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German mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. We have an interesting page, we think--a page from a German catalog of boys' and children's clothing published in 1935. It was for winter clothes. We don't know the name of the catalog, but I suspect it might be Quelle. The top panel shows various kinds of boys' overcoats and outdoor wraps for boys and girls . Notice the cape. All the boys wear the standard flat cap. Unfortunately we do not have any of the ad copy from the page describing the clothing. While catalogs have been our major focus. Patterns are also a useful source of information. There was a major innovation in 1935. The Lutterloh Company developed Der Goldene Schnitt (the Golden Rule or the Golden Cut), a revolutionary pattern making system that was based on a approach that had been popular in Germany for decades (1935).
Most of the boys wear the standard flat cap. We see younger boys wearing sailor caps and berets. Some older boys wore fedora hats.
German boys wore a variety of different coats for the winter. The coats all seem rather formal and were made in both single-and double breasted styles.
This retailer offers various kinds of boys' overcoats and outdoor wraps for boys and girls. Both illustrations show the boys wearing these overcoats with either short pants or knickers. Some of the girls' coats come with hoods, but not the boys' coats. Unfortunately we do not have any of the ad copy from the page descibing the clothing.
Along with the overcoats for boys and girls. This company also offered a cape. We have seen these capes more commonly worn in France. We are not sure just how commonly worn they were in Germany. The boy here wears his cape with a flat cap. Berets were more common in France. Unfortunately we have few details as the ad copy is not available.
German boys in 1935 wore both single- and double-breasted suits with mostly short pants and knickers.
This German 1935 advertisement offered suits for boys, both short pants and knickers suits (figure 1). The short pants suit for the younger boy has a hint of Norfolk styling with a self-belt. The older boys wear flat caps and the younger boy a beret. Each is shown wearing kneesocks. The first boy with knickers wears knee socks with cuffs and the boy in shorts wears white knee socks. The socks works by the boy on the right are less clear, but are probably kneesocks. Unfortunately we do not have any of the ad copy from the page descibing the clothing.
The retailer also offered dress-up clothes for church. The oldest boy on the right is dressed as an adult, or perhaps he is a young father. The boy in the middle wears a long pants sailor suit with a ribboned sailor cap. The teenage boy on the left with a fedora
(about 16 or 17 perhaps) wears a double-breasted suit with knee pants (notice the decorative buttons on the pants) and long grey stockings. I didn't realize that boys in Germany were still wearing knee pants for dress-up occasions as late as 1935. Most boys of that period seem to have worn short pants. But apparently the knee pants still persisted for very formal occasions. Unfortunately we do not have any of the ad copy from the page descibing the clothing.
Clothing advertisements show boys wearing shrt pants or knickers. Older boys might wear longpants. Some boys wore kneepants for formal occassions.
Clothing advertisesment show boys wearing either long stockings or kneesocks.
The Lutterloh Company developed Der Goldene Schnitt (the Golden Rule or the Golden Cut), a revolutionary pattern making system that was based on a approach that had been popular in Germany for decades (1935). It was a simplified method utilizing the scaling method which was developed in Germany (1811). The company is still in business today. The company issued Der Goldene Schnitt books with their patterns. The Lutterloh system used a special ruler to scale out any pattern to create a fully custom drafted pattern to make a perfectly fitted garment based on size of thev child's or adult. One sewer claims, "in my experience thus far, I think it is about 90-95 percent accurate -- pretty good if you ask me)." In the various Goldene Schnitt books you can make almost anything from children's wear to evening wear for adults. And the swere could add very personal touches to each piece. American patterns weere inn sizes. The Golden Schnitt paterrns wee done in one size and their sacling method used to getb the right size. The Golden Schnitt books contauned a nix of oatterns fior childreb, mrn and women. We are nov sure how often they were compiled. Nor are we sure how the sewers accessed them. I don't think sewers had a collection of these books. We don't have any of the Goldene Schnitt books from the 1930s, but have some from thec 40s.
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