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Gater waists were used to hold up long stockings. There is an ad for a children's garter waist. The ad stresses the strength of the hose supporters with a cocker spaniel playfully pulling one of them with his teeth. The text reads, "Pull Hard, Pal! They've got to stand a lot of tugging before I'm through with 'em." 35 c. each."
The Sears, Roebuck and Co., huge merchandising firm centered in Chicago was founded by Richard W. Sears (1863-1914) and A.C. Roebuck (1864-1948).
Sears had begun a career in mail-order business in Minnesota 1886. In Chicago he and Roebuck joined resources and formed a corporation in 1893 as a
mail-order business under title Sears, Roebuck and Company. In 1895 Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) bought Roebuck's interest in firm and became president on
Sears's retirement 1908. A retail-store system was added 1925. The first foreign store added in Havana, Cuba during 1945 and becane te first expropriated store in 1960. The Sears-Roebuck brought the production of industry to the fartherest corner of rural America, opening the cornucopia of the consumer age to rural America. All the new things that were changing American life danced across their pages. Through it, a huge Chicago warehouse offers to modernize the farms and small towns of the Midwest.
These garter waists were offered in the Sears 1939-40 Fall and
Winter catalog (p 351). This means that they would have been bought for going back to school suits.
Gater waists were used to hold up long stockings. There is an ad for a children's garter waist. The ad stresses the strength of the hose supporters with a cocker spaniel playfully pulling one of them with his teeth.
The text reads, "Pull Hard, Pal! They've got to stand a lot of tugging before I'm through with 'em." 35 c. Go on, Little Fellow, give 'em the roughest toughest play you can ... they'll take it! For Kern's "Dandy" is made of closely woven strong cotton tape and stretchy, live elastic carefully sewn. And Mother, no buttons make it so simple any tot can slip into it without your help. Light, comfortable, hangs
entirely from the shoulders . . . allows your child complete freedom of
movement and back prevents slipping. Easy to wash. White only. Even Age-
Sizes: 2 to 14. State age-size. 25 D 5431--Shipping weight, 3 oz. Each 25c."
Again, I think it is interesting that the model for this garter waist is
a boy rather than a girl. Girls wore them also of course, but the sturdiness
emphasized in the ad seems to direct its appeal to boys or at least to mothers
who made their boys wear long stockings. Note that this garter waist is
available in sizes up to the age of 14, although the boy in the photograph is
probably only about 8.
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