous
hats from loops and loops of ribbons and scraps of
cardboard and oil cloth, and sometimes they would build like
fully fashioned little vignettes and scenes into the hats. You know,
(22:29):
it might be like a reproduction of a French village
or a really important French chateau. UM. But there was
an article in Vogue about the Internets right after the
liberation of Paris in Um talking about them and how
many of their creations were intentionally made to annoy the Germans.
And and this is the point that wasn't entirely lost
(22:52):
on Nazi officials. UM. They actually complained to Lucy and
the long head of the sham person to Cow about it,
and his response, I think he was probably loving every
minute of what the midden nuts are doing. But his
official response was I can't do anything about this. These
styles are not being issued by fashion houses. And I
(23:14):
think this really underscores how a lot of these styles
of the period um were what you were saying, d
I y fashion, these are street styles created by the people.
I love the idea that just by virtue of walking
down the street in the garments that you have made
and chosen to where you are making a huge political statement. Uh.
(23:36):
And in talking about some of these sort of coded
rebellious messages, there is UH some stuff in your lecture
notes about coded messages on belts. You have to talk
about these, yeah, because these are kind of great. Um.
So women were painting or on boordering belts. This is
(23:59):
nothing new, um, but they started doing it during the
occupation with motifs that frequently held hidden meanings. Um. You
might see a very pretty belt decorated with little derek
delicate arabesques. Um, but they're actually vs to symbolize victory. Um.
(24:19):
Some of the belts you see have musical notes on them,
which seemed pretty harmless and charming, but if you could
read music, you would know that their score was actually
taken from patriotic French songs. And one of my favorites
of the period was a belt that was entitled long
Ago and it was hand painted. Um. And it was
hand painted with little images of favorite French dishes which
(24:42):
had disappeared given all the food short dishes. That's so cool, um.
I mean it's one of those things that I suspect
many people at the time, like most German officers, who
are not thinking, oh I bet they're coded messages and
most ridiculous belts. So it's such a wonderful sort of
(25:02):
sneaky way is still like assert your your feelings on
the matter of occupation. Yeah, so in some alternate universe,
the fashion industry moved to Berlin and probably died off,
(25:24):
and I being interested in fashion and clothing, I am
selfishly glad that it is not this universe. Thank you,
Lucien Loong. There's also I'm really interested in some of
the stranger trends that grew out of this time, like
the turban so big that you had to have a
wooden infrastructure under it. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a lot
(25:46):
to think about, uh, wearing on your head. And I
really love the secret messages that are that were embedded
in some of the fashions of the day, and the
way the Midinets were purposely making annoying clothes just to
anger the Germans. April is so good at like doling
out so many really inspiring and interesting tidbits, and now
I totally want to embed secret messages in everything I make.
(26:08):
So next April is going to share details of fashion
at the race track during the war. First, we're gonna
have another brief break for a word from one of
our sponsors. So this last segment is going to give
you a really wonderful Easter egg about the term clothes
horse as well as some pretty mind blowing information about
(26:30):
how salons, or one salon in particular, was using some
very unusual power to dry ladies hair. You also talk
a little bit about how race courses actually became sort
of de facto runways during occupation. You expound on that
a little bit, so, Um, the concept of the race
(26:55):
track as runway isn't actually something that's unique to the
period of the occupation. Attending the races was im mensely
popular pastime for decades prior um. Along with this theater,
it was kind of the place to see and be seen. Um.
So much so that fashion designers would send models or
actresses to the races dressed in their latest collections as
(27:17):
a form of advertisement. And this is really an established
practice by the nineteen forties. So the association between women,
clothes and horses was so strong. This is actually where
the term clothes horse comes from. Um. The models were
there to work showing off the clothes, just like the
(27:38):
horses were there to work racing. Um. And during the teens. Um,
during the nineteen teens, you also end in fashion periodicals
you sometimes also see professional models slangy referred to as
jockeys for much the same reason. Uh, there was some
some other really wonderful tidbits in your your notes, and
(28:01):
one of them that just delighted me and sort of
blew me away at the same time is this piece
about cyclists, like bicyclists being used to dry hair in
the salon of the hair dressers your vet. Well, you
talk a little bit about how that worked, right, so um,
hand in hand with all this other ration ng and
(28:22):
shortages that are that was happening at the time. You
can imagine it's wartime, right, so cold. It was also
in shortest supply, and at certain points electricity was being rationed,
so you may have, you know, a few hours of
electricity here or there. Um. But the hairstyles that were
really fashionable at the time required frequent visits to the
(28:43):
hair dresser to maintain that sort of quoft waved look,
and usually that would be set under a hair dryer.
So with all of a sudden spotty electricity, there was
one particular hairdressers your vese Um. He he installed a
tandem bike in the basement of his salon and he
(29:04):
hooked it up to this intricate contraption whereby he attached
his hair dryers to stove pipes, and those two fans
and then the fans were were powered by teams of
of two people riding the bike in the basement. UM.
And this is something that Lee Miller wrote about um
at the time, and she also took photos documenting this.
(29:27):
UM and this was another reason that turbans were popular
at the time. UM. So if your quoff was less
than ideal, if you hadn't been able to visit the hairdresser,
you could cover it. Or alternately, you could use a
turban to cover a wet set when you were leaving
the salon. I just love the idea of these poor
(29:47):
people trapped in the basement bicycling so people can have
beautiful hair. Um. She She writes that she writes that
they would power produce enough power to dry around like
a hundred women's heads a day. That's impressive. You talked
a little bit about uh wedge shoes still being a
(30:09):
thing today, but was there were there any other long
lasting echoes in fashion from this sort of stylish rebellion
that was going on in France in World War Two.
I mean, I don't know so much about the stylish
rebellion part, but the nineteen fourties are. It's always a
touchstone for fashion designers, so you always will see from
(30:29):
time to time these references coming back to those really
heavily padded UM, wide shoulders UM and the narrow nipped
waiste UM. Readily I can think of. I think Memo
did a really great collection in two thousand eleven that
was kind of loosely based on that silhouette that was
fantastic UM. But but yeah, really it's it's where we
(30:51):
are today with with the very explicit connection between rationing
and and fashion today would absolutely be with the shooes,
the platform of wed shoes that we were today. Uh.
And I have to ask if there were one style
from this moment in time, from this sort of forced
creativity that was going on, that you could bring back today,
(31:14):
what would you choose? You know, I don't know if
it's so much about a specific style that I would
bring back and more about embracing a certain energy or
mood um. And despite the fact that these were obviously
very very difficult times, I don't I don't you know,
want to um gloss over that these these were horrific
(31:36):
times for a lot of people. But in these fashions
you can still feel the certain vivra. Right. They were
very spirited, they're very optimistic, um, and sometimes they were
outright funny and laughable. So I guess what I would
choose to take away from that is like, really embracing
this sense of playfulness in fashion, you know, have fun
(31:58):
with fashion. Be bold, don't be afraid to make a statement.
These ladies were making statements all over the play. And
if you want to make a different statement the next day,
that's okay. You have her mission making and make you
another different statement, you know, the day after. You know,
you kind of catch my drift. I think that if
you're having fun with fashion, there aren't any mistakes, at
(32:21):
least in my book. Oh amen, I'm with you. Um.
I'm still gonna lobby though for the belts to come back,
some belts embroidered with potatoes. Well, maybe some designer will
hear this and a little spark will happen. We can
only hope. I really love the idea of music, you know,
laid out on your your belt or any other accessory.
(32:43):
It's so sweet. Um. Again, I always feel so lucky
when we get to talk to you, because you have
so much cool information about fashion and history. And last
time you were on, we talked a lot about your
book Fashion in the Art of Poshoir and also your
book Fashion Plate The hundred and fifty Years of Style,
which continue to be spectacular. But there is a cool
(33:04):
new development. Your fashion Plates book is coming out in
paperback this fall. Yes, it is true, it is true. Um.
It is actually already available for pre order on Amazon. UM.
So the previous edition was a luxury edition for so
for any of you listeners who may have been detured
by its hefty price point, um, there is now a
(33:25):
much more attainable accessible version available on Amazon order and
it will be out in a few months. And if
the cover is the same one that's currently posted on Amazon,
it's a very cool cover, like you get some it is.
I actually just approved the back cover last week. Uh,
and I will once again sing the praises of that book.
I love it so much. It's just such a feast
(33:48):
for the eyes, and it's really the soul. If you're
into design at all, whether you're into clothing or any
other kind of design, you see so much of like
how human taste is developing through the years just by
looking at the clothing. So it's absolutely beautiful and I
can't recommend it enough. Uh, April, thank you so much
for coming and talking to us about World War two fashion.
(34:10):
How can people find you if they want to hear
more from you online? Of course? Um So you can
follow f I T Special Collections on Instagram at at
f I T Special Collections, and you can also search
online for our blog where we cover really fun cool
things that we have, um and you can just search
f I T Material Mode blog. The blog is called
(34:33):
material Mode. I'm actually going to post something fresh and
new right after we get off the phone here. So's excellent,
and we will also put a link to that blog
in our show notes. April again, thank you so much.
You're just a delight Thank you. Like I said, so,
(34:57):
I personally hope all of our listeners embrace play fullness
in fashion is April encourages let's all start embroidering rebellious
sheet music into our accessories. And one more time, April's
new paperback version of fashion Plates, A hundred and fifty
Years of Style is coming out this fall, and you
can actually pre order that now. Yeah, and it's sort
of a much more affordable price point than the giant
(35:19):
uh sort of folio. Like she called it the luxury version,
so you will get all of that beautiful stuff, but
you will not have to pay quite as much. Uh.
And now we're going to read a little bit of
a listener mail. If that's cool. I would love to
hear some listener mail. This is one of those pieces
of listener mail where I was like, this is so cool. Uh.
It is from our listener June, and it is in
(35:40):
relation to our ladies of the United States Postal Service episode.
She says, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I was so excited
when I listened to last week's episode on women in
the USPS. Normally, postal history tends to have a narrow audience.
My family and friends just roll their eyes when I
relate an anecdote or I start gushing over the most
recent artifacts we've received. You cited the historian section of
(36:02):
USPS dot com is a source, so I know you've
read the sections. They're regarding women, postmasters, mail carriers, and
at postal headquarters. The podcast also made a brief mention
of their being separate windows for women. That is a
topic I have been working on for the past few months.
She has actually attached a copy of some of the
work she's been doing, which will end up on the
(36:23):
Postal Service website very soon. Uh, because she is a
historian for them. She is actually a research analyst for
them that studies postal history, which I think is just
the coolest. And she says the windows seem to have
been used primarily for delivery to segregate women picking up
mail at general delivery, but post offices of the era
often had separate windows for delivery money orders, registered letters,
(36:45):
and stamp purchases. Post Office regulations don't address ladies windows
in any manner, so it's hard to say if other
services were offered. Inclusion of a ladies window in a
facility seems to have been decided by local postmasters, although
architect Commy B. Young often designated separate ladies entrances and
noted a lady's delivery window or room which always makes
(37:08):
her think of a maternity ward. Uh. Newspapers seemed to
love anecdotes regarding the ladies windows. Some of these painted
women as being clueless regarding the ways of the world
once they ventured out of their home, while conversely, some
depicted ladies as being wiser and more discerning than the
male customers, tales of woe regarding women who received news
of an unfaithful partner, or call for weeks waiting for
(37:30):
a letter that does not come. The ladies windows were
often cited as being sources of moral turpitude, both from
young ladies engaging in clandestine correspondence and that madam's waited
near the window in in some cities, ready to tempt
women who had not received anticipated funds into a life
of vice. When I first approached the topic, I thought
(37:50):
the ladies windows were limited to big cities, but I
have found newspaper references to them being in more than
seventy five offices in cities and small towns. Some understudies
writers have asserted that the separate window was a way
to keep women away from the important business conducted by men.
Others have attributed it to a sense of chivalry. In
many cases, it seems to have given women the freedom
(38:12):
to keep their correspondence private, without their letters passing through
the hands of parents, husbands, or servants. The ladies windows
seemed to have died out less from women gaining rights
than from the wider availability of mail delivery, eliminating the
need to call for their letters. Uh, June, this is
the coolest. I feel like so lucky that we have
this insider information and we got to see her research
(38:34):
ahead of going public. Yeah, it's very very cool, and
I so appreciate her taking the time to write that
out to us. So, uh, thank you, thank you, thank you. June.
I genuinely just loved it. Uh. If you would like
to write to us, you can do so at History
Podcast at house stuff works dot com. You can also
connect with us at Facebook dot com, slash missed in
History on Twitter and missed in History at pitchest dot com,
(38:57):
slash missed in History and missed in History tumbler dot com, uh,
and on Instagram at mist in history. If you would
like to learn a little bit about kind of something
related to what we talked about today, you can go
to our parents site, how stuff Works. Just type in
w W two or World War two in the text
box and you're going to get so many articles. You
will get things about the aircraft of World War Two.
(39:19):
You will get quizzes about World War Two, basically things
to keep you busy for a long time. If you
are a fan of studying World War two history, If
you would like to visit us come and do that
at mist in history dot com, where we have all
of our back catalog of episodes from the very beginning.
We have show notes from the episode since Tracy and
I have been working on the podcast as well as
occasional other goodies, so we encourage you come and visit
(39:40):
us at how stuff works dot com and missed in
history dot com for more on those and thousands of
other topics to workst
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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