Everyday Fashions of the Forties As Pictured in Se

Description

Few publications illustrate so comprehensively what American men, women, and children wore in the 1940s than the Sears catalogs of those years, when the company's fashions typified the tastes of the American mainstream. This book is a compilation of 122 fully illustrated and captioned pages selected and reproduced from rare copies of Sears catalogs of the World War II era. Over 120 large-format pages have been carefully reprinted on high-quality glossy stock. They reveal in sharp detail the broad range of clothing fashions available during a period when wartime gasoline rationing made mail-order shopping reach new heights of popularity. Hundreds of accurately detailed drawings depict articles of clothing and personal accessories, including hats, overcoats, shoes, dresses, sportswear, undergarments, neckties, and more. Styles for children range from play clothes to "Sunday best." Men's clothing reflects the conservativism in male fashions during the period. Women's wear ranges from slacks, newly popular with women in the workforce, to dresses with plenty of "Oomph." Here is a richly revealing document that historians of costume and readers interested in fashion, social history, and Americana will find endlessly fascinating. JoAnne Olian, curator of the Costume Collection at the Museum of the City of New York, has written an introduction that appraises the fashions of the 1940s and the many ways in which they reflected the times. Review: great - a great book if you are in to the 1940s Review: Great Resource for Designers - This book is fascinating! Its pages were taken directly from the 1940s Sears catalogs, so it gives a peek at genuine fashions of the period. It shows everything from prom dresses to day dresses, shoes and accessories, etc. As I recall, there's even boy's and men's clothes, too. It's great to watch the styles evolve through the years. What I found especially interesting was the prices. Apparently, there was a jump in clothing prices following the end of WWII. Also, it's amazing to see what sorts of things our grandmothers bought. For instance, rub-on "stocking" lotion. Silk was severely rationed, so women had to darken their legs with makeup to look like they were wearing stockings. They would even draw lines down the back of their legs to simulate the seam. This lotion was advertised in the catalog, so you can see for yourself that it was not an urban legend. This book is a joy to look through. Highly recommended for anyone who's interested in fashion design (you can draw inspiration from the past), or vintage and historical costuming, or anyone who's interested in seeing the sort of clothes their grandmother wore.