Life during World War II in London

During the six years Britain was at war, 1939–45, life was frequently hard for Londoners, particularly the children. Food and clothing were rationed and in short supply. Bombing caused fear, injury, death and destruction, and London was a main target for enemy bombing during World War II.  The government encouraged parents to send their children away from London for their safety so many families were often separated due to evacuation and fathers going away to fight. Nearly two million children were evacuated from their homes at the start of World War Two; children had to endure rationing, gas mask lessons, living with strangers etc. Children accounted for one in ten of the deaths during the Blitz of London from 1940 to 1941.

Volunteers organised an evacuation programme; children were sent away with their school teachers to live with host families in ‘safe’ areas such as the countryside.

The picture below is a postcard and was one in a series made by a greeting card company for parents to send to their children. The image of happy children it shows offers a positive view of evacuation. This cheerful card hides the reality of life for some child evacuees.

The only way Germany could get at mainland Britain was to bomb it. This occurred during the Blitz and seemed to reinforce the government’s decision to introduce evacuation at the start of the war.
The impact of evacuation on children depended to an extent on which social class you were in at the time. Parents who had access to money made their own arrangements whereas children at private schools based in the cities tended to move out to manor houses in the countryside where children at that school could be, in the main, kept together. But 1.9 million children gathered at rail stations in early September not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had gathered with them.

It is difficult to know what kind of damage this experience had on the children. Physical damage was visible and could be dealt with but the psychological damage some must have suffered was difficult to measure.

“The forgotten victims of World War Two were the children.”  Juliet Gardiner.

concept

To further push the concept we decided that we are going to set our editorial in a setting that is  'pre narnia' and outside the closet. It gives it a bit more mystery to think of what may be in the closet, and bringing in the aspects of ghosts and children's imaginations that there could be ghosts in the closet.

It would be great if we could find a closet to use in our shoot and show the door ajar, leaving to the imagination to what could be in there. Also to put the band members in the closet, playing dress up and playing with the idea of escapism.
In the movie it was the 1940s and the war was happening which was why they were being sent away from their family. The concept of Narnia was the children's way of occupying themselves from what was happening so we could portray this by having our band play around and dressing up.

I found this image and it would be great to capture the fun nature that is displayed in this photo and the essence of kids dressing up.

In the movie when they get sent off the kids have numbered tickets attached to them and this could be an interesting thing to carry into the photoshoot to make a subtle reference to the movie.

We can use fashions from the 1940s which was inspiration taken from the movie.
From this we can include:
          -long hemlines
          -womens suiting
          - V necks

styling inspiration

Long coats and furs suit the english aesthetic we are going for. I would love to find a turtle neck sweater like the one below for men.

 

seeing double

So after our presentation to the class, feedback that we received was that we had not touched on the surreal/Narnia aspect enough. Which was true, we hadn't quite thought out what surreal like things we would show in the editorial.
After seeing a powerpoint in Janet's class, this image caught my eye in a slideshow:

This image is very surreal in terms of the double face and the way its trippy and looks like a ghost. I thought maybe we could look at using this technique in our photography and this would bring in the surreal element we are missing. Ghosts are also linked to english aesthetic as it is a big in england with ghost tours in old castles dark grungy places.
This will be achieved using a slow shutter speed and the model moving around or we could do it in post production editing.

Here is another image of the technique:

So in this image there are four figures; its hard to see from this far away but the two girls on the right hand side are actually duplicates of the two girls on the left. You can slightly see that they are a bit see through and again this is surreal because you think they look like ghosts.

evolved idea and presentation to class

So our initial concept and plan for our shoot was to use the character of the white witch and use this on the girl member of our band. We would use symbolism of things in Narnia and play with mimicking scenes and events from the movie.
Our idea has evolved from this as we feel it is too literal and we are using the idea of Narnia and this fantasy world and putting the band in a surreal environment.

CONCEPT STATEMENT:

[ Our concept is to capture the English aesthetic of Narnia and theme of the surreal world being deemed as reality. ]

So we were thinking for the editorial to set it in Chantel's house which is all white which gives it a clinical feel and a sense of mystery to where they are and perhaps they are in this different world like the kids were in Narnia. 

For the Editorial we will be focusing on playing with the notions of reality and how they can be portrayed through fashion. This photo shoot will carry more modern myth than the personality of the band whilst using English look for Autumn Winter 14/15.

For the street poster we will be focusing more on the band, their personality and the brand of the band as it is advertising. We will use sutble modern myth symbols through styling.

Here are some of the slides we showed to the class: 

English aesthetic for styling

For our clothing we are going for the english winter aesthetic - seen in Narnia and also a trend for 14/15. So think plaid shirts, tartan and layered up knits and woollens.

Love this menswear look, the double breasted jacket is perfect and classic english suiting.

Headpieces

Here are more examples of headpieces used in runway shows..

These two photos are taken from the Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2013 RTW show and are actually using crowns in their styling. Obviously we didn't want to have it so literal like this but its interesting to see crowns used in high fashion styling.

Another more peculiar headpiece on the runway from the Christian Dior Spring 2013 couture collection..