Figure 1.--J.C. Penny offered a range of what we would call polo shirts in 'Life' magazine ads. Pennys had a catalog, but unlike Sears also advertized in mass market magazines. This is a term that is used variously even by the same company. We would describe polo shirts as essentially collared "T" shirts. Pennys often called them knits, here they just vuse thecterm shirts. They were done in various colors with with button collars. Interestingly, Penny's allways depicted the collars buttoned. Notice the 45 rpm records. The ad appeared in the August 13, 1965 issue of Life

The United States committed combat troops to Vietnam in 1965. The war was to affect fashions as have earlier wars. A HBC reader reports, "I was at my public library last week and I found a 1965 Spiegel catalog. They sold a large array of boys and men's clothes and they are all in color with people modeling them. There was a section titles "Shorts and Sers". Remember the page on camp shorts on HBC? They show a boy modeling three pairs of camp shorts, navy blue, khaki/tan, and sky blue. The Spiegel camp shorts had seven pockets on them compared to the five pocket type that I wore as a boy. They also had the half elastic back same as mine. The extra two pockets were on the left and right sides of the shorts. That is the first time that I ever saw those type of camp shorts. Mine came from Sears, Wards, Horn's, and Kauffmans. I guess the reason for that is because we did not get the Spiegel catalog. They also show the same boy, he looks to be about 12 or 13 years old, modeling three different pairs of jean shorts. They were regular blue denim, ecro white, and a sort of grass green color. The ad copy stated that the jean shorts had an extra strong back yoke. The same boy modeled each of the three colors with different types of shirts. In the blue denim shorts he wore a striped blue jersey with white tube socks. In the ecro white shorts he wore one of those western style cowboy jackets it was also ecro white. In the green shorts he wore a long sleeve checked shirt, just like Timmy wore in Lassie. All of the shirts and jerseys were tucked in on the boy model presumably so that the waist features of the shorts could be seen. The excepton was the ecro western style jean jacket. With the camp shorts he wore a blue and white stripped jersey, also present in all six color photos were the white tube socks with different color bands on the top and what looked like Keds tennis shoes. The odd thing about all these photos is the boy was not wearing a belt and all the shorts had belt loops on them. It looked to me that all the clothes did fit him perfect, so maybe that is why he did not wear a belt in any of the pictures. One other possibility is that Spiegel wanted to show the entire product without any frills or attachments. The price range was $5-6 for the shorts. The jackets, shirts, and jerseys were also in that price range. All the shorts on that page were cut mid lenth and all were hemmed. The size range for all the shorts was size 8 to 20." We note an electric power ad showing the all-white underwear worn in the 1960s.

Headwear

Toddler Clothes

A popular style or youngr boys were shortalls.

Shirts

Button-down shirts were popular. "T"-shirts were standard summertime wear. J.C. Penny offered a range of what we would call polo shirts in Life magazine ads. Pennys had a catalog, but unlike Sears also advertized in mass market magazines. Polo is a term that is used variously even by the same company. We would describe polo shirts as essentially collared "T" shirts. Pennys often called them knits, here they use the term shirts (figure 1). They were done in various colors with with button collars. Interestinfly, Penny's allways depicted the collars buttoned, even when the boys were playing sports..

Coats

Jackets

Sweaters

It seem to us that boys primarily wore pull-over sweaters in the 1960s, but there were also cardigans. The omnly I recall as being woirn wereletter-sweaters. J.C. Penny offered cardigans in their Towncraft brand. They were done with a kind of fuzzy surface that Penny's called a 'brushed look'. They were done in stripes with various surfaces. The ad appeared in the August 27, 1965 issue of Life, page 11.

Suits

Pants

A popular style of casual short pants for boys in 1966 were play and camp shorts.A HBC reader reports, "I was at my public library last week and I found a 1965 Spiegel catalog. They sold a large array of boys and men's clothes and they are all in color with people modeling them. There was a section titles "Shorts and Sers". Remember the page on camp shorts on HBC? They show a boy modeling three pairs of camp shorts, navy blue, khaki/tan, and sky blue. The Spiegel camp shorts had seven pockets on them compared to the five pocket type that I wore as a boy. They also had the half elastic back same as mine. The extra two pockets were on the left and right sides of the shorts. That is the first time that I ever saw those type of camp shorts. Mine came from Sears, Wards, Horn's, and Kauffmans. I guess the reason for that is because we did not get the Spiegel catalog. They also show the same boy, he looks to be about 12 or 13 years old, modeling three different pairs of jean shorts. They were regular blue denim, ecro white, and a sort of grass green color. The ad copy stated that the jean shorts had an extra strong back yoke. The same boy modeled each of the three colors with different types of shirts. In the blue denim shorts he wore a striped blue jersey with white tube socks. In the ecro white shorts he wore one of those western style cowboy jackets it was also ecro white. In the green shorts he wore a long sleeve checked shirt, just like Timmy wore in Lassie. All of the shirts and jerseys were tucked in on the boy model presumably so that the waist features of the shorts could be seen. The excepton was the ecro western style jean jacket. With the camp shorts he wore a blue and white stripped jersey, also present in all six color photos were the white tube socks with different color bands on the top and what looked like Keds tennis shoes. The odd thing about all these photos is the boy was not wearing a belt and all the shorts had belt loops on them. It looked to me that all the clothes did fit him perfect, so maybe that is why he did not wear a belt in any of the pictures. One other possibility is that Spiegel wanted to show the entire product without any frills or attachments. The price range was $5-6 for the shorts. The jackets, shirts, and jerseys were also in that price range. All the shorts on that page were cut mid lenth and all were hemmed. The size range for all the shorts was size 8 to 20." We see popular styles of athletically inspired shorts beginning to become popular in 1966. Jeans were worn by most elementary school boys, and many high schools were now tolerating them. A variety of slacks were still commonly wore to school. Khaki slacks were especially popular.

Playwear

Hosiery

Footwear

Pajamas

Underwear

We note an electric power ad showing the all-white underwear worn in the 1960s.

Hair Styles

These advertisements and mail order ads are an interesting way of following hair style trends. We note the boy models all with short hair cuts, although we no longer csee crew cuts.

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Created: 5:02 AM 1/1/2011
Last updated: 5:02 AM 1/1/2011