Wearing Propaganda Textiles in Japan, Britain and the United States, 1931-1945 Jacqueline M. Atkins

Protest fashion from the Vietnam War years is widely familiar, but today few are aware that dramatic fashion and textile designs served as patriotic propaganda for the Japanese, British, and Americans during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945). This fabulously illustrated book presents hundreds of examples of how fashion was employed by commercial interests on all sides of the conflict to boost morale and fan patriotism. From a kimono lined with images of U.S. planes being bombed to a British scarf emblazoned with optimistic anti-rationing slogans, Wearing Propaganda documents the development of the role of fashion as propaganda first in Japan and soon thereafter in Britain and the United States. The book discusses traditional and contemporary Japanese styles and what they revealed about Japanese domestic attitudes to war, and it shows how these attitudes echoed or contrasted with British and American fashions that were virulently anti-Japanese in some instances, humorously upbeat about wartime deprivations in others. With insights into style and design, fashion history, material culture, and the social history of Japan, the United States, and Britain, this book offers unexpected riches for every reader. Exhibition schedule: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture (November, 2005 - February, 2006). Other venues to be announced.

Jacqueline M. Atkins is adjunct professor at New York University and curator of the Bard Graduate Center Wearing Propaganda exhibition.

'Wearing Propaganda takes a scholarly, and surprisingly fascinating, look at fashion and textiles as propaganda for the Japanese, British and Americans during the Asia Pacific War.' - The Independent

'...lavish and beautiful...it is the volume's painstaking exposition of [wartime designs and patterns]...which establishes it as truly original work.' - Cynthia Rose, Crafts Beautiful

'...surprising... [Wearing Propaganda] marks out a particular moment that made possible many of the things that we take for granted in contemporary fashion today.' - Modern Painters

'...our expectations are challenged by the illustrations in this book, which reveal the exuberance, creativity and even the beauty of works of wartime propaganda. ... The illustrations of the Japanese work take centre stage... For us in the West, the display of these garments is a revelation.' - Toby Clark, World of Interiors

'A substantial, beautifully designed and presented book, this is a scholarly record not just of the clothing of the time...its superb illustrations are numerous, of high quality, and well-captioned... [They] immediately draw the eye, but the text deserves deeper attention. ... There is simply a huge amount of information here, placing the whole period in a new perspective. ... It investigates a period that has probably not previously been covered in such depth, and certainly has not been presented so beautifully before.' - Katherine James, Embroidery Magazine

'...fascinating...compelling...a handsome, scholarly volume...' - Juliet Gardiner, History Today