Found Online: Winns Catalogues (Late 1920s)

 My latest discovery: The State Library of New South Wales has put scans of 82 catalogues produced by Winns department store online!  Winns was based in Sydney and specialised in inexpensive clothing for men, women and children.  This online collection spans the years 1927 to 1955 and it is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to learn about everyday fashions in the second quarter of the twentieth century.

Taking the collection in order, it also becomes an excellent chronological history of clothing.  Let's start off by taking a look at the Australian summer of 1927-28.  

Spring and Summer 1927

... And we begin with the straight, dropped waist fashions that are oh-so typically 1920s. Each dress is nearly identical in style, mainly differentiated by the choice of materials.  The model second from the right at the bottom is wearing a summer coat made of "Crepe de Chene" [sic].

The covers include pictures of children's dress, including a frock with matching bloomers for a child (top right), a girl's dress in linette (bottom left), and next to her a costume for a toddler.

All the adult models wear hats, but you have to search inside the catalogue to see Winns' offerings of "Up To-Date Shapes at Most Reasonable Prices".  All the hats are deep-crowned and have narrow brims.

Spring and Summer 1928

Spring and Summer 1928-29 saw Winns' Redfern branch feature similar fashions, made of (from left to right at the top) striped Fuji silk, floral voile, crepe de Chine with silk embroidery and floral rayon (our first artificial fibre!) Narrow belts resting at hip level seem popular.

Page 13 has "A Choice Selection From Our Millinery Department".  Hats are still deep crowned and close fitting, but a few—a very few—now expose the forehead.

Camperdown store, Spring & Summer 1928

From the same season, Winns Camperdown store featured a similar selection on the front page of its mail-order catalogue.  From left to right: a frock in crepe de Chine trimmed in colours to match (a modernist touch!), "a dainty frock in Floral Voile", two girls' dresses, a dress in striped Fuji silk and "a Smart Frock.. in Floral Voile" designed especially for outsizes.

 The contents of this catalogue are not quite the same as the contents of the catalogue from Redfern.  On page 13 the Camperdown store offers a different selection of "Attractive Millinery Keenly Priced". 

Spring & Summer 1929

Our last catalogue for the decade (Spring and Summer 1929-30) and the last before the Great Depression—and Winns decides to innovate.  There are now pages of coloured illustrations inside the covers.  We'll have to see if this continues into the leaner years of the 1930s.

The dresses seem much the same as in previous years (though they do appear to be shaped slightly closer to the figure) but there are some more changes in hats.  Two wide brimmed hats ("A Becoming Picture Shape" and "A Charming Model in Fine Silk Crinoline") appear on the cover.  Shady hats not only look pretty, but are a sensible fashion for the Australian summer!

Next time, we'll take a look at what Winns was selling in its catalogues in the early 1930s.