'Be in the fashion - cover your hair', safety at work poster, signed 'A.R.', produced by the RoSPA, and printed by Loxley Bros. Ltd., England (London), about 1940

"Be in the fashion - cover your Hair" safety at work poster produced for RoSPA, depicting a bare landscape, set against a blue 'sky', with four female mannequin heads on pedestals, each wearing a different style of cap, and each with a tag with a letter ('A', 'B', 'C', or 'D') attached to the base. The lower left quarter of the poster is filled by the upper right part of a woman's face, her eye taking prominence, and her hair covered by a scarf. The message at the running diagonally at the top of the poster reads, 'be in the fashion - cover your hair', in black letters that mimic the style of hand-writing.

Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko

This intended audience for this poster were women, many of whom would not have experienced factory work before the war. It shows how women could be safe and stylish by covering their hair. The poster uses the language of surrealism, and in depicting mannequin heads it avoids focusing on any particular social class or setting, and so it is able to communicate to women across the social spectrum.

E.1898-2004