ABSTRACT
The end of the war did bring the end of wartime restrictions. Punch, reflecting the day-to-day life of the British people, based its cartoons and jokes on such basically unfunny subjects as the housing shortage, electricity cuts, empty grates, empty petrol tanks, empty shops. Some austerity regulations were even tightened. Lucking himself says he needed more ingenuity than genius to conjure up those first chic windows. To achieve any sense of modernity, he had first to get rid of the walnut panelling at the back of the windows. Timber was rationed, cloth was rationed; but by grubbing around Soho sheds, he got together a quantity of wooden battens and carried them back on his shoulder to Regent Street. Fortnightly meetings were set up at which display staff, designers, and department buyers discussed the co-ordination of displays and events throughout the store.
