And rather than it being presented as a time of grim poverty that people should be glad we've escaped from, it's become part of our wonderful national narrative. It made me think, 'What next?' In their world, anything that acts as a sign of their authenticity is good-it doesn't matter what it is, even the workhouse. The workhouse was basically a centralized concentration camp for enforced labor, and the idea of a fucking clothing label using this as a way of describing the authenticity of their historical roots is incredible. I find the idea of a fey clothing label producing designs based on what the inmates of a workhouse would have worn in the Victorian era mind-boggling. And that was the clothing label, Workhouse England. There was one thing that I chanced across last week that confirmed that austerity nostalgia is not going away, and if anything, I've been under-exaggerating this phenomena. But in the length of time it took me to actually get around to writing it-six years-I presumed the design would go away. Owen Hatherley: It's really odd-I first wrote about the Keep Calm and Carry On poster in an essay in 2009. VICE: How relevant is Keep Calm and Carry On and austerity nostalgia in 2016? He terms this trend 'austerity nostalgia' and has noted examples of it in London architecture, in the cookery of Jamie Oliver, in affluent men dressing like Victorian strongmen and affluent women dressing like Rosie the Riveter, in TV shows such as Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife, not to mention the music of Public Service Broadcasting and Mumford and Sons. Hatherley, who has made a name for himself writing about modern architecture and pop culture, argues convincingly that the recent popularity of the poster design is a symptom of a wider cultural shift that has happened in the UK since the financial crash of eight years ago. The poster on its own isn't much more than an irritating fad, but it represents one small facet of a bigger trend. Isn't it just a poster, though? Well, yes and no, the argument goes. So it seems that the best part of a decade after it first became popular, Keep Calm and Carry On shows no sign of fucking off and dying. If I was in any doubt, less than 24 hours before my interview with Hatherley, the UK government launched its Clean for the Queen campaign, which featured Boris Johnson, and 70 other MPs, crammed into bright purple T-shirts featuring a very familiar font and crown logo. (All of this is probably down to the fact that the poster is long out of copyright, meaning it can be reproduced by anyone.) The design is still to be found crammed into the racks in Hallmark shops it is all over iPhone covers on sale at the market near where I work tourist tat shops are full of it it's on sales notices in clothing shops, and it still crops us as parodic stencil graffiti, as well as being incorporated into the design of flyers and ads. The tagline and image caught on and the now-famous words that were nearly lost took on a new life.When I was researching this feature and actually went out of my way to look for it, I was dismayed to discover that, if anything, Keep Calm and Carry On seems to be healthier than ever-even if you don't see it on T-shirts so much any more. In 2000, a copy of the poster was re-discovered in a bookshop in Northumberland and reproduced. The majority of the printed copies were destroyed. Fortunately, events never warranted its release. The third poster with the message “Keep Calm and Carry On” was printed but reserved to be used if the war took a turn for the worse. Each featured the King’s crown along with a morale-boosting message: “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution, Will Bring Us Victory,” “Freedom is in Peril Defend it with all Your Might,” and “Keep Calm and Carry On.”Īs war broke out in Britain, the first two posters appeared on billboards, buildings, and train stations throughout the country. In 1939, the Ministry of Information, the wartime propaganda office of the British government, designed three posters to be issued in the event of war. This message of British spirit that decorates tea towels and coffee mugs has a dark origin and could have signaled the demise of Britain. Keep Calm and Carry On, Ministry of Information, 1939, .uk

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