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We have acquired pages from the 1884 Strawberry and Clothier (S&C) catalog. This was a Philadelphia department store which had kaunched a catalog business. The number of avaialble 1880s catalogs is limited, esapecially catalogs that illustrate many of their offerings. Lithography was still a problem in the 1880s. Which is why many of the catalogs have lists of items, but few illustrations. We have always wondered why mothers would order an item with just a few sentences and no images. S&C offered fewer itemns than many catalogs, but more were illustrated. This it is a very important addition to our HBC catalog section. There were four pages with boys' clothing. The organization is a little strange. The items for boys are on separate pages, but the ages and garmeents are all mixed up. We see some nteresting trends. We see how popular kilt suits for younger boys were. We see sailor suits, but mot the iconic three-stripe detailing tht would beconme so recognisable. Knee pants were commonon for school age boys, but only youngr school age boys. Older boys wore long pants. The pricing is also intresting. In relative terms, clothing was much more expensive than is the case in modern times.
Strawbridge & Clothier was an important znd early department store chain in the Philadelphia area focused on the middle-class rather than affluent sustomer. The store began as a partnership between Justus C. Strawbridge and Isaac H. Clothier (1868). We believe that both had earlier retail experience, but do not have detauls. The partners were Quakers and brought to their stores the Quaker principles of simplicity and community service. We note a catalog in 1884, but we are not sure when they first began catalog sales. They grouped the boy's cloything on separate pages, but for some reason mixed up ages and garments.
S&C which had kaunched a catalog business. The number of avaialble 1880s catalogs is limited, esapecially catalogs that illustrate many of their offerings. Lithography was still a problem in the 1880s. Which is why many of the catalogs have lists of items, but few illustrations. We have always wondered why mothers would order an item with just a few sentences and no images. S&C offered fewer itemns than many catalogs, but more were illustrated. This it is a very important addition to our HBC catalog section. There were four pages with boys' clothing. The organization is a little strange. The items for boys are on separate pages, but the ages and garmeents are all mixed up. S&C like many okther period catalog companies assiged place names like Annpolis, Broadway, Cape May, Clinton, London, Manchester, Sharon, etc. for the outfits. There are some descriptive names like Norfolk, but mostly they use place names. Each retailer assigned their own destictive names.
We see a vatyiety of grments and some some interesting trends. Many of the illutrations show headwear, but they were not a part of the outdits or iffered for sale. We see how popular kilt suits for the younger boys up to 5-6 years of age. We see severall fifferent styles of kilt suits. We see sailor suits, but not yet the iconic three-stripe detailing that would beconme so recognisable. We see several different suuits for boys, many with Norfolk styling. We note a reference to a blouse, but here that probbly refers to a suit jacket. Here we see a long oants suit being given special prominance with long pants beginning at age 10 years. Knee pants were commonon for school age boys, but only youngr school age boys up up bout 9 years of age, although one suit cane with nkneepants up to age 1... . Older boys wore long pants. Notice that knee pants were always worn with long stockings, including patterned long stockings. We also see overcoats. At the time jackets meaning short cold weather garmnents were not common.
The pricing is also intresting. In relative terms, clothing was much more expensive in relative terms than is the case in modern times. For exmple a $5.00 suite swould be about $135 in 2020 dollars. That suggests that clothing was a little more expensive at the time, but not much. But of course people's income were a fraction of modern incomes so in relaztive terms, clothing were a much larger segmnt of the fmaily budget.
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