Well, maybe--only there was no austerity during the VN war– when mini skirts were the rage. And the style (short lived) during the Napoleonic wars was for women to wear gauze dresses, made even sheerer by wearing them wet-- the 1800's idea of a wet t-shirt contest. Unfortunately, this was done in cold, damp England-- and women found fashion had its price-- pneumonia! Some PM lost his wife to pneumonia after she went to some ball in one of these fashionable gowns..

I don't think women wore gauze for austerity...