Figure 1.--The Wards 1941-42 Fall and Winter Wards catalogue offered garters (pin-on hose supporters), suspenders for "shorts, slacks, skirts, and leggings" (one kind made by Hickory), garter waists, a posture brace for preventing round shoulders, and two different styles of underwaists. Note that Ward's describes the underwaists as garter waists. |
Here we have a page from Wards Fall and Winter catalog (1941-42), p. 329, which includes a range of support items. The items are all to hold up either pants or long stockings are both and included elasticized components. The only exception is a soukder posture garment. This is, however, somewhat related in that the support garments were often seen as beneficial for posture.
Although the word "consumerism" has a modern ring, it was personal concern for an early consumer movement, the "National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry," That inspired a young traveling salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward to start the world's first general merchandise mail-order company in 1872. Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on February 17, 1844, in Chatham, New Jersey, to a family whose forebears had served as officers in the French and Indian Wars as well as in the American Revolution. Looking for something more compatible, Monty left home and followed the river to Lake Michigan and the town of St. Joseph, county seat and market for outlying fruit orchards. Chicago was the center of the wholesale dry goods trade and in the 1860s Ward joined the leading dry goods house, Field Palmer & Leiter. As a retailer, Potter Palmer had previously built a reputation for fair dealing. Ward absorbed these principles while working as a clerk for $5. The Chicago City Directories for 1868 through 1870 listed Ward as a salesman for Wills, Greg & Co. and later for Stetthauers & Wineman, both dry goods houses. In 1870, after canvassing territory in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ward was again footloose. The plan shaping in Ward's mind was to buy goods at low cost for cash. By eliminating intermediaries, with their markups and commissions, and cutting selling costs to the bone, he could offer goods to people, however remote, at appealing prices - for cash. Since its founding in 1872, the company has literally "grown up with America" and has had a major impact on the shopping habits of a nation of consumers. Montgomery Ward & Co. discontinued its catalog operations in 1985 as part of its restructuring effort to change itself into a modern, competitive chain of value-driven specialty stores, a move which for a time saved the company.
The appeal to mothers stresses both physical freedom (i.e. the waists are not restrictive) and good posture: "Adjustable `Free Action' Garter Waists ... Help Correct Posture". These waists, in addition to supporting stockings, are supposed to act in part as shoulder braces. The fact that four different models of garter waist are offered for sale here would seem to suggest that the wearing of long stockings by children was by no means unusual. Interestingly, boy models are as frequent as girl models.
A HBC reader tells us that this different edition of the same catalog was issued in Albany, New York. He repotys that the various regional printings had a variety of differences. I am not sure just what these differences were.
The Wards Fall and Winter catalog would have been issued sometime in the Summer, perhaps August so mothers could make back to school purchses for the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons. This means that the catalog would have been the active one when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (Secember 1941). This is interesting because the garments here use elastic or have elastic components.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the firt stroke of a vast offensive in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Besides disabling the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Japanese conquests gave them control as the vast porportion of the world's supply of natural rubber which of course was needed to make elastic. The United States Government immediatedly responsed by rationing rubber products (especially automobile tires), maximizing rubber production in areas under Allied control, and launching a new synthetic rubber industry. One quesion we have is whether fashion changes (long stockings and knickers) were affected by this campaign. Here we see quite a range of elasticized items. Presumably this would be much reduced in the 1942 catalog. Or did the elastic involved here use such a small amount of rubber that the war time shortage had little rel affect.
One point worth noticing here is that the pin-on supporters
are made in sizes to fit boys and girls from 2 to 10 years, whereas the
garter waists are made in even sizes for children up to the age of 12.
In the 1940s the age at which boys wore long stockings with short pants
was from about 2 to 10. The larger sizes of garter waists seem to have
been intended mainly for girls. Sears sold garter waists in a few
cases for children as old as 14 but again, principally, for girls.
In all cases here, the boys and
girls shown wearing garter waists wear very long stockings that cover
almost the entire upper leg. This reflects the shorter pants and
dresses that children were wearing in 1941. The stockings were knit
much longer and the supporters worn shorter than had been the case a
decade earlier. Notice also that all the models in the illustration
are wearing the lighter colored tan or beige stockings that had almost
totally replaced black.
Wards Fall and Winter catalog for 1941-42 (in an edition published in
Albany for consumers on the eastern seaboard) advertised a group
of five related products for children: (1) three grades of pin-on hose
supporters; (2) three kinds of elastic suspenders for shorts, slacks,
skirts, and leggings; (3) four kinds of garter waists for the support
of long stockings; (4) a shoulder brace for preventing round shoulders;
and (5) two kinds of underwaists. What is interesting about this page
is that 1941-42 was the last catalog in which Wards offered supporters
and garter waists for long stockings. Partly this was because long
stockings were diminishing in popularity in 1941 in the USA, but in
addition, the fact that hose supporters and garter waists ceased to be
available in the succeeding catalogs reflects the shortage of rubber
for elastic as a consequence of World War II which America had just
entered. Long stockings, however, did continue to be advertised quite
extensively in the Wards catalogs from 1941 up through 1945 even though
purchasers would not have been able to buy the supporters necessary to
be worn with them--at least by mail order. They may have been
obtainabale, of course, in local clothing and notions shops. The Sears
catalogs from the same period reflect the same phenomenon--that is, the
promotion of long stockings for boys and girls but not of the
supporters that were needed to be worn with them.
Wards offered three types of pin-on hose supporters referred to as garters. Wards offered three types done in different sizes from 1-10 which I assume means age. The different grades seem to vary in elasticity and quality of the metal used.
Wards offered three types of suspenders, offered in various colors. These were clasps suspenders not requiring buttons to hold up shorts, slacks, skirts, and leggings. They were for children up to age 10 years. The illustration suggests they were for boys and girls, although I suspect they were more commonly worn by boys.
The Wards 1941-42 Fall and Winter Wards catalogue offered garter waists (figure 1). Here five different styles of garter waist are offered, but only five are displayed. This includes the Dr. Parker style (although the term is not used here).The Wards 1941-42 Fall and Winter Wards catalogue offered garter waists. Here four different styles of garter waist are displayed, including the Dr. Parker style (although the term is not used here).
The appeal to mothers stresses both physical freedom (i.e. the waists are not restrictive) and good posture: "Adjustable `Free Action' Garter Waists ... Help Correct Posture". These waists, in addition to supporting stockings, are supposed to act in part as shoulder braces. The fact that four different models of garter waist are offered for sale here would seem to suggest that the wearing of long stockings by children was by no means unusual. Interestingly, boy models are as frequent as girl models.
Wards offered a posture brace for preventing round shoulders. The ad copy read, "Made by Hickory. 59 c. each. New posture aid helps prevent and correct round shoulders. WhiteCotton Twill with soft flannelette armbands. Chest Sizes: 24, 26, 28, 30 in. Ship. wt. 4 oz. 31 A 2018--State size. Each 59 c.; 2 for $1.15.
Shoulder braces for children were widely sold from 1900 to the early 1940s when parents were taught to pay a great deal of attention to erect posture. The makers of garter waists, which usually had shoulder straps, also claimed that support garments for long stockings also functioned to keep shoulders straight. We think that this claim was for the most part delusory.
The underwaist was an alternative to garter waists. Both were designed to hold up long stockings and or pants. Wards offered two different styles of underwaists done in different lengths. Wards stressed the comfort and warmth of these garments. Apparently they were meant to be worn for some time as one had two rows of taped on buttons to allow for growth. The other had metal pin tubes.
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