Mid-1930s clothing for men, women, and children are presented in 300 color photographs from the Sears catalogs. See the popular styles of dresses, suits, coats, and sleepwear; as well as hats, shoes, and undergarments. Printed and solid fabrics are shown with customary accessories and in the latest styles available. Today's fashion designers will find the pages inspiring, and vintage clothing collectors will enjoy authentic designs.
One-piece strapless bathing suits and dresses with plunging necklines for women; business suits with wide lapels for men; bluejeans and plaid shirts for girls; and much more. Over 300 black-and-white illustrations.
Since 1872 when traveling salesman Aaron Montgomery Ward realized he could eliminate the middleman and sell goods directly to his customers, Americans have had an ongoing love affair with the mail-order catalog, which continues undiminished even in today's online-driven world. The practical can find deals on furniture and clothing in L.L.Bean and Sears, the extravagant can consider his and hers matching helicopters, windmills, hot-air balloons, and submarines in the Neiman Marcus Fantasy Catalog; those looking to get their pulses racing can browse Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch; while our inner swashbuckler can travel the world through the pages of the J. Peterman Owner's Manual where Moroccan caftans, Russian Navy t-shirts, and wooden water buckets from rural China entice the imagination. In Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail Order Shopping, Robin Cherry traces the timeline of these snapshots from American history and discovers along the way how we dressed, decorated our houses, worked, played, and got around. From corsets to bell-bottoms, from baby-doll dresses and Doc Martens all the way to iPods, the history of these catalogs is the history of our lives and our culture. GIs during World War II were kept company by the models in the pages of lingerie catalogs; hockey goalies fashioned makeshift shin guards out of them during the Great Depression, and creative children across the country still play with homemade paper dolls cut from clothing catalogs. A number of celebrities got their start modeling for catalogs: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Katherine Heigl, Matthew Fox, and Angelina Jolie. Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan both got their first guitars from the Sears catalog. Organized into categories such as clothing, food, animals, and houses, author Robin Cherry explores the vivid stories behind Sears, Montgomery Ward, Lillian Vernon, Harry & David, Jackson & Perkins, and of course, 45 years of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. Insightful historical commentary places these catalogs in their social context, making this book a visual pleasure and a historically important piece of Americana.
More than 100 selections of day and evening wear from full-color French catalogs produced for the international market document changes in fashion from the stock market crash to the dawn of WWII.
Meet the book that defined fashion for generations of Americans in the twentieth century-the Sears Catalog. European couture designs were beautiful in fashion magazines but the average person with an average income shopped for clothing in department stores. The Sears Catalog brought household goods and fashionable clothing to everyone, whether they had access to a department store or not. Pictured here is clothing for men, women, and children taken from actual Sears Catalogs from the late 1950s, along with descriptions and original prices. Current values for some items are included as a reference guide for collectors of 1950s vintage clothing. Who can forget slim sheaths and whirly skirts, rolled-up dungarees and pedal pushers, bouffant slips and taffeta prom gowns, fraternity prep jackets and children's western wear? With more than 400 color photographs, this book offers a nostalgic look into fashionable clothing of an era which defined an entire generation.
More than a footnote to the Second World War, or a foreword to the youth-obsessed exhilaration of the Sixties, the Fifties was a thrilling decade devoted to newness and freshness. The British people, rebuilding their lives and wardrobes, demanded modern materials, vibrant patterns and exciting prints inspired by scientific discoveries and modern art. Despite the influence of glamorous Paris couture led by Dior, home-grown fashion labels including Horrockses and the young Queen Elizabeth's couturier Norman Hartnell had an equally great, if not greater impact on British style. This book, written by an assistant curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a fascinating look back to the days when post-war Britain developed a fresh sense of style.
1930s Fashion documents the season-by-season fashions of this remarkable decade with a selection of over 600 original photographs, sketches and prints.
From the designer suits of yuppie men and women to ripped jeans to the mini-crinoline craze to the eloquent fashion sense of Princess Diana, the 1980s encapsulates a time when it became fashionable to make money and dress well. This work explores the enthralling history of fashion as it recreated itself through the popular trends of the eighties.
From platform shoes and bell-bottoms to miniskirts and hot pants, to Afghans and cheesecloth fabrics, the seventies remains one of the most diverse decades in clothing history. This volume explores the many facets of this exciting topic.
