The Apple Watch: Time Running Out?

The advertisements for the Apple Watch (note the capital “W”) are rolling thick and fast into my mailboxes. On sight, I am impressed. The Watch is as slick a piece of engineering that micro technology has ever delivered. No feature has been left to chance. The customer has a choice of Watch weights and strap colours, and numerous faces are on offer, Mickey Mouse, et al. You go through a “fitting experience” before buying one, and then order it online. Apple describes it as “an accurate timepiece, an immediate communication device and a groundbreaking health and fitness companion.” Companion, eh – are we all that lonely?

But, I digress. Not only is the Watch all of the above, it is attracting reviews too raving and numerous to reproduce here. With prices beginning just under £300 and rising to just over £1,000 for a “basic” Watch, it hardly breaks the bank, either. The cheaper models are made of aluminium, while the more expensive models are of stainless steel. Whatever the material, the details are just too cool; every button and panel, buckle and strap honed for style and simplicity. The Edition Watches are the most highly prized – and priced – with both rose gold and yellow gold models on sale for £8,000 rising to £13,500 – so, you see, something for everyone! Why am I not dashing out to purchase one of these wonderful talismans, as desirable and beautiful as the Philosopher’s stone? Why, when not even the price is a challenge, am I not panting with longing for this magical device that will knock untidy lives into order, keep us connected and fit, and all but endow the wearer with superpowers? Because, gentle reader, in a year or two, the Apple Watch will be obsolete. Another beautiful gadget will displace it, promising to knock untidy lives into order, keep us connected and fit, and all but endow the wearer with superpowers, etc. The Apple Watch will be consigned to the Great Repository of Objects, so longed for once but hence abandoned and forgotten. Besides, I don’t really need one. Fitness I do at the swimming pool, communication I’m doing right now and as for a timepiece; well, I hear Argos has got nice tickers on sale for £10 or so. Watch this space.

It’s your duty to be beautiful….

For centuries, being “fashionable” meant belonging to a particular social set. If you didn’t belong with the in-crowd, then all the clothing in creation would not render you “in fashion”. This state of affairs lasted a surprisingly long time, into the early twentieth century, in fact. However, somewhere between the Great War and World War 2, a sea change came about – fashion historians, inform me – and by the 1940s, the meaning of fashion had morphed to encompass the clothing of “ordinary” people.

Fashion on the Ration, now open at the Imperial War Museum, demonstrates how the same people strove to maintain their fashionable status. At £10, the exhibition is a little pricey and (hint to curators) I would like to have an information booklet included for the money. But it is worth going to see, if only to witness the sheer quality of the garments aged 70+ in years. Near the entrance, we see a floral print blouse that would not look out of place in today’s high street – will Primark items be around in seventy years’ time? There follows displays of more street clothing – don’t miss seeing the extraordinary waisted red wool coat or the mesh summer shoes – children’s clothing, knitting and sewing patterns, an elegant wedding dress, graceful lingerie, fine gloves and handbags, dainty furred shrugs – truly, less was more. We see items of jewellery fashioned from scraps of plastic, utility stockings, lengths of the fabrics of the day (tweed, serge, cotton drill, cotton print, rayon, elastic and lisle), magazine pages of model shoots, and surviving cosmetic items by Yardley and Coty. A rolling vintage video demonstrates the art of felt hat making while another information board describes how women were constantly reminded of their duty “to be beautiful”, if only to maintain public morale during the Blitz years...opinions, please. Fashion on the Ration is open at the Imperial War Museum until August 3, 2015