1943 Lane Bryant ad

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Oct 1943 Better Homes and Gardens. The gist: there's a paper shortage on so we may not be able to send you a catalog. Borrow your neighbor's.

In wartime, I guess we big gals have to stick together.

I didn't realize Lane Bryant was this old, but according to Wikipedia (article looks like it was written by the company) it's been around since the turn of the last century, when founder Lena Bryant created the first commercially sold maternity dress. You learn something new every day!

Comments

[behindthechalet.livejournal.com]

all I know about Lane Bryant is that in the mid 90s my mom used to get the catalogue and she wrote them a letter asking why all of the models were thin and they wrote back basically saying that fat people don't like looking at fat people modeling clothes. Well if it's a giant purple satin shirt I would think not.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

I've never met your mom, but I like her.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Amen. Five minutes with the mirror in a Lane Bryant dressing room is torture enough to make the most hardened criminal talk.

[moonwalker.livejournal.com]

My mom used to ask the same thing. She got Lane Bryant stuff by catalog back in the 70's until we got a store in the mall, and she wondered why the models were all skinny women. I remember her fussing that even with the large sizes, it seemed they expected a woman of a certain weight to be very tall, hence long hemlines in pants. She was forever hemming things down to her height (5' 2".)

Mary MMM

[salenelle.livejournal.com]

But... the models are kinda... stout, I think. Are they too thin or not overweight enough to be Repre-seh-'N? No matter their size, their faces are always lovely.

Your mom rocks, by the way.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's an issue of them not being overweight enough to represent the customers, it's that none of them has, say, a gigantic ass or a really big spare tire. They're still proportioned like non-plus-sized women, just embiggened a little. Now me, all my weight's around my middle, and the models they use are not going to tell me how their clothes will look while I'm wearing them.

I get it now.

[salenelle.livejournal.com]

No spare tire - they sell SPANX! Yeah, I'm thick in the middle too.

Re: I get it now.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Ditto that on the fit of pants - except that I'm a diehard jeans wearer. This Spring, I got jeans from the GAP that fit my waist. Too bad they're baggy everywhere else. I could smuggle ferrets around my thighs in those things. Lane Bryant jeans actually do fit better - but still not perfectly. Whatcha gonna do, eh?

Re: I get it now.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm actually in kind of a weird place right now. I've been slowly, slowly losing weight, so now I'm down eight pounds and none of my jeans fit me quite right. However, they don't fit me badly enough to get new ones, considering I'm still losing. Just badly enough that I have to keep hiking them up. Ugh.

[behindthechalet.livejournal.com]

they are now, but back in the day they weren't.

[kayleigh013.livejournal.com]

Very cool!
I didn't know that either!

As a fatty, I think...

[lucindalunacy.livejournal.com]

This is awesome.

Thanks for sharing!

Re: stout women living near one another

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'll bet that doughnut shop isn't running a "share it with your friend" promotion.

Also, now I want a doughnut.

[longlongwaytogo.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I guess before that, people just had their maternity dresses handmade. :)
What if all your neighbours were skinny, would they send you one then? :P

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes! The very fine print at the bottom says that if you couldn't share one, they'd send you one for free, as long as they still had some in stock. I suppose it would save you going next door and saying, "Say, you seem like you shop at a plus-size store. Make with the catalog!"

Re: Fat Models Unite!

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Nice can!

Re: Fat Models Unite!

[salenelle.livejournal.com]

I wish I had a fat butt. My fat's around my middle.