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Folio, 38 by 26.5 cm. 24 pp. All leaves of glossy stock, other than wrap covers. Twenty of the pages are b/w plates showing drawn models wearing tailored clothing. The last five of these plates are devoted mostly or entirely to components of dress, with smaller, or no, depictions of men. Most of the illustrations show two or three men as the center of attention, with smaller vignettes of a garment, or another person, or an evocative scene. Variants include a single man -- the first plate -- or a man and a woman, the woman wearing a tailored suit that is in a similar vein to the man's, and clearly something that the same tailor making the man's suit can do for a woman. The first text page of the catalogue has an elaborate "Correct Fashion Chart", which provides guidance for what to wear in the day and evening depending on the occasion, with occasions running from informal to semi-formal to full-out formal, with quite specific laying out of the activities comprising each level. For example, under "Informal" are listed "Field sports, automobiling, country wear, vehicular driving, golfing". Inarguably the chart provides a concise guide to us in understanding the sartorial culture of the day. The following illustrations of course depict the models in immaculate attire representing each of the levels of formality. As one would expect, the drawn models epitomize the ideals of male pulchritude of the day -- the "Arrow Collar Man", so to spek. While these ideals are not entirely alien to the sensibility of today, let's say the emphases on certain characteristics making up these ideals have evolved in ways sometimes ineffable, sometimes quite obvious. Most of the drawings show men with tall, elongated bodies, other than the drawing of stout and corpulent men. This latter drawing, though, not surprisingly, shows men that are stout and corpulent only in comparison to the other models. Just as diet products advertising today would do the same, showing models who are only marginally overweight. As a catalogue that is really about the selling of fabric, the overview has the virtue of not pushing particular idiosyncratic products, or the line of a particular suit maker, but rather, capturing a composite view of sorts of what was considered good taste at the time. And obviously, the ultimate target was at the top of the market, since only the affluent could afford custom suits. Scarce -- we could find no other copies of this catalogue, although this type of catalogue we do see with some regularity But we think the year of issue should be of significance to someone interested, and so that adds to the desirability of this publication. Condition: Spine cloth band frayed, lifting a little at the tips, small spots of loss. Wrap covers with a moderate amount of soiling, some loss along spine fold, a few shallow edge closed tears. First leaf has several small, but conspicuous stains and an abrasion. Otherwise, moderate wear. Still a Very Good copy. Wraps (very thin but embossed card). Cloth band on spine. Stapled (largely concealed by cloth band).
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