Vogue Pattern Book (June 1940)

 War or no war, Vogue Patterns was still capable of producing glamorous and sophisticated patterns.  Illustrated on the cover of the June 1940 Vogue Pattern Book is pattern S-4189 for a skirt, a blouse and a jacket.

S-4189——RIDING HABIT JACKETS will make your town suit look crisply English and pay homage to the flared-hip silhouette above a slim skirt.

Suits and separates would remain staples during the war years, though as time went on the cut of this jacket would be seen as wasteful.

This is the British edition of Vogue Pattern Book.  It would have gone to press around the time of Dunkirk, and subsequent issues during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.  Though the patterns would have been the same as the ones in the American edition, the war crept in via the editorial content.  This issue warns readers of possible fabric shortages as British manufactures are exported to pay for the war effort. The October issue warns readers of a possible purchase tax on paper patterns (a tax had been imposed on clothes that month) while the December issue exhorts them to be economical.

Eventually, due to paper shortages, the British edition of Vogue Pattern Book would cease publication as a separate magazine, and would not resume until some years after the war.