For more information on individual publications see the Bibliography
1. ‘epitome of family history’, The Times, 30 March 1964
2. ‘They change’, Virginia Woolf, Orlando, p.131
1. ‘shining like’, Alison Uttley, The Button-Box and Other Essays, p.186
2. ‘the correct scale’, Irene Clephane, Our Mothers, p.195
3. ‘agents for’, R. H. Langbridge, ed., Edwardian Shopping
4. ‘Watered’, Alison Adburgham, Shops and Shopping 1800–1914, p.68
5. ‘like small picture-frames’, Margaret Hunter, ‘Mourning Jewellery: A Collector’s Account’, Costume, Vol 27, Issue 1, January 1993, p.11
6. ‘opportunities’, Manchester Guardian, 26 October 1914
7. ‘Black, black, black’, Mary Brough-Robertson quoted by Max Arthur, ed., in Forgotten Voices of the Great War, p.172
8. ‘quite a strong’, Agnes M. Miall, The Bachelor Girl’s Guide to Everything, p.112
9. ‘not a shred’, Barbara Comyns, Sisters by a River, p.146
10. ‘an ample severity’, Rosamond Lehmann, The Weather in the Streets, p.68
11. ‘They walked’, Alice Wilson and Irene Burton, 25 March 1999, Millenium Memory Bank, British Library Archive, Disc 1 ICDR0007571
12. ‘Black is right’, ‘Christian Dior’s Pictorial Fashion Guide for Every Woman’, Woman’s Illustrated, 4 December 1954
13. ‘a good background’, H. D. Willcock, ed., Browns and Chester, p.207
14. ‘Sloane Street’, E. M. Delafield, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, p.191–2
1. ‘slower and more dignified’, Angela Rodaway, A London Childhood, p.15
2. ‘All the remains’, A London Childhood, p.26
3. ‘The Cameron’, The Lady, 12 June 1919. Women workers were more visible after the Great War, hence this advertisement, but by 1919 their roles had changed little.
4. ‘Artisan’, Stavely Netherthorpe School Admission Register, Derbyshire Records Office, Matlock, D6935/2/2
5. ‘If she carries’, Testimonial, Teachers’ Application Form, author’s own, 31 July 1912
6. ‘herring-bone’, quoted by Carol Dyhouse in Girls Growing up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England, p.87
7. ‘directly to’, Girls Growing up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England, p.89
8. ‘Now, dear’, M. V. Hughes, A London Girl of the 1880s, p.10
9. ‘who sometimes’, Sisters by a River, p.96
10. ‘It was’, A London Girl of the 1880s, p.11
11. ‘crowning glory’, ‘The Home: Special Notes on Many Subjects by “Domestica”, ‘Care of the Hair’, Derbyshire Times, 5 October 1910
12. ‘Do Men’, The Lady, 7 July 1910
13. ‘Arthur’s Education Fund’, Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, pp. 7–8
14. ‘the stuck-up’, unsourced article, Annie’s commonplace book, author’s own
15. ‘the type-writing’, John Harrison, ‘A Manual of the Type-writer’ quoted in ‘The Cultural Work of the Type-writer Girl’ from Victorian Studies, Vol 40, number 3, ‘Women Workers Timeline/Office/Politics/Women in the Workplace 1860–2004’, Women’s Library exhibition, 2004
16. ‘one example of’, Fashions For All, February 1910, quoted Barbara Burman, ‘Home Sewing and “Fashions for All” 1908-37’, Costume, Vol 28, Issue 1, 1994, p.79
17. ‘To some’, ‘The Importance of Home Dressmaking’, Home Notes, 2 February 1895
18. ‘a necessary reel’, Clementina Black, ed., Married Women’s Work, p.32
19. ‘very hard for it’, Lady Adele Meyer and Clementina Black, Makers of Our Clothes, p.97
20. ‘scattered over London’, Makers of Our Clothes, pp.99–100
21. ‘Four apprentices’, Alison Uttley, A Ten O’Clock Scholar & Other Essays, p.124–5
1. ‘Purple …’, quoted by Diane Atkinson, Suffragettes in the Purple, White & Green, p.15
2. ‘almost every draper’, ‘Some hints about dress’, Votes for Women, 2 July 1909
3. ‘Militant Jam’, Suffragettes in the Purple, White & Green, p.31
4. ‘ranks with’, Votes for Women, 4 February 1909
5. ‘not merely’, Votes for Women, 2 July 1909
6. ‘Wanted a good’, Votes for Women, 2 February 1907
7. ‘Defiance’, advert, Votes for Women, 4 February 1909
8. ‘patented invention’, advert, Votes for Women, 4 February 1909
9. ‘faced death’, Holloway Prison Banner, Museum of London
10. ‘dreadful women’, ‘like nothing’, Evelyn Sharp, Unfinished Adventure, p.138
11. ‘From every part’, quoted by Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story, p.217
12. ‘only admiring’, Erika Diane Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, p.217
13. ‘The Suffragette’, Shopping for Pleasure, p.217
14. ‘those whose windows’, Shopping for Pleasure, p.220
15. ‘travelled the road’, Unfinished Adventure, p.127
1. ‘a great circle of women’, Rebecca West, ‘Hands That War: The Night Shift’, Daily Chronicle, 1916, in Jane Marcus, ed., The Young Rebecca, p.388
2. ‘Say, young Doll’, Naomi Loughman, ‘Munition Work’, Joyce Marlow, ed., The Virago Book of Women and the Great War, p.167
3. ‘educated women’, ‘Women Munition Workers’, The Times, 16 July 1915
4. ‘short skirts’, Sylvia Townsend Warner, ‘Behind the Firing Line: Some Experiences in a Munition Factory by a Lady Worker’, Blackwells, 1916, p.191
5. ‘The Miaows’, ‘Behind the Firing Line’, p.199
6. ‘who have been at work’, ‘Hands That War: The Night Shift’, The Young Rebecca, p.387
7. ‘£1 1s and something’, ‘Behind the Firing Line’, p.204
8. ‘friend’s sister’s niece’, The Virago Book of Women and the Great War, p.168
9. ‘Years back’, Madeline Ida Bedford, ‘Munition Wages’, Catherine Reilly, ed., Scars Upon My Heart, p.7
10. ‘put out to service’, Kathleen Gilbert, Out of the Doll’s House Archive, 80DH/02/, The Women’s Library, London School of Economics
11. ‘The caps’, Elizabeth Gore, ‘Woolwich Arsenal’, The Virago Book of Women and the Great War, p.165
12. ‘The first fashion touch’, The Virago Book of Women and the Great War, p.165
13. ‘No one else’, ‘Behind the Firing Line’, p.195
14. ‘to look like glass’, Out of the Doll’s House Archive
15. ‘a sweet night smell’, ‘Hands That War: The Night Shift’, The Young Rebecca, p.388
16. ‘very young’, ‘Hands That War: The Cordite Makers’, The Young Rebecca, p.382
17. ‘passionate diligence’, ‘Hands That War: The Night Shift’, The Young Rebecca, p.387
18. ‘[we] were just about’, ‘Mary Brough-Robertson, Munitions Worker’, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, p.171
19. ‘You make us shells’, Siegfried Sassoon, Glory of Women, in Jon Silkin, ed., The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, second edition (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981), p.132
1. ‘How narrow’, Virginia Woolf, Orlando, p.205–6
2. ‘picture dresses’, Lucy Duff-Gordon, Discretions and Indiscretions, p.259
3. ‘boyish woman’, Discretions and Indiscretions, p.259
4. ‘little hats’, Discretions and Indiscretions, p.81
5. ‘whatever current trend’, Eileen Whiteing, Anyone for Tennis, p.58
6. ‘If painting’ (‘Si la peinture est entrée dans la vie, c’est que les femmes la portaient sur elles!’), quoted by Isabelle Anscombe, A Woman’s Touch: Women in Design from 1860 to the Present Day (London: Virago, 1984), p.120
7. ‘wore light stockings’, A London Childhood, p.53
8. ‘rollocking young’, My Weekly, 10 January 1920
9. ‘“Why call them”‘, Millicent Fawcett, Evening Standard, 4 October 1927
10. ‘Miss Infatuation’, advert, Illustrated London News, 4 May 1929
11. ‘flying squad’; ‘girls who’, Daily Mail, 31 May 1929
12. ‘we are on’, Brian Braithwaite, Noëlle Walsh and Glyn Davies, eds., Ragtime to Wartime, p.11
13. ‘There is still’, Margaret Cole, ed., The Road to Success, p.vi
14. ‘Business, if accepted’, Woman’s Life, August 1931, Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), MJ144
15. ‘but let her first’, Florence Sangster, ‘Advertising’, The Road to Success, p.211
16. ‘a business girl’, Catherine Horwood, Keeping Up Appearances, p.47
17. ‘not to smell,’ Frances Donaldson, Child of the Twenties, p.139
18. ‘simple designs’, Woman’s Life, 21 September 1929, MoDA, MJ144
19. ‘one-piece’, Margaret Story, How to Dress Well, 1924, MoDA, BADDA 4035
20. ‘Remember that’, Miss Modern, October 1930, quoted in Keeping Up Appearances, p.46
21. ‘Pity the Pretty’, Miss Modern, October 1930
22. ‘Our ambitious’, Miss Modern, November 1930
23. ‘the comforts’, Modern Home, March 1930
24. ‘relentless in its realism’, London Illustrated News, 7 May 1932
25. ‘For the Women of Today’, May Edgington, ‘Reckless Cinderella’, My Home, December 1930
26. ‘Jazz reigns supreme’, Ladies Field, 24 January 1920
27. ‘The dance craze’, Ladies Field, 10 January 1920
28. ‘a demi-turban’, Daily Mail, 1 January 1920
29. ‘Why, why’, Vera Brittain, quoted by Carol Dyhouse in Glamour: Women, History, Feminism, p.93
30. ‘line after line’, Winifred Holtby, ‘Fashions and Feminism’ (1927), Mary Stott, ed., Women Talking, p.112–4
1. ‘If you are to drive’, Alison Adburgham, ‘Veteran Ladies’, View of Fashion, p.51
2. ‘Pillion Girls’, Daily Mail, 2 November 1927
3. ‘Free and Independent’, Punch, 27 June 1928
4. ‘I envied those pilots’, Amy Johnson in Margot Asquith, ed., Myself When Young, p.153–4; ‘drawn irresistibly’, p.154; ‘Two pounds’, p.155
5. ‘Looping the Loop’, ‘Chesterfield Shopping Festival’, Derbyshire Times, 25 April 1914
6. ‘In England’, Lady’s Pictorial, 5 June 1920
7. ‘Clothes for the Airwoman’, Lady’s Pictorial, 3 May 1919
8. ‘waving paws’, The Lady, 23 August 1928
9. ‘Could one fly’, Mrs Victor Bruce, The Bluebird’s Flight (London: Chapman and Hall, 1931), p.2
10. ‘the first solo flight’, London Illustrated News, 23 June 1928
11. ‘Penny Plain’, Tom Phillips, Women and Hats, p.110
1. ‘Will not break’, carded buttons, author’s own
2. ‘the wife of a working man’, ‘Details of Expenditure of a Housekeeping Allowance of £2 5s 0d a week’, For Home and Country, p.17
3. ‘feckless, filthy’, Winifred Foley, A Child in the Forest, p.14; ‘in the poorer’, p.62
4. ‘Clothing [was] frankly’, Maud Pember-Reeves, Round About a Pound a Week, p.61
5. ‘I want to go’, Rebecca West, ‘Much worse than Gaby Deslys’, The Young Rebecca, p.230
6. ‘clothes that today’, A Child in the Forest, p.17
7. ‘She had no vanities’, Rose Gamble, Chelsea Child, p.33
8. ‘helped to set’, Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford, p.101–3
9. ‘the astonishing difference’, Round About a Pound a Week, p.64
10. ‘Olive’s personal’, Lettice Cooper, National Provincial, p.210
11. ‘How Violet’, National Provincial, p.380
1. ‘pray Let partiuclare Care’, ‘Threads of Feeling’ exhibition, London Foundling Museum, 14 October 2010–6 March 2011
2. ‘it must be jolly’, National Children Adoption Association, Annual Report 1927–8, author’s own
3. ‘The heart was made whole’, John Styles, Threads of Feeling, p.70
1. ‘At the moment’, ‘Through the Eyes of a Needlewoman: Notes from my Diary’, The Needlewoman, July 1929
2. ‘Grand Shopping Week’, Derbyshire Times, 4 April 1914
3. ‘unique and artistic windows’, Derbyshire Times, 18 April 1914
4. ‘The Fashion House’, Derbyshire Times, 15 October 1910
5. ‘if you had a maid’, Lesley Lewis, The Private Life of a Country House 1912–1939, p.176
6. ‘Gloves must’, Margaret Story, How To Dress Well, p.421, MoDA, BADDA 4035
7. ‘Gloves with a Reputation’; ‘Costumes of Distinction’, Chesterfield at Swallow’s, 1923, Local Studies, Chesterfield Library
8. ‘One can always be certain’, How To Dress Well, p.429
9. ‘the effort to persuade’, Virginia Woolf, ‘The London Scene 2, Oxford Street Tide’, 1932, Ragtime to Wartime, p.139
10. ‘sealing-wax red’; ‘bronze-faced round’; ‘the east of one’s dreams’; Elizabeth Montizambert, London Discoveries in Shops and Restaurants, p.7–9
11. ‘quality, something necessary’, Alison Settle, A Family of Shops, p.11
12. ‘Well, Master Tom’, 2 June 1877, A Family of Shops, endpapers
13. ‘The warm air’, Lettice Cooper, The New House, p.164
14. ‘Sometimes, after school’, A London Child of the 1930s, p.124
15. ‘The air’, Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle, p.81
16. ‘If I could buy this’, Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark, p.111
17. ‘read fashion magazines’, Asa Briggs, Friends of the People, p.189
18. ‘our kind of people’, National Provincial, p.86
19. ‘Green patterned silk’, Woman’s Weekly, 8 February 1936
20. ‘universal game’, René Cutforth, Later Than We Thought, p.34
21. ‘most forward-looking’, Pauline Rushton, Mrs Tinne’s Wardrobe, p.22
22. ‘Modom wanted’; ‘Inexpensive Small Ladies’, Punch 1920s quoted in The Literary Companion to Fashion, p.190
23. ‘rigid social hierarchy’, T. J. Rendell, ‘Millinery Techniques in the 1920s’, Costume, Vol 12, Issue 1, January 1978, p.86; ‘All the saleswomen’, p.93
24. ‘If a small alteration’, Naomi Mitchison, You May Well Ask, p.47
25. ‘adding a fashionable’, ‘In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion’, The Royal Collection exhibition, 2013
All details relating to Mrs Pennyman’s expenditure are from Katina Bill, ‘Clothing Expenditure by a Woman in the Early 1920s’, Costume, Vol 27, Issue 1, January 1993, pp.57–60
1. ‘unbelievably enclosed’, Anyone for Tennis?, p.57
2. ‘I think you’, Home Chat, 12 September 1925
3. ‘vogue for colour’, Illustrated London News, 30 April 1927
4. ‘eye shades’, Illustrated London News, 30 April 1927
5. ‘Men who might’, Pottery Gazette, September 1928
6. ‘la plage du soleil’, advert, Illustrated London News, 4 June 1927
7. ‘vintage period of sunshine’, Illustrated London News, 20 August 1932
8. ‘for those who really’, ‘Fashion Parades on the Beach’, The Needlewoman, July 1929
9. ‘If your job is sedentary’, Woman’s Life, 22 September 1928, MoDA, MJ144
10. ‘Quite a large number’, Victoria Glendinning, Elizabeth Bowen, p.118
11. ‘Fashion Parades’, The Needlewoman, July 1929
12. ‘The All Conquering’, The Needlewoman, January 1929
13. ‘We hope you’, M. V. Hughes, A London Family Between the Wars (Oxford edition, 1979), p.13
14. ‘Books!’, A London Family Between the Wars, p.16
15. ‘on demand’, Nicola Beauman, A Very Great Profession, p.10
16. ‘swing daily’, Winifred Holtby, ‘The Wearer and the Shoe’, Testament of a Generation, p.65
17. ‘while you can’, advert, Fancy Needlework Illustrated, Vol 7, Number 73
18. ‘a scarlet portable’, Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart, p.134
19. ‘orange curtains’, Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz, p.64
20. ‘wash up the lunch things’, Jenifer Wayne, Brown Bread and Butter in the Basement, p.61
1. ‘the joy of saving’, Anyone for Tennis?, p.51
2. ‘Celanese goes from’, advert, The Vogue Guide to Practical Dressmaking, MoDA, BADDA 3263
3. ‘cut out for chic’, The Vogue Guide to Practical Dressmaking
4. ‘noted for’, The Vogue Guide to Practical Dressmaking
5. ‘Mme Elsa’, Time, 13 August 1934
6. ‘the long caterpillar’, The Times, 4 March 1929
7. ‘that would make me’, Joyce Storey, Our Joyce, p.84
8. ‘solid purple’, Jenifer Wayne, The Purple Dress, p.8
9. ‘our lives were narrower’, Brown Bread and Butter, p.165
10. ‘a hoarded rustle’, The Purple Dress, p.8
11. ‘Olivia considered’, Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz, p.46
12. ‘This then is a ball’, Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, p.51
13. ‘and there was a queer place’, Invitation to the Waltz, p.133
14. ‘the wives of men’, May Bell talking to Virginia Heath, ‘The Way We Were’, Staffordshire Sentinel, April 2001
15. ‘15s for’, Rachel Brewis, ‘Reminiscences’, Costume, Vol 16, Issue 1, January 1982, p.91
16. ‘Dressmakers at this time’, Ann Wise, ‘Dressmakers in Worthing 1920–50’, Costume, Vol 32, Issue 1, 1 January 1998, p.83
17. ‘my wages’, ‘Dressmakers in Worthing’, p.86
18. ‘looked at [Olivia]’, Invitation to the Waltz, pp.47–9
19. ‘greatly admired’, Anyone for Tennis?, p.58
20. ‘Men ask’, advert, Good Housekeeping, 1926
21. ‘The films have’, Ragtime to Wartime, p.153
22. ‘What Price Beauty?’, Ragtime to Wartime, pp.152–3
23. ‘Powder, thundered’, Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, p.73
24. ‘Although bright nails’, Miss Modern, 18 February 1935, quoted in Keeping Up Appearances, p.49
25. ‘if you say to yourself’, How to Dress Well, p.365, MoDA, BADDA 4035
1. ‘noise beyond’, quoted by Alan Richards in The Extraordinary Adventures of Benjamin Sanders, p.102
2. ‘all the bright’, Household Words, 17 April 1852
3. ‘one of the most’, Household Words, 17 April 1852
4. ‘beautiful buttons’, ‘Fashion from Paris’, Home Notes, 9 February 1895
5. ‘full of bits’, The New House, pp.79–80
6. ‘We are not able to stand’, quoted in Shops and Shopping, 1800–1914, p.235
7. ‘We left Wellingborough’, unpublished family memoir, courtesy of the late Judith Clark
8. ‘highly respectable draper’, Oxford English Dictionary, 1989
9. ‘Decided to pop off’, 29 March 1940, These Wonderful Rumours!, p.95
10. ‘A business girl’, Miss Modern, October 1930, quoted in Keeping Up Appearances, p.46
11. ‘Ladies of Gentle Birth’ and ‘delicate shining materials’, Amy Johnson, Myself When Young, p.152
12. ‘Most Exquisite Embroidery’, advert, Home Notes, 9 February 1895
13. ‘No longer need you “make do”’, Things My Mother Should Have Told Me, p.110
14. ‘made for just those women’, MoDA, BADDA 3263
15. ‘Do you make your own frocks?’, Modern Home, March 1930
16. ‘I made all these clothes’, Things My Mother Should Have Told Me, p.91
17. ‘all the little tricks and arts’, Things My Mother Should Have Told Me, p.91
18. ‘At this time of year’, quoted in Keeping Up Appearances, p.22
19. ‘attractive designs’, How to Dress Well, p.477, MoDA, BADDA 4035
20. ‘the village dressmaker’, ‘Country Crafts and Trades’ in A Ten O’Clock Scholar and Other Essays, p.124
21. ‘I would bring’, A London Family Between the Wars, p.58
22. ‘a new kind of open-work’, A London Home in the 1890s, p.128
23. ‘The Other Woman Never Knits’, Alison Adburgham, View of Fashion, p.36
24. ‘Mab Says Stitch’, Home Chat, April 1930
25. ‘brings daily blessings’, quoted by Rozsika Parker in The Subversive Stitch, pp.154–5
26. ‘a room did not feel very liveable’, and ‘must have enjoyed’, ‘The Lure of the Needle’, Guardian, 10 April 1926
27. ‘Kotex says’, The Drapers Record, 5 July 1930
28. ‘I was wild with excitement’, Enid Bagnold, Autobiography, quoted in The Literary Companion to Fashion, p.185
1. ‘How lovely’, You May Well Ask, p.46
2. ‘I noticed’, 15 May, 1920, Virginia Woolf, Diaries
3. ‘try for me’, quoted by Keren Protheroe in Petal Power, p.13
4. ‘the flowers’, Virginia Woolf, The Years, p.290
5. ‘for cruising and holidays’, Good Housekeeping, June 1933
1. ‘Once the family budget’, Woman and Home Good Needlework Magazine, December 1940
2. ‘No woman’, A Family of Shops, p.35
3. ‘I believe everyone’, Naomi Mitchison, Among You Taking Notes, p.144
4. ‘Mother remarked’, May 1941, Joan Strange, Despatches from the Home Front, p.66
5. ‘ideal shelter suit’, Woman and Home, December 1940
6. ‘slacks suit’, Ragtime to Wartime, p.185
7. ‘It’s the maddest’, 12 September 1940, Nella Last’s War, p.65
8. ‘Should women wear trousers?’, Housewife, January 1940, MoDA, MJ75
9. ‘I know why’, 1 August 1943, Nella Last’s War, p.246–7
10. ‘NOW’, Penny Kitchen, ed., For Home and Country, p.54
11. ‘Make one of your old coats’, Woman and Home, December 1940
12. ‘Rationing has been introduced’, ‘Rationing of Clothing, Cloth, Footwear from June 1 1941’, issued by Board of Trade, in Through the Looking-Glass, p.117
13. ‘[we] started to assess’, 1 June 1941, Nella Last’s War, p.148
14. ‘treasured silks’, ‘Renovating Clothes’, For Home and Country, p.41
15. ‘must last longer’, Board of Trade, Imperial War Museum
16. ‘how to patch an overall … boys can do’, Board of Trade, Imperial War Museum
17. ‘bright new look’, MoDA, BADDA 3488
18. ‘some classic pattern’, Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day (Virago edition, 1985), p.112
19. ‘one obvious occasion’, ‘Utility Clothing’, The Times, 4 March 1942
20. ‘one of Ernie’s Girlies’, 21 March 1941, These Wonderful Rumours!; ‘Oh dear’, 1 June 1941; ‘Oh monstrous!’, 4 December 1941; ‘a startling affair’, 25 October 1941; ‘I’ll be glad’, 12 October 1940; ‘measly lunch’, 10 May 1941; ‘Awful feeling’, 29 May 1940
21. ‘owing to the outbreak of hostilities’, Cavendish School Logbook, Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock, 2 October 1939, D5031/FK
1. ‘already mentally clothed’, Shirley Joseph, If Their Mothers Only Knew, p.8; ‘khaki breeched’, p.9; ‘from an office calendar’, p.137
2. ‘Nobody sees her’, Vita Sackville-West, The Women’s Land Army, p.23
3. ‘the appearance of uniform’, 28 November 1939, These Wonderful Rumours!, p.57
4. ‘Your finest clothes’, Three Guineas, p.25
5. ‘you cannot look fashionable’, The Women’s Land Army, p.25
6. ‘it was enough’, If Their Mothers Only Knew, p.106
7. ‘no longer decide’, 31 January 1943, Mollie Panter-Downes, London War Notes 1939–45, p.266
8. ‘Efficient, neat’, Raynes Minns, Bombers and Mash, p.47
9. ‘only joined for the hat’, Christian Lamb, quoted by Virginia Nicholson in Millions like Us, p.144
10. ‘lovely, every bit as fetching’, 20 July 1943, Barbara Pym, A Very Private Eye, p.149
11. ‘AWFUL … fit beautifully’, 11 September 1942, Eva Figes, ed., Letters in Wartime, p.272
12. ‘dinginess’, Hilary Wayne, Two Odd Soldiers, p.12
13. ‘of the underwear’, 30 December 1942, These Wonderful Rumours!, p.313
14. ‘To people feeling’, Two Odd Soldiers, p.10
15. ‘some cleaning rags’, 11 September 1942, Letters in Wartime, p.272; ‘I’ve never known’, 14 September 1942, p.273; ‘in future’, 11 September 1942, p.271–2
16. ‘the sight of’, Sylvia Townsend-Warner, letter to Bea Howe, 4 December 1941, Letters, p.75
17. ‘lunch at Claridges’, 1942, Letters in Wartime, p.274
18. ‘felt funny’, 21 July 1943, A Very Private Eye, p.149
19. ‘there is no doubt’, Two Odd Soldiers, p.11
20. ‘the astonishing effect’, Betty Miller, quoted by Jonathan Miller in On the Side of the Angels, p.xiii
21. ‘War is a strange thing’, If Their Mothers Only Knew, p.106
22. ‘a flowery frock’, The Women’s Land Army, p.25
23. ‘there is not much’, 26 April 1941, Joan Wyndham, Love is Blue, p.10; ‘not to mention’, ‘I have been given’, 1 June 1943, p.103
24. ‘burnt sugar’, 12 November 1939, London War Notes 1939–45, p.25
25. ‘any form of militarism’, The Purple Dress, p.77; ‘the faint smell’, p.85; ‘we were’, p.81
26. ‘was this woman’, Zelma Katin, Clippie, p.28; ‘it’s extraordinary’, p.15
27. ‘the young woman teacher’, Margaret Jolly, ed., Dear Laughing Motorbyke, p.10
28. ‘pretty frocks’, Emma Smith, As Green as Grass, p.191
29. ‘a war profiteer’, ‘while [her] girlfriends’, Valerie Grove, So Much to Tell, p.51
30. ‘In the rhythm’, 28 August 1941, Nella Last’s War, p.160
31. ‘All firms’, 7 September 1941, Vere Hodgson, Few Eggs and No Oranges, p.180
32. ‘the regulation roll’, The Purple Dress, p.85
33. ‘the woman who can look’, Housewife, June 1941, MoDA, MJ75
34. ‘we have every reason’, ‘the BBC’, ‘Engineered by War’, Mavis Nicolson, What Did You Do in the War, Mummy?, p.205
35. ‘When You’re Off Duty’, pattern for a jumper, Woman’s Weekly, Victoria & Albert Museum
36. ‘Give up men …’, 12 September 1944, Love is Blue, p.155
37. ‘most people’, 8 May 1945, Among You Taking Notes, p.321
38. ‘girls in their thin’, 7 May 1945, London War Notes
39. ‘to be grown up’, 21 March 1945, Among You Taking Notes, p.277
40. ‘Already I am scared’, 27 March 1945, Letters in Wartime, p.283
41. ‘a symbolic gesture’, As Green as Grass, p.219
42. ‘the temple of Janus’, Sylvia Townsend Warner, letter to Paul Nordoff, 5 January 1946, Letters, p.91
1. ‘if you are going to wear a hat’, Alison Adburgham, ‘Nothing to Lose But Your Head’, View of Fashion, p.38
2. ‘have a new winter hat’, The New House, p.115
3. ‘extreme nor conspicuous’, advert, Derbyshire Times, 25 April 1914
4. ‘quite exquisite’, Anyone For Tennis, p.52
5. ‘diplomatic mission’, How to Dress Well, MoDA, BADDA 4035, p.168
6. ‘exquisite millinery’, advert quoted in Marjorie Gardiner, On the Other Side of the Counter, p.12
7. ‘was insufficient’, T. J. Rendell, ‘Millinery Techniques in the 1920s’, Costume, Vol 12, Issue 1, January 1978, p.86
8. ‘call in tomorrow’, ‘The Tiredness of Rosabel’, The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, p.515
9. ‘the oddest little shapes’, The New House, p.167
10. ‘Darling! It’s perfect’, Alison Adburgham, A Punch History of Manners and Modes, p.342
11. ‘introduced to felt hat’, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, p.187
12. ‘there was a particular kind’, Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence, p.143
13. ‘garbed myself’, 8 October 1939, Those Wonderful Rumours!, p.46
14. ‘A wonderful year’, Alison Adburgham, ‘Our Hats’, View of Fashion, p.26
15. ‘transparent … glinting’, Bill Lancaster, The Department Store, p.175
1. ‘I think we all feel’, 15 January 1944, Among You Taking Notes, p.266
2. ‘a smart forest green’, Joan Wyndham, Anything Once, p.6
3. ‘when we could not’, Katharine Whitehorn, Selective Memory, p.34
4. ‘Just arriving’, Good Housekeeping, May 1946
5. ‘Smart frock’, Modern Woman, April 1947, MoDA, MJ97
6. ‘explain to Tom Harrison’, 9 October 1946, Nella Last’s Peace, p.125
7. ‘Food for the Fed-up’, Modern Woman, April 1947, MoDA, MJ97
8. ‘a remarkable vindication’, Audrey Withers, Lifespan, p.63
9. ‘The skirt may be full’, quoted by David Kynaston in Austerity Britain, p.257
10. ‘can be had’, The Times, 27 February 1948
11. ‘the ridiculous whim’, Rachel Cooke, Her Brilliant Career, p.xix
12. ‘Women today’, Austerity Britain, p.257–8
13. ‘variety and change’, Janet Hobson, letter to The Times, 12 February 1948
14. ‘bullied, cajoled’, ‘deplorably ugly’, Blanche Branston, letter to The Times, 9 February 1948
15. ‘Suddenly I found’, Audrey Withers quoted in Angela Holdsworth, Out of the Doll’s House, p.170
16. ‘A crowd had gathered’, Her Brilliant Career, p.xix
17. ‘the biggest skirt’, Joanne Brogden quoted in Angela Holdsworth, Out of the Doll’s House, p.170
18. ‘among the first’, ‘Jo’, Charmian Cannon, ed., Our Grandmothers, Our Mothers, Ourselves, p.78
19. ‘For one post-war’, The Purple Dress, p.142
20. ‘to enhance the new look’, 19 January 1948, Selfridges’ advert, The Times, 19 January 1948
21. ‘bought a good pattern’, Margaret M. Trump, ‘When I was at Marshall and Snelgrove’, Costume, Vol 22, Issue 1, 1 January 1988, p.85; ‘saved up’, p.88
22. ‘The “New Look”‘; ‘One enterprising shop’; ‘lacked the coupons’, Derbyshire Times, 9 January 1948
23. ‘minor sensation’; ‘startling vivid’; ‘She pounded the pavements’; ‘Note for the ladies’, Chesterfield is too drab’; ‘“New Look” – Bad Luck’, Derbyshire Times, 14 May 1948
24. ‘a memorable fuss’; ‘the very stuff’, Lorna Sage, Bad Blood, p.90
25. ‘tearing up the ration book’, Carolyn Steedman, ‘Landscape for a Good Woman’, Liz Heron, ed., Truth, Dare or Promise, p.105; ‘no New Look’, p.109
1. ‘Terylene – the wonder fabric’, quoted by Keren Protheroe, ‘Quality Stitch by Stitch: Clothing and Associated Publications Held in Marks and Spencer Company Archives’, Costume, Vol 39, Issue 1, January 2005, p.100
2. ‘Jiffy Dress’, Woman’s Illustrated, 23 March 1957
3. ‘received a sackful’, Joan Holloway, Jo Stanley, ed., To Make Ends Meet: Women Over 60 Write About Their Working Lives, p.74
4. ‘endured and survived’, Gail Lewis, ‘From Deepest Kilburn’, Truth, Dare or Promise, p.218
5. ‘Lucy’s a bright girl’, advert, Picture Post, 13 December 1952
6. ‘There is nothing healthier’, ‘Happy and Healthy – the Family Guide to Better Living’, a ‘booklet to pull out and keep’, Woman’s Illustrated, 26 January 1957
7. ‘had no awareness’, Carolyn Steedman, ‘Landscape for a Good Woman’, Truth, Dare or Promise, p.109
8. ‘Young Success: The Sparkling Stories of Girls with Glamorous Jobs’, Rhona Churchill, Woman, 29 September 1956
9. ‘agent for an American’, Woman, 14 July 1956
10. ‘Miss Manchester’, Woman, 7 July 1956
11. ‘backroom girl’, Woman, 23 June 1956
12. ‘parachuted into romance’, Woman, 1 September 1956
Millie Levine: in conversation with Elizabeth Sulkin, 7 December 2013, on behalf of the author
13. ‘I remember’, Ella Bland, ‘Behind the Counter’, Costume, Vol 17, Issue 1, 1 January 1983, p.113
14. ‘understandably anxious’, Margaret M. Trump, ‘When I was at Marshall and Snelgrove’, Costume, Vol 22, Issue 1, 1 January 1988, p.90
15. ‘The Rise of’, In Vogue, p.227
16. ‘There was much’, quoted by Ann Wise, ‘Dressmakers in Worthing 1920–50’, Costume, Vol 32, Issue 1, 1 January 1998, p.83–4
17. ‘When you’re really’, Woman’s Illustrated, 23 March 1957
18. ‘no “bare legs”’, Joyce Weston in ‘Challenges and Triumphs’, Jessica Campbell, Barclays Magazine, Issue 17, May 2003, ‘Women Workers Timeline/Office/Politics/Women in the Workplace 1860–2004’, Women’s Library Exhibition, 2004
19. ‘rich variety’, Bad Blood, p.139
20. ‘Her originally natural red hair’, The Purple Dress, p.148–9
1. ‘The appearance’, Etiquette for Ladies, undated, author’s own
2. ‘I’m not too forward’, Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay, music hall song
3. ‘if … introduced’, Home Management, p.596
4. ‘We talk about’, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, pp.190–1
5. ‘read avidly’; ‘how to behave’, Last Curtsey, p.75
6. ‘life was like’, Rose Macaulay, Crewe Train, (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1926), p.47–8
7. ‘her first serious’, ‘for oh these men’, ‘The New Dress’, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway’s Party, p.42–3
8. ‘love of clothes’, 14 May 1925, Virginia Woolf, Diaries; ‘clothes complex’, 16 February 1940; ‘idiotic anguish’, 5 July 1940; ‘great joy’, 29 April 1935
9. ‘suburban’, Julia, p.111
10. ‘I’m not sure’, Barbara Pym, Excellent Women, p.97
11. ‘being persuaded’, 16 February 1940, Virginia Woolf, Diaries
12. ‘In Narky’, 18 May 1940, These Wonderful Rumours!, p.115
13. ‘Mrs Form’s position’, ‘Delicate Monster’, Women Against Men, p.11
14. ‘They counted up’, The Sleeping Beauty, p.33; ‘We look discarded … I’m sure’, p.77–8
15. ‘shrunken miserably’, Good Behaviour, p.183–5
16. ‘It was tough’, Angela Carter, ‘Truly, It Felt Like Year One’, Very Heaven, p.210
17. ‘discreet mouse make-up’, Bad Blood, p.211
18. ‘Sluts’, Katharine Whitehorn, Observer, 29 December 1963
1. ‘the girls all wanted’, 21 March 1944, Among You Taking Notes, p.277
2. ‘Marvellous evening’, advert, Punch, 24 July 1946
3. ‘all yearned for love’, Selective Memory, p.63
4. ‘talked of romance’, The Pursuit of Love, p.41
5. ‘a poll taken’, 7 November 1943, London War Notes 1939–45, p.298
6. ‘We’re two of the lucky ones’, advert, National Westminster Bank, Good Housekeeping, January 1949
7. ‘exquisite little’ from ‘The Doll’s House’, The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, p.384
8. ‘suburban villa’ etc, The Pauper’s Homemaking Book, p.347
9. ‘Now choose another’, Gertrude D. Freeman, ‘Recollections of My Childhood and Later Days’, John Burnett archive, Brunel University, WR127DQ
1. ‘the happy event’, E. M. Newman, ed., ‘Maternity Wear’, The Baby Book (London: Newbourne Publications Ltd, 1954), p.9, author’s own
2. ‘absolutely nothing’, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Slipstream, p.134
3. ‘Birth of a Baby’, Val Williams, Women Photographers, p.138
4. ‘look their charming best’, The Baby Book, p.9–10
5. ‘the wife’, Elizabeth Sloan Chesser in Myself When Young, p.77
6. ‘You must remember’, ‘Nursery Routine: The Threshold of Motherhood’, Home Management, p.499
7. ‘the pixie suit’, The Baby Book, p.46
8. ‘knitted by hand’, Emma Smith, The Great Western Beach, p.5
9. ‘pressed against’, Alison Uttley, Country World, p.37
10. ‘little girls’, My Own Story, p.25
11. ‘the dirty girls’, Ethel Mannin, Confessions and Impressions, p.34
12. ‘a Galway school’, Amelia Gentleman, interview with Catherine Corless, ‘I Want To Know Who’s Down There’, Guardian, 14 June 2014
13. ‘washed dozens’, A London Childhood, p.131
14. ‘doll’s hats’, ‘came to the nursery’, The New House, p.79
15. ‘ready to fall’, Joan Russell Noble, ed., Recollections of Virginia Woolf (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975), p.106
16. ‘Johanna Street’, ‘tiny pink bonnets’, ‘a vest’, ‘We were given’, The Purple Dress, p.15
17. ‘gives to everyone’, Festival of Britain catalogue, 1951, p.74
18. ‘keynote’, Ronald Ridout, Second Introductory English Workbook, author’s own
19. ‘Today is Tuesday’, infant school exercise book, author’s own
20. ‘Lil of the Lighthouse’, ‘the Richest Girl in the School’, A Child of the Forest, p.52
21. ‘Can’t you really sew?’, Enid Blyton, Mr Galliano’s Circus (London: George Newnes, 1938), p.101
1. ‘Sluts’, Katharine Whitehorn, Observer, 29 December 1963
2. ‘By Industry We Thrive’, View of Fashion, p.255
3. ‘Steel-bound and whalebone-lined’, Irene Clephane, Our Mothers, p.191–220
4. ‘thank the many ladies’, Shopping Festival advert, Derbyshire Times, 25 April 1914
5. ‘The number of stays’, Katharine Whitehorn, Roundabout, p.83
6. ‘the modern figure’, ‘Dressing for Success’, Miss Modern, October 1930
7. ‘Struggling into’, The Purple Dress, p.12–3
8. ‘secret service’, quoted in Dear Laughing Motorbyke, p.13
9. ‘Youthcraft Girdles,’ Fiona MacCarthy, Last Curtsey, p.57–8
10. ‘The mere thirty million’, ‘the oldest hands’, Roundabout, p.83
11. ‘We in our elasticised’, ‘All Our Yesterdays’ from Punch, 2 May 1956, quoted in View of Fashion, p.243
12. I can’t see’, Mary Quant, Quant by Quant, p.148
13. ‘Youthlines’, advert, Nova, March 1965
14. ‘To me’, Quant by Quant, p.148
15. ‘She was reputed’, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm, p.11
16. ‘even if you had’, Bad Blood, p.211
17. ‘a thing no other girl’, Edna O’Brien, The Country Girls, p.81
18. ‘underwear revolution’, ‘no-bra bra’, Sandy Boler, ‘Beatrix Miller editor British Vogue 1964–1986’, Vogue, May 2014
19. ‘I do not suppose’, Daisy Lansbury, ‘The Private Secretary’, The Road to Success, p.74
20. ‘Very Special’; ‘Sanitary Woollen Clothing’, Shops and Shopping, p.184
21. ‘It was depressing’; ‘festooned with’, Excellent Women, p.81
22. ‘the cami-knicker’, C.W. Cunnington, English Women’s Clothing in the Present Day, p.198
23. ‘wicked daring’, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, p.92
24. ‘Delia cuts out’, 4 August 1941, These Wonderful Rumours!; ‘a nifty brassière’, 25 June 1943
25. ‘for those dainty undies’, Woman’s Life, 25 June 1941, MoDA, MJ144
26. ‘sunbathing’; ‘scanties’, English Women’s Clothing in the Present Day, p.225
27. ‘the black underwear’, The Country Girls, p.151; ‘We want to live’, p.154
28. ‘a flighty, precocious’, Brown Bread and Butter in the Basement, pp.138–9
29. ‘Ticket to Heaven’, Mary Badger Wilson, My Home, April 1930
30. ‘Gifts She’ll Adore’, Swallow’s of Chesterfield, Christmas catalogue, 1965, Chesterfield Library, Local Studies
31. ‘and some’, 5 January 1944, Love is Blue, p.134
32. ‘Getting married’, Fay Weldon, Down Among the Women, p.96
33. ‘Younger women’, Rachel Cooke, ‘Fifty Years of the Pill’, Observer, 6 June 2010
34. ‘This Christmas’, Punch, 18 December 1963
1. ‘anonymous caps’, One Fine Day, p.174
2. ‘Frazerton overall’, The Lady, 12 June 1919
3. ‘for the messiest of jobs’, The Needlewoman, July 1929
4. ‘The dirt you can’t’, advert for Goblin vacuum cleaner, Modern Home, March 1930
5. ‘In Afternoon’, unpublished diary, author’s own
6. ‘Should Wives Have Wages?’, Ragtime to Wartime, pp.34–5
7. ‘From 6.30 am to 9 am’, Women’s Institute, Home and Country, June 1922
8. ‘that bit of extra daily work’, ‘Daily Routine – the Bedroom’, Home and Country, August 1922
9. ‘How dreadful’, The Pursuit of Love, pp.111–2
10. ‘the trouble with housework’, Monica Dickens, One Pair of Hands, p.21
11. ‘things needed for marriage’, unpublished notebook, courtesy of Kathryn Hartley
12. ‘I must avoid’, Julia, p.231; ‘MAGNIFICENT’, p.230
13. ‘It’s hard to imagine’, ‘Your Home’, Modern Homes Illustrated, 1947
14. ‘The [Kenwood] chef’, reproduced in the Guardian, Women’s Page, 17 September 1998
15. ‘She cannot wash’, 15 March 1950, Nella Last in the 1950s
16. ‘As I often tell her’, 6 December 1950, Nella Last in the 1950s
17. ‘I myself loathe’, Elizabeth Taylor, The Wedding Group, p.47
18. ‘Why did The Lord?’, A London Girl of the 1880s, p.81
19. ‘Every woman’, quoted by Robert Opie, The 1950s Scrapbook (London: New Cavendish, 1998), p.27
20. ‘Thinking, Planning’, Penelope Mortimer, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting, p.67
21. ‘Devoted Docile Wives’, 13 August 1945, These Wonderful Rumours!
22. ‘hate the thought’, 1 October 1945, These Wonderful Rumours!
23. ‘a minefield’, Bad Blood, p.160
24. ‘understanding about money’, One Fine Day, p.83
25. ‘You Start by Sinking’, Spare Rib tea towel
1. ‘You must have’, The Needlewoman, June 1929
2. ‘Instant Paris’, In Vogue, p.227
3. ‘Veiled Radiance’ advert, quoted in View of Fashion, p.115
4. ‘Golden Girl Cosmetics’, advert, Nova, June 1965
1. ‘black stockings’, Sheila Rowbotham, ‘Revolt in Roundhay’, in Truth, Dare or Promise, p.189
2. ‘the first duty’, ‘the legs and lashes’, Brown Bread and Butter in the Basement, p.172
3. ‘role as signal’, In Vogue, p.203
4. ‘The young girls’, Barbara Hulanicki, A to Biba, pp.30–1
5. ‘God! This Modern Youth!’, Quant by Quant, p.27
6. ‘It was where’, Diana Melly, ‘Beyond the Fringe’, Independent on Sunday, 30 October 2005
7. ‘Are Teenagers Taking Over?’ quoted by Arthur Marwick in The Sixties, p.60
8. ‘Their 1950s’, Bad Blood, p.174
9. ‘we would sit’, Twiggy Lawson, Twiggy in Black and White, p.40; ‘although expensive’, p.34
10. ‘modesty boards’, ‘Office/Politics/Women in the Workplace, 1860–2004’, Women’s Library Exhibition, 2004
11. ‘outstripping’, Barbara Hulanicki and Martin Pel, The Biba Years, p.24
12. ‘There should be’, Twiggy in Black and White, pp.43–3
13. ‘Perhaps it was’, Alexandra Pringle, ‘Chelsea Girl’ in Very Heaven, p.39
14. ‘the girl who is with-it’, Quant by Quant, p.83; ‘intelligent’, p.82; ‘they want clothes’, p.99; ‘there was a time’, p.67; ‘Since the sexes’, p.68; ‘dishy grotty’, p.66; ‘we sold these’, p.53
15. ‘Bazaar in the Kings Road’, Twiggy in Black and White, p.42
16. ‘Dresses were’, A to Biba, p.106
17. ‘Clothes were everything’, Twiggy in Black and White, p.54
18. ‘the free, swinging’, Cindy strapline quoted by Robert Opie in The 1960s Scrapbook (London: New Cavendish, 2000), p.23
19. ‘the well-dressed young man’, The 1960s Scrapbook, p.23
1. ‘taught by’, Katharine Whitehorn, Observer, 7 December 1997
2. ‘One Woman in Her Day’, Nova, May 1965
3. ‘Women who make up’, Nova, March 1965
4. ‘Nova is a magazine’, advertisement, New Statesman, 10 September 1965
5. ‘At The Sunday Times’, Women’s Library Handling Collection, 1968
6. ‘the relaxation of manners’, Angela Carter, ‘Truly, It Felt Like Year One’, Sara Maitland, ed., Very Heaven, p.213
7. ‘Truly, It Felt Like Year One’, Angela Carter, quoted by Sara Maitland in Very Heaven, p.4
8. ‘Our subject matter’, Margaret Drabble, ‘A Woman Writer’, Books on Women, Spring 1973, National Book League
9. ‘sought on everything’, Shena Mackay interviewed by Ian Hamilton, Guardian, 10 July 1999
10. ‘Report on Women’, from ‘Outlook for the Future’, Votes for Women 1918–1968, Golden Jubilee Celebration, Women’s Library, 5MWA9/1
11. ‘The cat is out’, Three Guineas, p.60
12. ‘The New Generation Jersey’, Swallow’s of Chesterfield, November catalogue 1965, Chesterfield Library, Local Studies
13. ‘This is the trend’, Swallow’s of Chesterfield
14. ‘a slim skirt’, The Biba Years, p.39
15. ‘a lovely affair’, advert for Gorringe’s, The Lady, 8 October 1925
1. ‘all have’, Linda Grant, ‘The Ladies’ Paradise’, Guardian, 27 June 1998
2. ‘It was going’, A to Biba, p.146
3. ‘the winter colours’, 1973 Biba promotional newspaper
4. ‘weak spot’, The Pauper’s Homemaking Book, p.282
5. ‘No woman’, National Provincial, p.291
1. ‘fashion has little’, Household Words, 17 April 1852
2. ‘the best boundary’, Carolyn Steedman, Landscape for a Good Woman, p.38