American Mail Order Catalogs: Sears Winter Overcoats--1929-30


Figure 1.-- All of the coats displayed in the Sears 1929-30 page were double breasted. Some were belted. One had a fur collar. There was a sailor reefer jacket as well as an aviator coat. Notice how many of the coats were lined in plaid flannel.

All of the coats displayed in the Sears 1929-30 page were double breasted. Some were belted. One had a fur collar. There was a sailor reefer jacket as well as an aviator coat. The variety of boys' overcoats displayed all seemed to assume that boys wear short pants or knickers with long stockings underneath. See for instance the Aviator Style overcoat in the upper lefthand corner (letter A) where the boy's over-the-knee stockings can be clearly seen. Most of the other overcoats come a little lower on the body than this example, but they seem to be too short to cover knickers which almost always extended an inch or two below the knees. Notice also that the stockings worn underneath these overcoats are (with perhaps a single exception) stockings of plain color, and not the patterned knee socks that were beginning to be worn with knickers.

Coat Styles

All of the coats displayed in the Sears 1929-30 page were double breasted. The illustrations come from the Sears Fall and Winter, 1929-30, p. 452. Some were belted. One had a fur collar. There was a sailor reefer jacket as well as an aviator coat. Notice how many of the coats were lined in plaid flannel.

Accompanying Fashions

All of the boys with caps are shown wearing flat caps, excpt for the aviator cap and the military style cap worn with the reefer javket. The variety of boys' overcoats displayed all seemed to assume that boys wear short pants or knickers with long stockings underneath. See for instance the Aviator Style overcoat in the upper lefthand corner (letter A) where the boy's over-the-knee stockings can be clearly seen. Most of the other overcoats come a little lower on the body than this example, but they seem to be too short to cover knickers which almost always extended an inch or two below the knees. Notice also that the stockings worn underneath these overcoats are (with perhaps a single exception) stockings of plain color, and not the patterned knee socks that were beginning to be worn with knickers.

Sears

The Sears, Roebuck and Co., huge merchandising firm centered in Chicago was founded by Richard W. Sears (1863-1914) and A.C. Roebuck (1864-1948). Sears had begun a career in mail-order business in Minnesota 1886. In Chicago he and Roebuck joined resources and formed a corporation in 1893 as a mail-order business under title Sears, Roebuck and Company. In 1895 Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) bought Roebuck's interest in firm and became president on Sears's retirement 1908. A retail-store system was added 1925. The first foreign store added in Havana, Cuba during 1945 and became the first expropriated store in 1960. The Sears-Roebuck brought the production of industry to the fartherest corner of rural America, opening the cornucopia of the consumer age to rural America. All the new things that were changing American life danced across their pages. Through it, a huge Chicago warehouse offers to modernize the farms and small towns of the Midwest.

Coats


Suits

In the lower right hand corner of the page we also have a couple of boys' suits with jackets and a button-on suit that can be worn with a sweater over it. One of the boys wears a three-piece long pants suit with a collar and tie that makes him look like a minature adult. The advertising copy refers to it (letter N) as "A Suit like Dad's". It was somewhat unusual for boys as young as 4 to 9 years (the ages specified in the advertisement) to dress like adults, but a few parents obviously thought this style appropriate for their boys when they got dressed up for a formal occasion. One wonders how many such suits were actually purchased. A more common style is shown being worn by the boy next to him (letter P) where the lad wears a knicker suit with his dress-up white shirt and tie. This would appear to be the only knicker suit being worn on the page. This suit features a wide elastic waist that supposedly makes the wearing of a belt unnecessary. Boys' hips were often narrow at a young age and made the suspension of trousers a problem, which is why belts or suspenders were usually recommended. This style is referred to as imitating adult "Golf knickers" although the boy (the available sizes are 4 to 9 years) would almost surely be too young for golf.

Button-on Shorts

The boy at the extreme bottom right corner wears a short pants outfit with the pants buttoned onto his shirt. Somewhat unusually perhaps, he wears what look like patterned long stockings under his shorts. The outfit is obviously meant to be dressy (note the collar and tie); but this boy does not wear a suit jacket. Instead he could wear the optional checked sweater designed to be worn over the shirt. The sweater and button-on suit were sold as an ensemble. No provision is made for buying them separately.







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Created: November 26, 2003
Last updated: November 26, 2003