|
We note a 1920 magazine advertisement for EZ waist union suits. It is valuable because it provides an illustrative domestic scene showing how children might dress in the morning. The EZ ad here is valuable because it actually shows three children dressing (or undressing) showing just how these garments were put on by the children. The boy is putting on his long black stockings over his long underwear but has not yet attached the supporter to his stocking top. The photograph has been commercially altered or touched up, I think, to emphasize the reinforcement straps over the shoulders that carry the weight of buttoned-on garments such as short pants, skirts, and bloomers. This ad appeared in November when the weather in many places was getting colder--hence the long legs and long sleeves of these children's waist union suits. Waist Union Suits became fashionable during the 1910s as a way of combining union suits with underwaists in a single garment and had their heyday during the 1920s and 1930s.
One source indicates that the company was located in Carterville, Geoggia. This may have been where their mill was located. The company appears to have been incorporated in New York. The product line over time included juvenile anb boys' sportswear, including pullover seweaters and bllouses, T-shirts, briefs, trunks, and outer and under shorts. We are not sure when EZ Mills was founded. It appears to have been an important company during the 1920s and 30s. We note quite a few magazine advertisements. There major competitor seems to have been Nazareth.
The EZ ad here appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal (November 1920, p. 70). There was no accompanying text. As the oldest still publishing, most respected women's service magazine in the country, The Ladies' Home Journal has always focused on issues of crucial importance to millions of women. Since its first issue in December 1883. This long history make The Ladies Home Journal and invaluable source of information on American fashion trends. Its covered an incredibly wide range of topics beyond just fashion, from the latest medical research and consumer news to parenting know-how, workplace survival, good skincare, nutrition facts and much, much more. It was The Ladies Home Journal who sucessfully merged the elements and produced the right formula, becoming the top ladies magazine in America. The Ladies' Home Journal both empowered women and applauded their growing power. We also notice patterns offered in the magazine.
The EZ ad here is valuable because it actually shows three children dressing (or undressing) showing just how these garments were put on by the children. The boy is putting on his long black stockings over his long underwear but has not yet attached the supporter to his stocking top. We see it dangling unattached in the illustration.
The photograph has been commercially altered or touched up, I think, to
emphasize the reinforcement straps over the shoulders that carry the
weight of buttoned-on garments such as short pants, skirts, and
bloomers and is unique among such advertisements in showing the boy's
white hose supporter on one hip attached to the pin-tube at the end of
an under-arm reinforcement strap. A reader writes, "The ad is very useful in that the viewer is shown how the elastic garters were attached to the long tabs (via pins?) so that the garment could accommodate the strain of the stocking pulling on the garter pulling on the union suit
without pulling the underwear out of shape. These stocking supporters can be complicated and it is not always clear just how they worked. This is the first ad I have seen with the functionality so clearly shown."
This ad appeared in November when the weather in many places was getting colder--hence the long legs and long sleeves of these children's waist union suits.
The two main brands of waist union suits advertised in most of the
magazines of the period were Nazareth and EZ Mils (seen here).
This of course excludes the special brands mass-marketed through the
Sears and Wards catalogues. The two brands were very similar in
construction and offered both knee-length and ankle-length waist suits
with the choice of short sleeves or sleeveless suits for summer and
long-sleeved suits for winter. The chief difference was in the garter
tabs. Nazareth made the "non-rusting metal pin-tube" a special feature
as a way of holding the safety-pin of the hose supporter firmly in
place and thus preventing "tearing the fabric" of the underwear. The
EZ brand made a point of using only "tape loops" for the garter pins,
claiming that their system of attaching the supporters avoided rusting
or crushing (flattening) the metal tubes in the wringer of washing
machines. The tape loops supposedly also held the garter pins firmly
in place and avoided tearing the underwear, and tape loops were harder
to pull off than the metal tubes. Metal pin tubes, however, seem to
have eventually won out in this contest. Hickory and Nazareth
underwaists, for instance, used pin tubes rather than tape loops, and
many of the popular garter waists such as Kerns did so also. See, for
instance, the Kern's Daisy Garter waist from the Sears 1939 catalogue
where the detachable supporters are fastened to pin tubes.
Waist Union Suits became fashionable during the 1910s as a way of
combining union suits with underwaists in a single garment and had
their heyday during the 1920s and 1930s. The ages were generally from
2 to 13. Waist Union Suits (as this image make clear) were worn by
both boys and girls and were not gender-specific. Most children of 14
and older no longer wore button-on clothing and so didn't need
reinforcement straps on their underwear. If they continued to wear
long stockings at 14 or later (a few boys and many girls did), they
used garter waists for the most part rather than waist union suits.
Other Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site Related Pages:
[Long hair]
[Ringlet curls]
[Hair bows]
[Bangs]
[Sailor Hats]
[Blouses]
[Collars]
[Bows]
Sailor suits]
[Kilts]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
[Long stockings]
[Stocking supporters]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main U.S. 1920 catalog page]
[Return to the Main U.S. 1920s catalog page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
