Advertising Ready-Made Style: The Evidence of the Stationers' Hall Archive
Author: Rose, Clare
Source: Textile History, Volume 40, Number 2, November 2009 , pp. 185-201(17)
Publisher: Maney Publishing
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Abstract:
The hitherto unpublished archive of Stationers' Hall (1837-1912) is an important resource for the study of the garment industry, offering both quantitative and qualitative information. Over 3,000 documents registered by ready-made clothing manufacturers, retailers and advertising agents attest to the size of the clothing industry at this date. They give evidence of ready-to-wear clothing production throughout Britain and for both men and women. The prominence of women's ready-to wear in the archive is notable, since this has been thought to be a phenomenon of the 1920s. Most of the documents in the Copy 1 archive are visual, and offer qualitative information about the importance of fashion in ready-to-wear clothing. Illustrated flyers from low-priced retailers show their willingness to invest in advertising. The images in the documents are often from commercial printers who interpreted leading trends for a variety of retailers. The evidence for manufacturing and for retailing practices in this archive has important implications for our understanding of the history of the ready-made clothing industry in Britain.Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1179/004049609x12504376351425
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