Set against the backdrop of war-torn Britainbesieged by bombings
and deprivations during World War IIa patriotic sense of style
flourished, encouraged by the creation of visually striking
textiles and fashions for women. Beauty as Duty: Textiles on the
Home Front in WWII Britain, an exhibition at the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston (MFA), explores this trend by looking at the
restriction and regulation of "non-essential" items on the one
hand, and the drive to express style and beauty in the midst of
wartime on the other. The exhibition, on view from October 8,
2011, through May 28, 2012, in the MFAs Rosemary Merrill Loring
and Caleb Loring, Jr. Gallery of Textiles, features propaganda
scarves from the collection of Museum benefactors Jean S. and
Frederic A. Sharf, as well as gifts from the Sharfs now in the
MFAs collection, including British Utility fashion and a large
lace panel memorializing the Battle of Britain. "Strict
rationing and restrictions on clothing were in place not only
during the war in Britain,