Saturday, January 15, 2022

Bargains! (Walter Field, Fall-Winter 1942)

 Walter Field of Chicago specialised in low-budget clothing, so can be taken for granted that the clothes advertised in their catalogues weren't made of the highest quality materials.  The snazzy suit on the left, for example, was made of "18% reused wool, 12% cotton, 70% rayon".  The "shag" sweater in the middle was made of cotton, and the coat on the right was "50% reused wool, 20% rayon, 30% cotton".

However, in wartime America the quality of consumer goods at any price level slipped.  One historian writes: "Woolen clothes, rugs, and blankets disappeared from department stores as production of wool for civilian use virtually ceased", and continues

"Fifty-five percent of the respondents to an American Home Economics Association survey complained about the deterioration of clothing and shoes.  New dresses pulled out at the seams, shoes would not stand up under heavy wear, and stockings came with shorter leg lengths and tore out at the top.  One shopper purchased a white rayon blouse that on the first wearing pulled out at the seams, and on the first washing shrunk and had to be given away to a friend.  Housewives spent extra time sewing simply because the material wore out so quickly."

D'Ann Campbell.  Women at war with America: private lives in a patriotic era  (1984)

There was no clothes rationing in the United States during World War II, but apparently no quality control either.  This was in contrast to its ally Britain, which combined strict clothes rationing with stringent quality control

 

No comments:

Post a Comment