For the opening day of #LondonFashionWeek, a short thread on 102 years of Met women's uniforms and how they developed as expectations of their wearers evolved. First up, the long-skirted 1919 uniform, commissioned from @Harrods. #LFW #LFW2021 #LondonFashionWeek2021 (1/n)

Based on @NCWGB uniforms from #WWI (1-2), it reflected the fact that Met women had no power of arrest until 1923 and were instead expected to alert the nearest male officer to pursue miscreants. #LFW #LFW2021 (2/n)

Weathering an attempt to axe them in post-war budget cuts in 1923, Met policewomen began to expand their horizons, with Lilian Wyles (1) and Louise Pelling becoming the first in CID & Special Branch respectively. ... #LFW #LFW2021 (3/n)

Their uniform (1-1919), however, remained unchanged until 1931, when the skirts were slightly shortened and a collar and tie introduced (2 - c.1933). The same year a marriage bar was introduced for female officers. #LFW #LFW2021 (4/n)

It would be this uniform in which they would serve in #WWII, assisting with evacuees (2), guarding internees on the Isle of Man (3) and suffering their first on-duty casualty, Bertha Gleghorn, fatally injured by a V1 at Tottenham Court Road in June 1944 (4). #LFW #LFW2021 (5/n)

Straight after her appointment in 1946, the Met women's new head Elizabeth Bather drew on her wartime Women's Auxiliary Air Force experience to establish a more military line, one that lasted until late in the swinging Sixties. (3 - @LondonWaterloo) #LFW #LFW2021 (6/n)

The so-called 'Bather' uniform (1) gave way in 1967 to a uniform & cap designed by royal couturiers Norman Hartnell & Simone Mirman (2 - original sketch). Newsreels praised "the new 'with-it' image of Scotland Yard" & "the swinging London cop idea". #LFW #LFW2021 #TheCrown (7/n)

Yard chiefs hoped it would encourage recruitment, whereas its wearers remember the cape flapping in the breeze and the cap as prone to falling off during foot-chases. It would last only five years ... #LFW #LFW2021 (8/n)

... until being replaced by the iconic 'Surrey' hat in 1972 (1). This proved more long-lived, lasting over a decade, excluding the brief and universally unpopular blip that was the 'Butcher boy' or 'Smurf hat' of 1978-79, another Simone Mirman creation (2-3). #LFW #LFW2021 (9/n)

1978 also saw a cravat finally replace bow-ties, but perhaps the most significant step was 1985's introduction of the 'Bowler' hat, the first reinforced headwear for the Met's female officers since their inception in 1919. #LFW #LFW2021 (10/n)

Widely panned as impractical, the women's truncheon of 1986 (1) was soon dropped, but otherwise evolution has continued, with new designs for senior officers' full-dress uniform (2). Hat excepted, women's uniforms are now largely indistinguishable ... #LFW #LFW2021 (11/n)

... from those of their male colleagues, reflecting all officer specialisms and roles now being open to women. Thanks for reading! (Our earlier thread devoted to the 'Hartnell' uniform is at https://bit.ly/3ax0NnG ) #LFW #LFW2021 #FashionHistory (12/end)