...a torrent of complaint burst from the company, each member of which had a personal grudge against the whole coupon system. Mrs. Marling's Burberry, wearing out from sheer spite, had run into fourteen coupons. Miss Harvey had been forced to give two coupons for a piece of blue ring velvet to make a turban....
These fictional characters, surely based on real people, were complaining about the coupon system used to ration clothing and fabric in Britain during World War II. I liked the scene for two reasons. First, a coat wearing out from spite is a funny idea. Second, this scene is a reality check on the nostalgic vision of the past when everyone supposedly supported all elements of the war effort. I recently had my students read an article on the era which stressed how government and magazines told women that not only must they help with war work, but they must see beauty as duty and look good for the men and for general morale. Although the illegal market in rationed goods was noted, there was little emphasis on how annoying such a rationing system could become.
Of course, the idea behind rationing was two fold: to limit consumption so that most goods went towards the war effort, and to prevent the wealthiest people from buying whatever they wanted and driving up prices. In addition, the British government introduced the Utility Scheme which limited prices and demanded a level of quality; again, this was an attempt to keep everyone able to buy something.
The scene above appeared in Angela Thirkell’s novel from Marling Hall from 1942. Ring velvet comes from the term wedding-ring velvet, or chiffon velvet, the idea being it was so fine that you could pull it through a wedding ring. Women turned to cloth turbans during the war, since fur felt and wool felt was hard to get, and they wanted some kind of hat which they saw as necessary to former public wear.
You can find Thirkell’s novels which run through the 1930s onward at Virago Books: https://www.virago.co.uk/?s=thirkell
What: Giambattista Valli Green Jacquard Tuban - $390.00
Where: Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 show at Paris Fashion Week - July 03, 2023
US court orders marines to allow Sikhs with beards, turbans
US court orders marines to allow Sikhs with beards, turbans
A US court on Friday ordered the Marines to allow Sikh recruits to maintain beards and wear turbans.
Washington,UPDATED: Dec 24, 2022 09:50 IST
US court ordered the Marines to let Sikh recruits maintain beards and wear turbans. (Representative image)
By Agence France-Presse: A US court on Friday ordered the Marines to let Sikh recruits maintain beards and wear turbans, rejecting the elite…
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The fourth hat was the most expensive of the lot and it extraordinary advantages about it. Possibly, Mrs. Oliver sometimes thought, because it was so expensive. It consisted of a kind of turban of various layers of contrasting velvets, all of rather becoming pastel shades which go with everything.
I want this hat. I have long been charmed by silk velvets in all colors, but the idea of draped pastels sounds lovely.
Turbans showed up on 18th Century Europeans who were charmed by headgear from abroad. Draping a turban from a length of cloth is one thing and takes some practice, while the made-up turban with all its layers carefully sewn and then tacked down is easy to wear. Although in this passage from the 1972 novel Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie, her heroine, Mrs. Adriane Oliver tries the turban on backwards, and sideways, before agreeing with her assistant that it looks best worn the way it was designed to be worn: with the front side up front.
Mrs. Oliver is of an older generation, used to wearing hats to public events, a practice that died out as this generation died out. Young women who embraced big hair in the late 1950s did not have room on their heads for hats, so hats became old-fashioned and rejected by the young. Thus depriving us of one of the most amusing of fashion accessories. Mrs. Oliver wears this turban to a luncheon with a soft, wool jersey dress in puce, a pale reddish-brown touched with grey, which sounds perfect for a turban made up of mixed pastels.