Knitting for Victory: Military Chic in Fashion Knitwear

Knitting is the unlikely story lurking behind the history of twentieth century warfare. In the First World War the conflict prompted British civilians to knit ‘comforts’ for the troops. Official support for home-front knitting may have been driven by the desire to use wartime to reconstruct gender roles, but a widespread enthusiasm for domestic crafts also reflected the rise of volunteering, which swept Britain during the First World War.

During the Second World War many men also got involved in knitting for the troops, due to the ease with which knitting could be incorporated into everyday life, and the contribution that comforts made to the war effort. Images of cheerful and patriotic knitters may be the popular face of the wartime volunteer project but war knitting challenges the sentimental image of needlecrafts. If the mobility and Do-It-Yourself qualities of home knitting encouraged wartime volunteer knitters, today it inspires guerrilla knitting ventures and the use of hand knitting in high fashion. Then and now, the mobility and simplicity of knitting makes it an attractive activity for both men and women. Wartime concerns about austerity, recycling and improvisation have resurfaced in the twenty-first century, which has found military-inspired knits taking on new meanings in fashion.