Through the centuries, women have used textiles to express their ideas and political opinions, creating items of utility that also function as works of art. Beginning with medieval European embroideries and tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry, this book examines the ways in which women around the world have recorded the impact of war on their lives using traditional fabric art forms of knitting, sewing, quilting, embroidery, weaving, basketry and rug making. Works from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, the Middle and Near East, and Oceania are analyzed in terms of content and utility, and cultural and economic implications for the women who created them are discussed. Traditional women's work served to document the upheaval in their lives and supplemented their family income. By creating textiles that responded to the chaos of war, women developed new textile traditions, modified old traditions and created a vehicle to express their feelings.

In September 1939, just three weeks after the outbreak of war, Gladys Mason wrote briefly in her diary about events in Europe: 'Hitler watched German siege of Warsaw. City in flames.' And, she continued, 'Had my wedding dress fitted. Lovely.' For Gladys Mason, and for thousands of women throughout the long years of the war, fashion was not simply a distraction, but a necessity - and one they weren't going to give up easily. In the face of bombings, conscription, rationing and ludicrous bureaucracy, they maintained a sense of elegance and style with determination and often astonishing ingenuity. From the young woman who avoided the dreaded 'forces bloomers' by making knickers from military-issue silk maps, to Vogue's indomitable editor Audrey Withers, who balanced lobbying government on behalf of her readers with driving lorries for the war effort, Julie Summers weaves together stories from ordinary lives and high society to provide a unique picture of life during the Second World War. As a nation went into uniform and women took on traditional male roles, clothing and beauty began to reflect changing social attitudes. For the first time, fashion was influenced not only by Hollywood and high society but by the demands of industrial production and the pressing need to 'make-do-and-mend'. Beautifully illustrated and full of gorgeous detail, Fashion on the Ration lifts the veil on a fascinating era in British fashion.

"First published by the Ministry of Information in 1943"--T.p. verso.

This book restores to history the lives of American women involved in war work during World War I.

Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory accompanies a landmark traveling exhibit of textiles depicting the horrors of war, by women from Central and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and South Africa. Textile artists (mostly women) throughout the world have responded to the terror of 20th-century war by incorporating images of war into works produced with traditional methods: Hmong embroiderers created storycloths depicting the plight of unarmed refugees confronted with modern military might; Afghan rug weavers replaced traditional motifs with images of tanks, machine pistols and AK-47s; Peruvian appliqués picture soldiers beating peasants. These textiles encompass powerful contradictions: individual artistry versus community aesthetics; global versus local impacts of war; individual versus universal experience; and assumptions of folk arts as unchanging, rural, and complacent. Many of the artists still live in countries that are marked by recent conflict and some are refugees who have resettled in the United States. Weavings of War stands as an eloquent and powerful testimony of the impact of modern warfare in our world and the relevancy and resilience of folk arts in contemporary life. The exhibition provides an opportunity to examine our existing notions of not only traditional arts in general but also the role of traditional arts in cultures rent by armed conflict, social upheaval, and displacement. Among the contributors are curator Ariel Zeitlin Cooke, consulting curator/folklorist Marsha MacDowell, historian James Young, and folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett.

"A fascinating history of…[a craft] that preceded and made possible civilization itself." —New York Times Book Review New discoveries about the textile arts reveal women's unexpectedly influential role in ancient societies. Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous economic force, belonging primarily to women. Despite the great toil required in making cloth and clothing, most books on ancient history and economics have no information on them. Much of this gap results from the extreme perishability of what women produced, but it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture. Elizabeth Wayland Barber has drawn from data gathered by the most sophisticated new archaeological methods—methods she herself helped to fashion. In a "brilliantly original book" (Katha Pollitt, Washington Post Book World), she argues that women were a powerful economic force in the ancient world, with their own industry: fabric.