Figure 1.--Galeries Lafayette published an annual catalog of about 200 pages. The store sent these catalogs were sent both throughout France and to French people living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America where France had colonies. This allowed French people all over the world to obtain up to date clothing. Galeries Lafayette and the other major stores would release smaller seasonal (winter/summer) catalogs or catalogs focusing on particular clothing such as men, women, and children. This is the cover to the special childrens catalog issued March 1937. The illustration shows fshionable 19th century clothing and not clothing actually for sale.

Les Galeries Lafayette has been called the Louvre of department stores. It carries over 75,000 brand names, and welcomes (in the loosest sense) the equivalent of the entire population of Paris each month. Concessions run from Yohji Yamamoto to Gap. The menswear department has recently been given a make over and is now one of the largest in Europe. Also look for enormous departments dedicated to lingerie (an entire floor), beauty products, kitchenwares, books, records, home furnishings and even souvenirs. The two sixth floor restaurants offer panoramic views; Café Sushi is in adjoining Lafayette Maison. For many years Galerie Lafayette published a mail order catalog targetting te general public, including both urban and rural consumers. France in the 1930s still had a very subsantial rural population. There was no televison and the national media did not reach the rural population as it does today and rural people often did not get into cities very commonly. Thus rural children and adults did not dress as fashionably as urban families. Many rural families in France used the Galeries Lafayette catalog much like rural Americans used the Sears and Wards catalogs. Galeries Lafayette published an annual catalog of about 200 pages. The store sent these catalogs were sent both throughout France and to French people living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America where France had colonies. This allowed French people all over the world to obtain up to date clothing. Galeries Lafayette and the other major stores would release smaller seasonal (winter/summer) catalogs or catalogs focusing on particular clothing such as men, women, and children. This is the cover to the special childrens catalog issued March 1937 (figure 1).

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Created: 9:33 PM 7/25/2007
Last updated: 9:33 PM 7/25/2007