Work wear

By Gaynor Hodder, Fashioning Our World volunteer

I have always loved historical costume and vintage fashion, and was very happy to be asked to make a copy of this First World War overall dress, also referred to as a smock, to go in the Fashioning Our World exhibition as a dressing-up item. Due to my interest in military history, particularly the roles women undertook in both the First and Second World Wars, this was a fascinating project for me. When studying the smock and making detailed notes and photographs of it, I realised it was probably worn by a munitions girl and we discovered her name, Nancy, faintly pencilled onto the back. I loved the thought of all of the workers having their names written on the back of each smock, due to everyone wearing the same type of garments whilst working in the factories.

In 1915, the Minister of Munitions, Lloyd George, allowed women to be recruited for the war effort. Government work created regular pay and hours and many women were recruited to make shells, hand grenades and gun cartridges in the munitions factories. ‘Doing one’s bit’ and the desire not to let the men down at the front became their patriotic duty and it was accepted for women to participate in the war effort. Shifts could last up to 12 hours a day and wages on average were £3 to £5 a week. Many munitions workers were married women having to work due to their male breadwinners fighting abroad. They were also frequently supporting elderly parents and relatives.

Working in a munitions factory could be extremely unpleasant and carried risks to health, as well as being a very dangerous environment. Women working with TNT could become seriously ill and became referred to as ‘canaries’, due to the yellow discolouration of their skin brought about by TNT poisoning. Other symptoms included sore throats, tight chests, pains around the waist and abdomen, vomiting, diarrhoea and skin rashes. For some women exposure to TNT led to jaundice, loss of memory, sight disorders, delirium, coma or convulsions.

Accidents and explosions at munitions factories were quite common, with one of the worst occurrences happening in 1916 at Barnbow, Leeds, with a total of 35 women dying in the blast. The event was hushed up and kept out of the headlines for fear of damaging national morale.

Women were provided with protective clothing whilst working, which consisted of an array of serviceable but unattractive garments. They were made from heavy cotton and very drab to look at, but sometimes decorated with a few pretty ribbons and worn with pride. Trousers were also introduced to wear under tunics, which most women found practical and liberating. Sadly, many men took offence to women wearing trousers and insisted on long smocks being worn instead.

The history of this smock and its extremely hard life as a piece of work wear fascinates me and it represents a rare piece of social history. I loved studying all of the carefully made repairs throughout the garment, which I imagine was worn with pride by its owner Nancy.

In order to make up a copy of the smock, I took many detailed photos and measurements and used these to create a calico toile of the garment. From here, we chose a fabric which we considered was the closest to the original, particularly concentrating on recreating the colour. The original fabric was a heavy cotton or canvas due to its hard-wearing nature. The centre front panel and side fastening was a particularly interesting and unusual design. Whilst researching the various styles of smocks worn by the munition girls, I couldn’t find another example like this one.

Although mass produced, the smock is quite a smart design due to the neat collar, cuffs and lots of top stitching used throughout. Finally, I managed to source the same white economy revolving buttons used on the original smock, but sadly not the back clips which held the buttons in place. The brass button rings were used during the Second World War to hold the back loops of the buttons in place on military garments and easily removed when washing the items. Hand stitched eyelets had to be created for the button loops to be inserted through.

I have enjoyed recreating Nancy’s smock for everyone to wear in the exhibition and dedicate it to all of the ammunition girls and their difficult job throughout the war years. They were worn with pride and I am very glad to discover this rare survivor in the Salisbury Museum fashion collection.