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We do not have many ads and catalog pages from the 1880s, but we have a few items. B. Altman offered a wide selection of clothing. HBC has some early Altman pages. As we can not date them, we have at this time loaded them in the mail order catalog garment section. Sears Roebuck launched their mail order business in 1886 and became along with Wards the two principal American mail order companies. These catalogs thus become an invaluable source of information. Other companies advertized in magazines. American boys in the 1880s begin to commonly wear kneepants, although older boys still mostly wear long pants. Boys commonly wore kneepants suits with long stockings. Only the very youngest boys wear short socks. Thus we begin to see garments to hold up the stockings. We notice an L. Stein ad for stocking supporters (1885). We also notice the Double Ve Waist (1886). We note various styles of high-top shoes. The catalog and magazine ads had illustrations, but the lithographic techonology at the time meant that they were rather primitive.
We have found several items we believe dating to the 1880s, but we do not know the year. B. Altman offered a wide selection of clothing. HBC has some early Altman pages. As we can not date them, we have at this time loaded them in the mail order catalog garment section. We have also found an historically interesting advertisement for hose supporters--one of the earliest on record and important because it uses a technology for the clasp that apparently didn't survive the test of
time or popularity. These supporters (apparently used for all members of the family) were made by the Phoenix Suspender Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a manufacturer of men's suspenders. We believe it dates to the 1880s.
We have archived several items from 1880 issues of The Delineator. We will eventually add them to a 1880 page that we plan to create. In the interim you can view them on The Delineator 1880s chronology page. These entries are very important because The Delineator provided a very detailed discussion of the garment patterns they offered.
We note a corset waist offered by the Warner Brothers corset company in 1982-83. This would more accurately be called an underwaist.
We note a complicated design for a child's underwaist (both boys and girls) submitted for a patent in 1883. The designer was a woman, Mary E. Higgins, who presumably lived in
Michigan. The patent number recorded is MI 288,803, and the patent was registered November 20, 1883. I believe this is the earliest underwaist we have recorded on HBC.
American boys in the 1880s begin to commonly wear kneepants, although older boys still mostly wear long pants. Boys commonly wore kneepants suits with long stockings. Only the very youngest boys wear short socks. Thus we begin to see garments to hold up the stockings. We notice an L. Stein ad for stocking supporters (1885). Strawbridge and Clothier (a Philadelphia department store) published a quarterly magazine, the "Strawbridge and Clothier Quarterly" which was essentially a catalogue of clothing with emphasis on women's and children's wear. One example
of their advertising is an illustration of two types of early stocking supporters for girls and boys (they would later be called garter waists) for children from 3-12 years old. Strawbridge and Clothiers Quarterly (Winter issue, 1885-86), p. 419. >
Sears Roebuck launched their mail order business in 1886 and became along with Wards the two principal American mail order companies. These catalohgs thus become an invaluable source of information. There were also catalogs issued by individual stores, both clothin stores and department stores. Here we see a boy's bathing suit offered by Bllomingdales in 1886 (figure 1). We notice the Double Ve Waist to help hold up long stockings.
We notice pages from a J.B. Lewis Boot and Shoe Company catalog for 1987-88. The catalog described the company's product line and prices. All the styles we note were high-top footwear.
We note a Ferris corset waist in a Good Housekeeping magazine. We think they were primarily for girls, although they are made in "child" sizes.
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