09-04-2009, 12:47 PM
Clothing was hard to get during the war for the same reasons as other raw materials. Fabrics were either unavailable or being used for military purposes. Like these other materials, clothing had to be rationed. Even with rationing, some items of clothing could not be found.
For example, stockings were impossible to find. Before the war, stockings were made of silk, but silk came from Japan. Once war was declared on Japan, silk was off the market. The next choice of material to make stockings was nylon. Unfortunately for American women, all the nylon was needed to make parachutes. In the end, stockings were made of cotton, but even these were high in demand and low on supply. Many women learned to go without stockings at all. Going barelegged in the 1940s was shocking, so some women came up with a plan. The woman pictured above is drawing a line up the back of her leg to make it look like she is wearing stockings with seams in the back!
photo_vert_stockings.jpg (Dimensione: 7.13 KB / Download: 5,042)
( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/wwii/ahf/life/woman.htm">http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIE ... /woman.htm</a><!-- m --> )
For example, stockings were impossible to find. Before the war, stockings were made of silk, but silk came from Japan. Once war was declared on Japan, silk was off the market. The next choice of material to make stockings was nylon. Unfortunately for American women, all the nylon was needed to make parachutes. In the end, stockings were made of cotton, but even these were high in demand and low on supply. Many women learned to go without stockings at all. Going barelegged in the 1940s was shocking, so some women came up with a plan. The woman pictured above is drawing a line up the back of her leg to make it look like she is wearing stockings with seams in the back!
photo_vert_stockings.jpg (Dimensione: 7.13 KB / Download: 5,042)
( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/wwii/ahf/life/woman.htm">http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIE ... /woman.htm</a><!-- m --> )