Small World - Jonathan's Book

Linn

Linn

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Small World - Jonathan\'s Book

I am an avid reader. I went to the Kailua Libary (on Windward Oahu - suburban Honolulu) before the long holiday weekend and was thrilled to see that Jonathan's excellent book, "Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look" was featured in the "New Book" section.

It's also featured on the VFG home page. Here's a link to purchase it at amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/05...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0500514291

I highly recommend it!

Linn
 
That's one of my all time favourite books, Linn - I love WW2 fashions and until now it was a very neglected period in fashion. When I wrote the chapter in my book I struggled to find much good information. There seemed to be this idea that the world of fashion just stopped during the war....as if fashion ever stops!

Nicole
 
I think it was Lynn (Lkranieri) who found a 1941 American news snippet that defines what CC stood for. In all the documents and histories I read before writing the book I never found a period definition of what CC stood for and the most commonly referred to definition was Civilian Clothing, but the mark was also applied to furniture, so I never loved that explanation, but most historians defined it as that. Obviously it would have been defined in the original documentation, but that all seems to have been lost or misplaced or still under war secrets (like the info about the double elevens mark).
 
In Britain CC41 stood for Civilian Clothing even though other 'commodities' such as furniture and housewares also had stamps or labels with CC41. Most respected authors writing about utility fashions define CC41 as Civilian Clothing. CC41 was derived from Britain's Board of Trade 'Utility Clothing Scheme.' This extract explains the background;

http://tinyurl.com/mf4l7s

I looked at the American newspaper item that Lynn posted and it may have been an assumption on the writer's part to use the term 'Controlled Commodities' which may have stemmed from the The Commodity Exchange Act passed by the US Congress in 1936.

It is a bit puzzling to understand why 'Utility' commodities weren't given their own individual label or stamp although I believe that there was a numbering system that may have identified the product.
 
going a bit off topic- recently found some CC41 fabric, curtain fabric, and it has a number after the symbol- what did these numbers stand for?

I've been meaning to buy both books, and look forward to reading them!

Here's a pic of the stamp on the fabric if anyone is interested:

 
If you go to the link in my post you will find a reference to numbers that were given to cloth used for clothing as a means of price control. Checks could be traced when the fabric was passed from trader to trader. It may be likely therefore that this system was applied to furnishing fabrics also. Thanks for the photo reference.
 
The issue I found was that all references to the definition of what CC stood for were always secondary, or from memory, which allows for error. I could never find any primary document that defined what CC stood for. The closest I came to was that American snippet. You are right, it could be an American interpretation but there was something about the way it was worded that sounded like the info came from an official document or source, like a Reuter's news service bulletin sort of thing. Believe me, I searched high and low for a primary document, but without actually going to England and leafing through volumes of endless wartime papers at the national archives or war museum, it wasn't going to happen. The best luck I had was talking to the nephew of the designer of the mark. He is the one that also remembered the second label with the circle flanked by bars was referred to as the 'double elevens' mark.

As for the marks on the curtain fabric - vertugarde's sugggestion sounds good to me. Everything was so inventoried and double checked, and measured and accounted for at the time, although it would be tempting to think the 43 stood for 1943 and the 2 for February... but that's just speculation.
 
Originally posted by vertugarde
If you go to the link in my post you will find a reference to numbers that were given to cloth used for clothing as a means of price control. Checks could be traced when the fabric was passed from trader to trader.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that great link vertugrade, there is some great information there.

I'd love to think the date meant 1943, thank you for that suggestion jonathan.

Your books are beautiful, I've looked through them both at book stores and can't wait to buy my own copies. :wub:
 
Doing some research on the numbers below a CC41 mark, I have a variety on different lengths of dresses, tops etc. Has anyone ever found a chart that determines which garment was given a particular number?
 
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