Retail Stores Handling Boys' Clothing: Grand magasins Jelmoli (Switzerland)

Swiss boys capes and suits
Figure 1.--Here is a section of a page from the Jelmoli 1938 catalog offering caps and suits.

We note a catalog form the Grand magasins Jelmoli. Grand magasins Jelmoli has for many years been the flagship department store chain of Switzerland. Johann Peter Jelmoli-Ciolina founded founded the store in 1838 by . Ciolina must have been the maiden name of his wife. He was from the Swiss-italian section of Switerland. The company has always been headquartered in Zurich where the flag-ship department store was opened. It opened branches throughout Switrzerland, but a few years back it sold or closed all its branches and only kept the large store in Zurich. I would say it was always an "up-scale" department store. The catalog-department was a very small part of their operations and the catalogs carried a very small amount of merchandise, compared to what was available in their stores. The catalog-department was added in 1899. We note catalogs from the 1930s and 40s. We have loaded pages from the catalog on the Swiss 1938 catalog page. They discontinued the catalog-sales sometime in the 1960s. Now they have a very limited web-sales department. I would say that the store in Zurich is still the most prestigious department-store in Zurich and it is located right near the Bahnhofstrasse which is one of the worlds foremost and exclusive shopping-streets. A reader tells us, "... as Jelmoli was in Zurich, it reflects the more urban fashions. I know, that in the poor mountain sections of Switzerland such fancy clothing was not available. When I look at the displays in the 1938 catalog, I know that the average Swiss family would not have been able to shop there. There are two more catalogs, one summer and one winter, for the same department store from 1947." The store sold the catalog-service to an other company in 1995, when they returend to the core-business of the Department store in Zurich. It seems, that the company has developed a new catalogue and web-order site.






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Created: 5:06 PM 6/23/2006
Last updated: 5:06 PM 6/23/2006