Clothing, which included footwear, underwear, hosiery, socks, and knitting wool was rationed in Australia from June 1942 until June 1948. Each adult was entitled to 112 clothing coupons per year with a lesser number for children.
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Typically a lady’s dress required 15 coupons, while a man’s suit required 40 coupons. Clothing price tags most often showed the number of coupons required as well as the cost of the article.
Manufacturers and shopkeepers were allowed to sell existing stock but all new items had to comply with specifications produced by the National Council of Clothes Styling.
Items for which further manufacture was banned included divided skirts, evening dresses, dinner gowns, cloaks, wraps, riding britches and men’s waistcoats. Ladies bloomers were also on the banned list because they used far too much elastic.
Men’s Victory Suits were standardised and were of one style only. Trousers had to be slim and cuffless. Coats could not be double-breasted, or have more than two pockets or use more than four buttons. Buttons could not be used on coat sleeves.
There was no particular style specified for ladies dresses but they had to be free of all non-utility features, including long skirts. Most households had a treadle sewing machine on which clothing could be made without any restrictions as to style. The shortage of dressmaking material was eased somewhat when parachute silk became available after hostilities ceased.
It often happened that people did not have enough coupons for tea or butter but had a few clothing coupons to spare. Despite government efforts to stop the practice it was always possible to arrange a swap to relieve the situation.
One Woolbrook bride recalled that in 1946 she did not have enough clothing ration coupons for her wedding dress until several friends came to her aid by adding their coupons to hers. She said four of her friends were later married in the same dress.
Nylon stockings were almost impossible to obtain, other than as a gift from an American serviceman on leave in Australia. Stockings had seams in those days and many a young lady went out for the evening with seams drawn on the back of her legs with an eyebrow pencil.
23rd July 2018