Making Do

Examines how clothing became crucial for Britons in refashioning themselves and their relationships with others after World War II.

When World War II ended, a textile famine loomed. Garments were chronically scarce. What would everyone wear as uniforms were discarded and soldiers returned home, Nazi camps were liberated, and millions of refugees struggled to subsist? Making Do examines the crucial role of clothing in refashioning lives after devastating violence.Imagine a world in which clothing wasn't superabundant – cheap, disposable, indestructible – but perishable, threadbare and chronically scarce. Eighty years ago, when World War II ended, a textile famine loomed. What would everyone wear as uniforms were discarded and soldiers returned home, Nazi camps were liberated, and millions of uprooted people struggled to subsist? In this richly textured history, Carruthers unpicks a familiar wartime motto, 'Make Do and Mend', to reveal how central fabric was to postwar Britain. Clothes and footwear supplied a currency with which some were rewarded, while others went without. Making Do moves from Britain's demob centres to liberated Belsen – from razed German cities to refugee camps and troopships – to uncover intimate ties between Britons and others bound together in new patterns of mutual need. Filled with original research and personal stories, Making Do illuminates how lives were refashioned after the most devastating war in human history.