Figure 1.--
|
Figure 1.-- |
A HBC reader reports that his mother purchased camp shorts for me during the 1970s at Horne's Department Store. It was an important store in Pittsburgh. The main store in Pittsburgh had a wide variety of camp shorts. Strabgely their camp shorts were done in odd sizes. Most American short pants were done in even sizes.
All the major mail order catalogs offered camp shorts in 1971. Camp shorts began to appear in America in the late 1960s. They were so named because they were a handy style to wear at camp. The large pockets provide ample space for a boy to squirle away rocks, leaves, and even a spare frog he might come across. This was one factor in their popularity with boys. Although named for camp wear, more often they were sinply summer play wear at home. Camp shorts were generally cut at mid-lengths. There distnguishing features were large cargo pockets, usually at least one that closed with zippers. They were primarily available in dark green, blue, and khaki.
Joseph Horners was an important store in Pittsburgh. The name Joseph Hornes was well known for high qualty and expensive clothing,the stuff they sold lasted a long time,many people called hornes the store of spraydecor. The main store in Pittsburgh had a wide variety of camp shorts." We have little information about the store at this time.
Hornes only sold clothing. The sub stores were spread out
through most of western Pennssylvania. Many big malls in the area had Hornes stores. These were small compared with the main store in downtown Pittsburgh. The main Pittsburgh store had an amazing nine
floors and sold every type of brand name clothing you could imagine, It catered to men, women, and children. If Hornes did not have it no one did. Hornes was sold in the late 1980s. The name was changed to Lazures Department Store. The main store in Pittsburgh closed for good in the early 90s. There were a few small stores left in the malls, but Macey's purchased the remaing Lazurez franchise (January 2005). How long they will last is anyones
guess. A reader reports, "My mother purchased camp shorts for me during the 1970s at Horne's Department Store. I even saw camp shorts in the downtown store that had what is called student size camp shorts. They were the same as the other camp shorts only the student sizes started at 30 waist all the way to 36 waist. Student size were for older highschool and college age boys."
The odd thing was the sizes for boys shorts were normally done in even sizes, which meant increments of 2 years (6 ,8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22). Horne's had on that rack camp shorts in odd sizes, also done in 2 year increments (7, 9. 11. 15, 17, 19, 21, 23). It was a half inch difference compared with the normal boys sizes so as you know if a boy wore a size 20 that ment a 30 inch waist so the size 21 would have been a 30 and one half inch waist. This was the only store I ever saw those odd sizes. I'm not sure who the manufacturer was. Our reader speculates, "I think the reason for that was not all boys had the regullar waist or that they had some fussy moms who wanted the excat waist size. I dont think it would have made much difference because they all had the half elastic waist band that would have made up the size difference, but that hornes store did sell a lot of camp shorts."
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing catalog/magazine pages:
[Return to the Main American mail order 1970s page]
[Return to the Main American 1970s mail order page decade page]
[Main photo/publishing page]
[Store catalogs]
[Fashion magazines]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
Images
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor hats]
[Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits]
[Sailor suits]
[Short pants]
[Jeans]
[Rompers]
[Tunics]
[Smocks]
[Tube socks]