2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

Great point @Laura_Elsewhere! Putting my sociology head on, I'd say it's partly about conspicuous consumption: the woman was historically reflecting her husband's earning power (Veblen) and variety of clothing was one of the ways it was demonstrated, as were bright colours which indicated she was a 'object' who could be dressed up, and she didn't need to wear practical things because she didn't need to work, as he was her provider.

I've not read Veblen in nearly 40 years, mind, and that time was more than enough. His English is obscure and convoluted.  

I suppose if you turn that around, you have an explanation for men continuing to wear dull colours. Habit and tradition play a major part too - why can't men wear those highly visible pieces of jewellery that some very successful women sport?

Liverpool_Anne

@Laura_Elsewhere, I couldn't agree more, I had a "uniform" when I was working, black or navy trousers, plain t shirt and rotated through 4 jumpers. I was lucky because it was not expected that I dressed up for work, not public facing etc. I think some of the pressure still comes from employers who expect their female employees to dress in certain ways and ring the changes every day. This, of course has taken us down the path of cheaper clothing that has led to "disposable" fast fashion. You have to be very strong to go against this ethos and to a certain extent the peer pressure I have often seen in the workplace. Combine this with the lower income most women have, even in this day and age , and women find it harder to buy clothes that last. I am always immensely impressed by women who manage to achieve this, shout out to Pip
@Cherryfudge I agree men should wear colours more often, I love to see a bright tie or shirt even on men but again there is the same expectations by employers and peer pressure. I remember a middle aged teacher I once worked with who commented on my colourful wardrobe and said he wished he was brave enough to wear something other than black or navy with a white shirt. 
Take care everyone

nannygladys

Skogar & TweedleDee - ooh, I've just been down a wonderous rabbit hole!!!!

There's some lovely ideas out there and I'm very tempted. I reckon in the next few days I'm going to have a good look at what's in the wardrobe and try to put together some sort of capsule wardrobe, it will be more than nine items but I know there's tops, jumpers and other bits that don't go with anything, so either I get rid of them or look for other bits to incorporate them - it's a good job I'm following a no spend January all this is quite exciting for me, all the possibilities of sewing, knitting and cs shopping!!!!  Hopefully by February I will have some ideas of what is needed and I can put a list together and stalk the cs shops, as I don't really want to buy too much new.

Thanks for all the brilliant ideas, I'm really enjoying this journey.
Nannyg

Laura_Elsewhere

One of the funny things is that I have a notebook from c.2015-17 (I moved here and started my new life in late 2014), in which I drew up detailed plans for a wonderful new wardrobe, carefully based around neutrals that change through the year, with colours to go with them which change through the year but also which are deliberately chosen to go with the previous or next season's neutrals, so I could have cross-over-and-seasonal clothing in colours I love... 
The plan lay almost forgotten til about my third year in this thread when it started hollering and banging on the inside of the lid of the box I'd put it in... and now, slowly, I'm assembling it... largely thanks to this thread! 

nannygladys

I think the first thing I will do is to get everything out and separate the summer clothes and put them in a suitcase out of the way and see what I have left!  That shouldn't take too long as I don't have that many clothes, then I will have a go at sorting them into colours/outfits. I don't know about anybody else but I tend to wear the same few bits over and over again and I'm sure I could do better. I may even start a new notebook with a list - I love a list, don't always follow it but I love them! So that will be my starting point. 
Nannyg

CAFCGirl

nannygladys said:

I don't know about anybody else but I tend to wear the same few bits over and over again and I'm sure I could do better. 
Nannyg

I think we all often fall into this...

Also there may be items that you can't think of how to style, or that you think don't go with other things, but someone else might see it in a completely different light, or with a different colour palette etc, so its always worth adding a snap of an item if you love it in itself and ask the thread how they see it.

Apparently, should anyone have a website of much PINspiration, you can apparently take a photo of an item and search the site and it will show similar items in its image catalogue, which again much give some alternatives for styling pieces

CapricornLass

There are still companies who dictate to women what they should wear.  Up to 2015, Capita insisted on women staff working at the MOD wearing a black two piece suit with a white blouse, and black high heels... The men were the same (minus the high heels).  They stuck out like sore thumbs and looked like clones....

Needless to say, Capita was one company I didn't look at as new employers when I left the MOD.  It would be nice to think that Capita have changed, but I suspect not.

Good luck with the capsule wardrobes, everyone.  I really need to do a bit of a weed out, but at the moment I can't be bothered!

MoneysavingmadGem

I'm the same nanny g, no need to dress up where I work so I live in the same clothes .... jeans, tshirt, wool jumper in winter! Why I'm trying to make a couple pieces to bring me out of the rut I am in. Also because a certain period in time has led to an increase and change in shape so I'm not confident in ant of my nice clothes I used to wear instead of jeans. 

I'm in process of wardrobe decamp, though to be honest most of it is olim the to go pile due to size amd fit now! 

Always tried to work on a minimal clothing basis but never really thought about it in a capsule format.... 

Cherryfudge

Well, my favourite jeans (the ones I where I got another year's worth by embroidering the knee) have given up the ghost and the fabric is too thin to mend. I have plenty of other jeans so I'm not about to replace them, but I thought that, what with the resources that go into denim, I'd look into recycling some of the fabric.

It turns out a famous jeans company has some nice ideas, which I've whittled down to apron with pockets, rag rug and baby bibs. I think I will be asking the family for any damaged jeans, because one pair of well-worn skinnies is never going to make all that. It could be some useful machine sewing practice though.

The WIP (knitted baby blanket) is growing a bit a day and this section is very plain so I don't have to think about it. Some 35 cm to go on thin (old size 10) needles, then a 4cm border on the remaining three sides, and attach the backing. Baby is nearly a month old now so I might get there before she grows out of it!

OldWomanWhoLivesInAShoe

Good morning all! 

Just moved to Much Mending on the Borrow with my husband and 5 children. We are seasoned food 'rationers' as have been doing a quarterly ration rotation since the children were born. (Out of historical interest more than necessity - I've a huge amount of interest in WW2 homemaking and all associated nonsense as my husband calls it) 

We are keen to join the Fashion Ration challenge this year, en masse if you will have us?

I believe the children are an extra half ration in clothing coupons, as ours range from 5-15 there's no additional scope for a layette (maybe later in the year if we're lucky 😉) I a keeping everyone at 66 and once someone can confirm their coupon numbers I shall take the rest for towels and bedding.

Myself 66
Hubby 62 (2 white cotton vests)
15yo DD1- 61 (warm fleece jumper)
14yo DS1 - 66
12yo DD2 - 66
11yo DS1 - 66
  5yo DD3 - 60? (1 cardigan and 1 pair of very sturdy boots)

Must get a copy of children's coupon worth so I can accurately record things.

Oldest items of clothing in circulation in this house belong to DD3(5) they are dresses made by my great great grandmother for my great grandmother and her sister around 1924. We have 5 living generations currently and each one of us has at some stage been the owner of these dresses, sometimes several owners per generation (they're on the third owner from my children alone!) 

Oldest items not in circulation are furs from 1800 that I inherited from a lovely lady I once knew who had no daughters of her own.

Now the benefits to all these children is that the sugar ration in my house stretches as far as the eye can see, so I managed to spare a little fat for scones and am bringing a rather sizeable jar of mixed fruit jam to leave for everyone to share. Should I pop it to the kitchen?