More Than a Uniform: The Material Culture of Women’s Naval Uniform 1917-1956

Fascinating lecture at the National Maritime Museum looking at the clothes worn by WRNS popularly known as the Wrens.

Jo Horton outlined her research on Wrens clothing from when they were founded in the First World War to the 1950s. She had drawn on the museum collection and archives as well as interviewing a number of veterans and used touching quotes from those interviews.

She looked at the uniforms and how the women adapted them to fit as well the different types of less formal work wear. She also talked about what they wore off duty and how they shared clothes.

This talk was to mark Women’s History Month and was paired with another talk by the journalist, Vivien Morgan “Cross Dressed to Kill” about women who had gone to war disguised as men from the 17th century to the 20th. She described some fabulous characters who I want to look up.


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