Figure 1.--This advertisement from the Quelle 1973 catalog offered four styles of lederhosen, including a style just for girls. |
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Quelle is the best Known German mail order house. Quelle in its 1973 catalog offered four styles of lederhosen, including a style just for girls. All were the short-cut continetal style. They were offered on styles with and without a halter. There were also pants more like suspender shorts done in a lederhosen style. These could be worn by bpys and girls, although they were styled differently.
Quelle is the best Known German mail oeder house. The German mail order house Quelle Versandhaus was established in 1927. Quelle, is a German mail order company located in in Fuerth, Bavaria (where Henry Kissinger was born). I don't aware if Quelle was involved in export sales before World War II (1939-45). My guess it thar Quelle in the 1930s was primarily focused on the domestic market. This changed after the War and a considerable interest was palced on export maketing as well as foreign sourcing. Quelle was
one of the major German mail order companies in the 1970s. A HBC reader reports that Quelle continues to be a very important mail order company. It also
operates in France. A French reader reports that, "the articles sold in Germany are practically the same found in France. One of the older manufacturer is located in Orléan, France". There apparently were several different editions of theQuelle catalog. A French reader, for example, tells us that the catalog for French Guiana (also used in Guadeloupe and Martinique) didn'y have winter articles. Quelle still exsits and is quite an important one. Quelle in 1995 opened what they claimed was the world's most modern mail order house in Leipzig. Quelle incorporated as Quelle AG in 1997. Karstadt and Quelle merged in 1999 to form KarstadtQuelle AG.
German catalogs had taken to refering to short pants lederhosen as Leder-Shorts. The term for Lederhosn haltar is Hosenträger. Suspender shorts are Träger-Shorts.
Ledergosen until the 1970s were strictly for boys. German comapies in the 1970s began doing shorts styled like lederhosen that girls could wear.
Quelle in its 1973 catalog offered four styles of lederhosen, including a style just for girls. All were the short-cut continetal style. They were offered on styles with and without a halter. There were also pants more like suspender shorts done in a lederhosen style. These could be worn by bpys and girls, although they were styled differently.
These were actual lederhosen done in larger sizes than the other clothes shown on this page. Older German boys no longer liked the haltars worn with lederhosen and this item did not come with the haltar. Rather they were belted lederhosen. They were shown worn with a checked shirt, a common convention which developed after World War II. The ad copy read, "Für richtige Junge ???: Leder-Shorts! Mit ??? [I can't quite make out the text]." That translates as, "????". They were available in sizes 116, 122, 128, 134, 140, 146, 152, and 164 cm. That would be ages 6-14 years. They were only availanle in gray.
This style of lederhosen came in a smaller size range for younger boys. It came in sizes 98, 104, 110, 116, 122, 128, and 134 cm. That would be ages 3-9. There was an optional haltar. The ad copy read, "????." They were only available in gray.
The Hosenträgerb or haltar was done in sizes 60 and 70 cm. I'm not sure about the age equivalency here. This is not the height of the boy. Presumably it is the same age range as for the associated lederhosen, 2-7 years. The ad copy read, "Zümflige Hosenträger aus Rindleder." That translates as, "??? haltar from ??? leather."
While these shorts look like lederhosen, Quelle clearly identifies them as suspender shorts. They were done in red and blue. The red pair was styled with heat-shaped pockets for girls and the blue pair had square pockets for boys. The ad copy read, "Schick und splelgerecht sind diese prakfisschen Träger-Shorts für Kinder. Und aus bestem Chromspaltleder. Schitz mit ??? verstelibare Träger. That means, "??? and ??? are these practical suspender shorts for children. And made from the best chrome gap leather. Also comes with ??? suspenders." They came in sizes 92, 98, 104, 110, 116, and 122 cm. That would be ages 2-7 years.
A reader writes, "It was in this catalog that I bought lederhosen for my daughter during the 1970s. It was the grey short pants. You can see that they
made pants for girls too."
One German reader writes, "Why do you post the images so that they can not be read?" HBC has to post them this way. First of all if we posted the images withouit compression they would take forever to load. Also if we did not reduce the size the image would take up the entire page. In addition the interest hosting charges for both storage and bandwith would be enormous. We think it is preferable to post the reduction and them add the text. This gives us the ability to translate it into English. While some HNC readers speak German, many more HBC readers speak English which means many more readers will be able to inderstand just what the catalog says.
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