American Mail Order Catalogs with Boys Clothings: 1959


Figure 1.--The Maxon Shirt Company in Greenvill, South Carolina place an ad in April 1959 issue of 'Parents' Magazine' Carnegie "Hi" Society sets, short-slleved checked shirts and walk shorts. The shorts had a belt that matched the shirt (figure 1). The ad showed a boy calling home from camp, "Hi mom ...." Notice the stylish crewcut.

American mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. American mail order catalogs in 1959 featured plaid shirts for school. Boys were wearing mostly slacks and jeans. Some boys wore short pants as dress wear, but it was increasingly less commonn, except for younger boys. Shorts were beginning to become popular as casual wear, even for older boys. Parents' Magazine and orher similar publications ran ads showed nicely tailored and designed clothes The Maxon Shirt Company in Greenvill, South Carolina place an ad in April 1959 issue of Parents' Magazine Carnegie "Hi" Society sets, short-slleved checked shirts and walk shorts. Some younger boy still dressed up in short pants, although short pants suits were becomming less common.

Headwear


Toddler Clothes


Shirts

Flannel shirts were popular for elementary school. Both checks and plaids were worn.

Carnegie "Hi" society sets

The Maxon Shirt Company in Greenvill, South Carolina place an ad in April 1959 issue of Parents' Magazine Carnegie "Hi" Society sets, short-slleved checked shirts and walk shorts. The shorts had a belt that matched the shirt (figure 1). The ad showed a boy calling home from camp, "Hi mom ...." The ad copy read, "Join America's fashionable young moderns. No inituation ... no membership card ... All you need is a hankering to beca well-dressed boy. And that's what you will be evet time you don a CARNEGIE 'HI" SOCIETY outfit of coordinated shrt and walking shorts. Tailored from finest Wash and Wear cottons. At better Boys Shops and Departments." Of course few boys at camp were all that interested in veing a "fashionable young modern". It is interesting that this outfit was pictured as being worn by a teen-ager, but at camp and not at home.

Coats

Coats hung down further than jackets, the length depending on the style of coat. Parkas were also available.

Jackets

Short jackets were popular for school. Elementary boys might have fake fur on the collar, but this was less popular with high school boys. Letter jackets were especilly popular for high school.

Pants

Jeans or other long pants were worn by most elementary (primary) school boys. This was a major differnce with Europe. Jeans were worn cowboy style (at least movie cowboy style) with big cuffs, so that had to be bought long.Short pants were not common at school. Kindergartners and some 1st graders might wear shorts, but in elemntary school shorts were not often seen even anong the younger boys. You can see this in the photographic record, espevially after the raely-50s. Shorts were a little more common in the South, but most boys wore long pants to school. Many highschools still did not permit jeans. Most highschool boys wore slacks. Khaki slacks were common. Short pants were becoming casual, summer wear. But even in the summer many American boys wore jeans and other long pants. Shorts tended to be more common at summer camp than for general wear. Scouts usually wore long pants, but would wear shorts at camp. Younger boys might wear boxer or camp short pants during the summer. Older boys who wore shorts as casual wear would wear longer cut 'walk" or 'walking shorts' shorts. Some younger boys still wore short pants when dressed up, sometines with kneesocks, but this was becoming less common. Short pants suits for school age were becoming less common, but some boys still wore short pants when dressing up with, often with a white shirt and tie (often a bow tie), vest, or sweater.

Playwear

Some outfits for younger boys and girls are described as playwear.

Hosiery

Moys most wore ankle socks. White socks were not yet as as common as they were to become for boys. Kneesocks had not yet totally disappeared, but they were by 1955 not commonly worn by boys.







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Created: December 6, 2002
Last updated: 10:19 PM 7/30/2017