Ladies Wear
The fashions for adults were not nearly as obnoxious as the fashions for children in the same way that the voice of Sally Struthers is not nearly as obnoxious as the sound of fingernails scraping a chalkboard. Maybe the adult fashions do not seem as bad because the previous 200 pages of the children's fashions desensitized me.
A recurring theme through the fashion section of the catalog is using the same clothes to form several different outfits. I calculated this set of clothes can produce 4 different outfits. If the vest was reversible then it would have made 6. I like "the wind blew my hair from the back" look that the model on the right is sporting.
The ladies' section employed several midget models. Orlon spiced with embroidery. Yum.
Update: March 13, 2005. A reader thinks the woman on the right is Susan Blakely. According to her biography, Susan Blakely was born in 1952. She would have been 19 when this catalog was published. Probably 18 when photographed.
A trio of airline stewardesses. The catalog designers were the ones who cut off the tops of people's heads. I do not crop the tops of heads.
I have been told by two different sources that the third model to the right, in the dark dress is Maud Adams (Octopussy and the Man with the Golden Gun - the only Bond girl to appear in two films). I checked out the Internet Movie Database and her bio says she is a former model. A more recent picture is provided.
These dresses are "wear-dated", like the carpet and upholstery. Repels all kinds of spills; wine, tea, pasta, salad dressing, semen. Can have that lunch hour quickie with the fine young mail boy and still have your clothes look fresh and clean.
A reader says that the model on the left is Veronica Hamel. Check out her Hill Street Blues fan site.
The model on the left is pissed off because she is wearing upholstery. Firm texture is not a phrase I would use in describing clothing but this was the year that it was acceptable to dress little boys up like pimps.
Update: March 13, 2005. I've been receiving a lot of e-mail spotting celebrities on the page. The odd thing is that most of the celebrities spotted would have been 18 or 19 at the time of this catalog.
