Dressed for War

Men in khaki and grey squatting in the trenches women at work gender bending in goggles and overalls over their trousers a girl at the Paris theatre in pleated beaded silk a bangle on her forearm made from copper fuse wire from the Somme. What people wear matters. Copiously illustrated this book is the story of what people on both sides wore on the front line and on the home front through the seismic years of World War I. Nina Edwards reveals fresh aspects of the war through the prism of the smallest details of personal dress of clothes hair and accessories both in uniform and civilian wear. She explores how during a period of extraordinary upheaval and rapid change a particular preference for a type of razor blade or perfume say or the just-so adjustment to the tilt of a hat offer insights into the individual experience of men women and children during the course of World War I.