Sara - clothes rationing ended in 1949 but CC41 continued beyond rationing until 1952 even though the last food items under rationing did not end until 1954. Rationing, utility and austerity are interconnected but unrelated to each other. Rationing just limited the number of garments you could buy, utility regulated the manufacture of the garments, and austerity regulated the details and fabric usage in garment. So CC41 clothes were made for the English market only, not for export, they adhered to austerity regulations and were available to English citizens beginning in March 1942, a year after clothing rationing was introduced. AUsterity affected ALL clothing produced, regardless of whether it was CC41 or not, manufactured or made to order. Rationing didn't care diddly squat about either utility or austerity, only that you used the correct number of points to acquire new clothes. So that is where a lot of people are confused because they think CC41 meant clothes made for rationing, when they did not. It was the result of rationing because a poor person had to use 7 coupons yo buy a crap dress, the same number of coupons a wealthy person had to use for a couture dress. The crap rayon dress fell apart after 3 washings, while the couture wool dress could be worn for 3 years after many cleanings. Utility was intended to even this inequity out, so that cheap clothes were made to a good standard, and made to order clothes required a tax for purchase, however, both garments would have to adhere to austerity regulations -- no cuffs, 4 buttons, 1/4 inch seam allowances etc.
Paul -- the CC41 label is like a quality guarantee, the equivalent of an American union made garment label. It assures the garment is made of good material, sewn well, and tax-free for purchase. It was intended for both the retailer and client to see because the retailer would have to submit the tax on the sale if the tag was not in the garment. SO it was to everyone's advantage that that tag remained. Eventually, CC41 clothes became associated with dull, detailess, wartime restricted fashions. After the New Look was introduced British manufacturers weren't using the same fabric allowances due to austerity measures, and CC41 became a victim of quality control the same way council housing in England is sneered at as poor quality, when in fact council housing was government regulated to ensure quality standards of contruction -- but it was eventually seen as dull and ugly, like CC41 clothes.
That's why I think this dinner plate 'posh' label is some variation of CC41 clothing because it appears in better quality garments with better designs and details. It might have been made for export but the vast majority of items with this label are found in England and the few that do show up over here could well have come with a warbride's trousseau. There isn't enough over here to suggest it was exported and as it's meaning wouldn't relate to any anything regarding our taxation or regulations (North American clothing regulation ends in the U.S. in November 46 and in Canada in May 1947) the label must be for English use.
