(Women welders from World War II)

 

There are some clothes that my mother hates…but I love – Utility wear comes under that heading.  I suspect it’s a generation thing..my Grandmother hated brass beds associating them with poverty, the Husband’s mother hates our wooden floorboards preferring her perceived luxury of fitted carpets.  Then there’s the ongoing discussions between the benefits of a free-standing kitchen rather than a fitted one.  We definitely see things with different eyes depending on our subliminal associations.

 

 

 

I love a good Chore coat, like this one from Toast.  But my mother would see small, grubby, repetitive work with a touch of coarse.  Clothes reduced to their bare essentials with aprons and housecoats abandoned for their practical purposes because the undercurrent of domestic containment is just too strong.

 

But for me there’s an intrinsic quality – I embrace the practicality, the structured comfort, the soft detailing, the wholesome vintage charm.  Instead of servitude and drudgery it represents a time when we took pride in making things from scratch..when it seemed there was more space to breathe.

 

(Also from Toast)

 

(By Sisters by Sibling SS14) 

Of course,  you could just see them as brilliant coats, perfect for layering in this bridging the weather time till the lazy days of summer truly hit…

Laters, Kate x