Customer Reviews

1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a lovely book of a wide variety of catalog drawings and photos from the B. Altman Company which carried higher quality items as compared to the Sears catalog books. There are men's and women's clothes and childrens clothes, hats, undergarments, stockings, shoes...A real treat if you are interested in what the upper middle class might have worn. And everything progresses by the year, so you can see how the fashions developed.

"1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company" provides over 700 black & white illustrations, detailed descriptions, and prices for clothing for the upper class of the Jazz Age. The focus is primarily on women's clothing and accessories, with everything from sophisticated evening wear to bathing suits, but you will also find a complete array of clothing for men and children as well. Please remember, because they buy directly from the manufacturer, "thus eliminating the no inconsiderable profits of the middleman," B. Altman & Company are able to offer patrons the benefit of the savings. This is a superb record of the styles worn by flappers in the Roaring Twenties; note than this is not simply the reproduction of a catalog from a particular year, but has fashion culled from the B. Altman catalogs of the entire decade. Interesting Footnote: The B. Altman & Company Department Store is now the New York Public Library Science, Industry & Business Library. Dover also has a reprint edition of "Altman's Spring and Summer Fashions Catalog, 1915," which records the fashions worn in the United States in the years before the First World War. This volume will be of interest to the fashion historian and of great use to costume designers working with this period of American History.

This is the real deal. It's what people really wore, not the weird fashion illustrations (although I enjoy looking at those, too). It's interesting to see how modern some of the items are. I'd love to wear the shoes, coats and bags, and a few of the ladies sweater suits today. On the other hand, some of the clothing is incredibly oldfashioned.

The ladies undergarments are a scream. You buy them by your chest size in inches. Notice that there is no "cup size" because these are designed to squash you flat into a tube. See item 4546: "Bust Supporter and Diaphragm Confiner of a strong quality of pick silk tricotine . . . giving a very flat appearance when worn with a very low top corset. Sizes 34 to 46. $5.00

Also, some of the pictures are actually photographs and the models are very "chinny." The models are decidedly shorter and chubbier than today's models, and the flat chests make their chins look even bigger. It's interesting to see how the definition of "pretty" has changed over the decades.

This is great inspiration for anyone interested in vintage clothing or clothing design, or just fun if you love fashion.

This is yet another book that has wonderful illustrations and information about 1920s fashion. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in this pivotal decade in fashion.