Fashion Find: 1942 Sears Catalog

I have long been a fan of the Everyday Fashions of the (20’s/30’/s40’s/50’s…you get the idea) As Pictured in Sears Catalogs books. In addition to being a fantastically entertaining feast for the eyes, they are an invaluable resource for identifying vintage clothing and for interpreting the history of 20th century fashion.



I was absolutely thrilled when I opened a Christmas gift from my mother and discovered three versions of the book spanning from the 1930’s through the 1950’s. I already own the 1940’s one so it is currently on it’s way back to the book seller where it will be exchanged for what promises to be a beautiful, text-heavy, book devoted to forties fashion—I’ll be blogging about it as soon as it arrives! These lovely new additions to my clothing history library should have sated my Sears catalogue appetite for a while, but instead, they inflamed a rather obsessive desire to obtain the real thing!



Vintage catalogues are abundant on EBay, but the Sears catalogues from the thirties, forties, and fifties tend to sell for twenty-five to fifty dollars each and I’ve been a little hesitant to invest in one (let alone multiples from different decades). Yesterday, however, I was strolling through my local antique mall and there, at the bottom of a tall shelf over-flowing with old Life Magazines, were no less than five Sears catalogues dating from 1934 through 1955! At $16.50 a piece they are well within my budget. I’m determined to spread out my spending by buying only one per week. Although, I must admit, I’m terrified that someone else will come along and snatch them all up.

I chose for my first purchase the 1942 Spring/Summer catalogue. It would have been distributed within a couple of months of the United States’ entrance into the war. Therefore the fashions are rather drab compared to earlier and later catalogues, but I am so fascinated with the way in which the war affected American fashion that I just couldn’t resist bringing this wonderful source of primary war-era history home. The binding is too delicate to subject it to the wear and tear caused by scanning, so the best I can do is share a few photographs…