Figure 1.-- his is another waist ad was on the same page with the unbranded suspender garters . It was on the same page, little smaller, but only slightly so. This is for a Nazareth Waist, a very well-known brand manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and hence the name. This ad makes a big point about the health of children who wear various kinds of waists, suggesting that if a mother has "sickly" children, it may be because she isn't providing the proper kind of underclothing.

This is another waist ad was on the same page with the unbranded suspender garters . It was on the same page, little smaller, but only slightly so. This is for a Nazareth Waist, a very well-known brand manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and hence the name. This ad makes a big point about the health of children who wear various kinds of waists, suggesting that if a mother has "sickly" children, it may be because she isn't providing the proper kind of underclothing. The special points that make the Nazareth brand of waist healthful for children are the "porous, ventillating" material of which it is made. The child doesn't get overheated with a Nazareth waist. Also it is "elastic", i.e., knit in such a way as to give with the body of the child as he moves or plays in various athletic activities.

Newspaper Advertisement

This is another waist ad from the Syracuse Post Standard, May 24, 1904, page 5. It was was on the same page with the unbranded suspender garters. The ad was a little smaller, but only slightly so.

Nazareth

This is for a Nazareth Waist, a very well-known brand manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and hence the name.

Health

This ad makes a big point about the health of children who wear various kinds of waists, suggesting that if a mother has "sickly" children, it may be because she isn't providing the proper kind of underclothing. The special points that make the Nazareth brand of waist healthful for children are the "porous, ventillating" material of which it is made. The child doesn't get overheated with a Nazareth waist. Also it is "elastic", i.e., knit in such a way as to give with the body of the child as he moves or plays in various athletic activities. Notice that the image of the boy wearing the waist presents him in boxing gloves and using a punching bag to develop his skill and strength.

Gender

Also the ad makes an appeal to the masculinity of the boy wearing the Nazareth waist. Such waists were worn equally by boys and girls from age 1 to 15 (according to the ad), but many older boys disliked wearing them because they associated them with girls' underwear. Underwaists with buttons and supporters came at a later point in the history of children's underwear to be called "panty waists" and older boys were teased for having to wear them, which is why garments such as the Kazoo suspender waist or the suspender garters advertised on the same page as the Nazareth ad were invented to please boys because of their more masculine image. The Nazareth Waist Company seems to have been aware of this competition and in response tried to emphasize that Nazareth waists were not only for girls but also for athletic and boyish little men.

Construction

The illustration is historically interesting for several reasons. The boy with the punching bag seems to be about 8 or 9 years old. There are two shoulder straps that come down to the bottom of the waist, both front and back, and have waist buttons for trousers sewn firmly on tapes so that several layers of clothing can be fastened to the same button. The buttons are flexible. There are two additional tapes under the arm pits. These reinforce the garter tabs over the hips--garter tabs that have metal pinning tubes attached for the safety pins of the hose supporters. Notice also that the black hose supporters in the image are quite long because the black long stockings do not come nearly as far up the leg as they would do in the 1920s when trousers were shorter and stockings were knit much longer.

Ad Copy

Here is the ad copy text, "If Your Children Are Sickly, it may be because you fail to provide the proper underclothing. The one and only correct underwaist is the Nazareth Waist. Superior to waists of jean or batiste because it is porous, ventillating and elastic. It permits of that freedom of movement necessary to the proper physical development of boys and girls, and its supporting tapes [for waist buttons for trousers and for tabs to which the hose supporters are pinned] relieve the abdomen of all weight. Sizes 1 to 15 years. 12 1/2 cents and 25 cents."

Price

The difference in price applies, I think, to smaller and larger sizes, and not to different qualities. Nazareth always claimed that they maintained a uniform quality in all their waists.
Again the source is the same: Charles > http://histclo.com/fashion/store/mail/cou/us/chron/900/04/sus/u04sg.html >

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Created: 7:29 AM 2/27/2011
Last updated: 7:29 AM 2/27/2011