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.

'Dressing for Austerity is so much more than a history of fashion in post-war Britain. It shows the potential of an approach that connects dress to changes in politics, culture, manufacturing technologies, leisure and forms of citizenship - this is a significant contribution to the wider history of the late 1940s and the way that the period shaped consumption cultures, identities and social attitudes in the following decades.' - David Gilbert, Professor of Urban and Historical Geography, Royal Holloway University of London

Geraldine Biddle-Perry is a fashion and cultural historian. She lectures in fashion and design history & theory at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.