Colvin, Neville Maurice, 1918-1991:Chain reaction. [1954?]

Text reads '"Wellington women are a hydrogen-bomb job - it is no use talking H-line until they decide to hook on to a bit of fashion". - Visiting foundation garment representative'. The cartoon shows a mushroom-shaped H-bomb that represents 'Wellington women' which has blown the foundation garment representative and some of his garments as well as the woman he was talking to up into the air. A paper with a headline reading 'H-lines and other nuclear fashions'. The man says 'What H-H-Happened?' and the woman replies 'They blew up!' Context - Criticism of the fashion sense of Wellington women and their explosive reaction. H-line of 1954 was a slender tunic suit with a slim skirt that later became more of a dropped waist tubular twenties style dress with a hemline that was creeping upwards. This would become a classic 1950s fashion garment.(Info from website Fashion Era) Internationally, the test restored at a stroke the US lead in the race for weapons of mass destruction. The H-bomb abbreviation for 'hydrogen bomb' was a thermonuclear weapon produces a large amount of its energy through nuclear fusion reactions. The world's first hydrogen bomb was set off at a United States test site in the Pacific Ocean just after dawn on 1 November, 1952. It was hundreds of times more powerful than the A-bomb explosion at Hiroshima. The Soviet Union's first full-fledged H-bomb was tested in 1955.

Quantity: 1 original cartoon(s).

Physical Description: Ink and pencil on paper 395 x 480 mm