Dear LPG,

I watched an advert the other day about a mobile phone app that people use to sell their clothes when they are finished with them.  It gave the impression that having the same clothes in one’s wardrobe for too long is not a good thing and it occurred to me that the young people of today get so little wear out of their clothes in our ‘throw away’ world. 

It got me to thinking about when we got to the end of world war two and I was ten years old.  As those who were there know, our Lewisham then was very different to the version that we see around us now.   The thing that I remember most as a teenaged girl in post-war Britain was the clothes we used to wear back then and how much more care we took of them. 

A chat with my granddaughter got me to thinking about how differently we see clothes today.  I am not talking about what the youngsters of today wear as much as the fact that we had no choice but to look after them more because they were on ration and not as available.

These days the youngsters around us have so many choices that they have little concept of the need to look after what they have, although I note the trend in not just throwing them away has caught on again.

I can’t help but feel that so few young girls of today even bother learning the art of mending things and, while I agree that people should do what they need to with their money whatever their age, I often think that they could save so much by learning a little more about making their clothes last.

Having read your news post called ‘What we have to teach the young.‘ (►►►), it occurs to me that the art of doing as we did back then could be a really valuable piece of experience that we older ladies can pass on to our grandchildren.

BJ, Ladaywell

LPG found some information that we hope will bring back some memories of the ‘Make do and Mend’ campaign designed to teach the youngsters of a different era the self-same lesson, and the younger people of today a little about what was ‘trending’ in post war Britain.  WE also found really a bit of old news real which may bring back some memories.

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)