Apparel Arts v1.2 Spring 1932

[Baron Kurtz]

I have owned or borrowed from libraries over the years many copies of Apparel Arts, the American menswear trade publication started in the early 1930s. I have scanned many of these, and have others waiting to scan.

Here are all the advertisements from Issue 1.2, Spring 1932. (I have excluded the really boring text only "bad" advertisements.) These are of intentionally relatively low quality. Hopefuly this will discourage some of the more disreputable "new journalists" who tend to fill their blogs with stuff creamed out of other people's work. The internet is full, it seems, of unattributed rip-offs of my work. And believe me, this is A LOT of work.

I have digitally restored two very large rips in this cover, using a photograph of someone else's edition. But as you can see, I still have one large rip to restore. All in good time.

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[Baron Kurtz]

I'm fascinated by this balloon seller. The very character had appeared in 1931 in Fritz Lang's "M", and was the agent of identification of Peter Lorre's child-killer character. he would later make an appearance in The Third Man, and it seems here in a children's clothing advertisement.

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[Chasseur]

Thank you dear Baron for this!

I love that Goodall Palm Beach add and all those cloth and foulard colours!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

M. Marc Chevalier in a past life:

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[The Wiser Hatter]

Great presentation always love the vintage mag's.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

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[Baron Kurtz]

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[Baron Kurtz]

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[Baron Kurtz]

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[Baron Kurtz]

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[Baron Kurtz]

There is, of course, more than just ads in these publications. I wont post the articles as they are very text heavy. but here are two interesting image-based pieces:

The first entitled "Colour Combinations".

The second called "Fabrics and Fashions of the Quarter.

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[PADDY]

BK - Just marvellous images. My old ALLIGATOR Trench Coat is there too..!! thankyou.

 

[Two Types]

Splendid stuff. It was nice to see an old advert for Bedford Cord. It is such a good cloth, and so seldom seen these days, that it's nice to have a reminder of its existence.

I was interested that, in the recommended colour coordinations, coloured shirts were favoured over white shirts. It's always good to be reminded that the white shirt was not as ubiquitous as one tends to imagine.

Reading through adverts like these can be dangerous. There is one advert for diagonally striped ties. I saw it and thought, I have ties similar to those ..... then .... damn it! I don't have one in that light mustard colour! I want one!

Thanks for posting - looking forward to seeing some more.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Note the trend for short brimmed, high crowned hats. This is also apparent in the next edition i will post this evening. And it even has a better ad for Alligator raincoats, PADDY.

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[The Wiser Hatter]

I would post the articles too. If you want I can put these into a PDF file for others to download. I did this for an issue of Hat Life I aquired from ebay.
[URL="http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?58595-Hat-Life-January-1936]Hat-Life-January-1936[/URL]

 

[herringbonekid]

I was interested that, in the recommended colour coordinations, coloured shirts were favoured over white shirts. It's always good to be reminded that the white shirt was not as ubiquitous as one tends to imagine.

i think white is the least vintage-evocative shirt colour going. when i worked at Cenci (when they were on Monmouth St) they always had a plentiful stock of european 30s-40s shirts and white ones were very rare, far outweighed by the subtle coloured and fancy woven-striped variety. even in plain colours, light tan seemed to be more popular than white.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

That's OK, I have the files in PDF format, anyway, in higher quality. I am not certain of my legal position as re: distribution. Scanning the ads is one thing, distribution of the entire issue is another. The rights are owned by Conde Nast, whose legal team are … err … renowned for going after copyright infringement. Until I get the cover restoration completed, I don't want to distribute, anyway.

I would post the articles too. If you want I can put these into a PDF file for others to download. I did this for an issue of Hat Life I aquired from ebay.
[URL="http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?58595-Hat-Life-January-1936]Hat-Life-January-1936[/URL]

 

[Mario]

You're klling me, Baron! That's some incredible work. Thank you so much for all the effort you put into this!

 

[Mario]

even in plain colours, light tan seemed to be more popular than white.

Just my kind of standard shirt colour. Wearing pure white (which I rarely do) always makes me nervous...

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Well maybe we can order back issues from Conde Nast.