Quelle Short Pants, 1973


Figure 1.--This advertisement from the Quelle 1973 catalog offered shorts in two styles, regular and suspender shorts. The lederhosen are discussed on a separate page.

Quelle is the best Known German mail order house. Quelle offered two different styles of short pants for younger boys in its 1973 catalog. All were the short-cut continetal style. One was done in the supspender shorts style. The regular shorts were available in tradition navy blue, brown, and grey. The suspender shorts were donecin navy blue and orange. The caption reads "Shorts sind Klasse! Das finden nicht nur die Jüngsten. Auvh Mütter sind von Quelle-Shorts hellauf begeistert. Weil sie problemlos zu pflegen und so sagenhaft preiswert sind!"

Company

Quelle is the best Known German mail oeder house. The German mail order house Quelle Versandhaus was established in 1927. Quelle, is a German mail order company located in in Fuerth, Bavaria (where Henry Kissinger was born). I don't aware if Quelle was involved in export sales before World War II (1939-45). My guess it thar Quelle in the 1930s was primarily focused on the domestic market. This changed after the War and a considerable interest was palced on export maketing as well as foreign sourcing. Quelle was one of the major German mail order companies in the 1970s. A HBC reader reports that Quelle continues to be a very important mail order company. It also operates in France. A French reader reports that, "the articles sold in Germany are practically the same found in France. One of the older manufacturer is located in Orléan, France". There apparently were several different editions of theQuelle catalog. A French reader, for example, tells us that the catalog for French Guiana (also used in Guadeloupe and Martinique) didn'y have winter articles. Quelle still exsits and is quite an important one. Quelle in 1995 opened what they claimed was the world's most modern mail order house in Leipzig. Quelle incorporated as Quelle AG in 1997. Karstadt and Quelle merged in 1999 to form KarstadtQuelle AG.

Terminology

I am not sure what is meant by Jersey-Shorts. I think the German tern for suspender shorts is "Trager Shorts".

Gender

The shorts pictured here were strictly for boys.

Short Pants Styles

Quelle offered two different styles of short pants for younger boys in its 1973 catalog. All were the short-cut continetal style. One was done in the supspender shorts style. The regular shorts were available in tradition navy blue, brown, and grey. The suspender shorts were done in navy blue and orange. The caption reads "Shorts sind Klasse! Das finden nicht nur die Jüngsten. Auvh Mütter sind von Quelle-Shorts hellauf begeistert. Weil sie problemlos zu pflegen und so sagenhaft preiswert sind!" That means something like, "Shorts are great. Not only do the young ones think this, but also mothers are totally enthusiastic,because they are easy to clean and very inexpensive."

Item 1

Item 1 was the regular short pants. There looks to be a button snap. but no pockets. There is a very sharp crease even though they are shown beng worn with a casual T-shirt. The ad copy reads, "1. Ideal zum Toben und Tollan: Jersey-Shorts aus GWENDDACRYL (55 % Polyacryl, 45 % Modal). Schlitz mit Reilverschiuo." That translates as, "Ideal for jumping and running around. Jersey Shorts made of GWENDDACRYL (55 % Polyacryl, 45 % Modal). Fly with zipper." They were available in navy blue, brown, and gray in sizes 98, 104, 110, 116, 122, and 128 cm. That would be ages 3-8 years.

Item 2

Item 2 was the suspender shorts. There are two large front pockets. The ad copy reads, "Tragen sich ???: Topachicks Trager-Shorts. Wolbo-denim, reine Baumwolle." That translates as, "Stretchers itself: ??? of carrying ???. Wolbo denim, pure cotton." They were available in navy blue and orange in sizes 98, 104, 110, 116, 122, and 128 cm. That would be ages 3-8 years.

Lederhosen

The Lederhosen seen here are discussed on a separate page. The Quelle pages are often rather jumbled, making it difficult to separate the various items for discussion on a HBC page.

Sizing

The size numbers indicate the height in centimeters. Other catalogs use ages, but this may be a more accuate way of sizing giving size differences in any given age group. Of course sizing by height also has problems given differences in a child's build. HBC has collected some size/age equivalents on our size page.

Reader Comments

One German reader writes, "Why do you postthe images so that they can not be read?" HBC has to post them this way. First of all if we posted the images withouit compression they would take forever to load. Also if we did not reduce the size the image would take up the entire page. In addition the interest hosting charges for both storage and nabdwith would be enormous. We think it is preferable to post the reduction and them add the text. This gives us the ability to translate it into English. While some HNC readers speak German, many more HBC readers speak English which means many more readers will be able to inderstand just what the catalog says.








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Created: October 25, 2002
Last updated: November 3, 2002