Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 63

Thread: 1960s Catalogs, did the Fantasy ever become Reality

  1. #1
    Aspiring Member Robbiegirl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    642

    1960s Catalogs, did the Fantasy ever become Reality

    Many people have mentioned over the years enjoying looking through the Sears and Penney's Catalogs. My question here is when you first developed the fascination for these frilly items did you ever get the opportunity to actually try them on or did you have to wait till decades later ?
    The pictures below show how colorful so many of the items were ! Darn white slips was all I had access to !

    If you did was the experience as much fun as you had hoped ? Do you remember the color or length or any details of the item ?

    Oh to be young again !! The Evolution of Lingerie.jpg
    Az űrkorszak, a The Beatles, a hippik ?s a divat az 1960-as ?vekben.jpg
    Simpsons-Sears Fall Winter 1967 (002).jpg

  2. #2
    Senior Member BrendaPDX's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Portland, Oregon
    Posts
    1,912
    White slips was all I had access to, but I love the full length ones.

  3. #3
    Platinum Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Western Washington
    Posts
    14,301
    "Darn white slips was all I had access to!"

    I'm right with you. Although my parents did not get any catalogues they did subscribe to Life and Look magazines. I would linger at those pages offering undergarments. Our family always bought the New York Daily News which only had advertisements in black and white. My mother wore white slips which I would try on when I had the chance. I've related many times how I would take them down off the wash line. She did have one black slip, but by the time I started perusing her lingerie draws in her bedroom the black slip was too small.

    There was two women's store in Astoria, Queens that were on opposite corners at the intersection of Broadway and 32nd Street. I was always take a lingering glance at the mannequins adorned with bras, girdles and slips. In front of one of these stores there was a bus stop. I would "wait for the bus" which I had no intentions of getting on as an excuse to get a longer look at those mannequins.

    Colorful slips seemed to be readily available going into the 1980's. Back then I wore a 38 suit jacket. I have many unworn slips in various colors with pretty lace in size 38. As I have grown to a size 42 or 44 I have acquired on ebay many many colorful slips. Anything in a pretty color in a larger size is subject to rabid bidding. Fortunately, I have not seen anything worth bidding on in the last five or six years. Last week I was digging into my wardrobe and came upon some very nice Nancy King slips in pastels; blue and pink that are still in their original packaging.

    As to the advertisements I still will "google" subject material to bring up images of those ads of old. Sigh!

    PS: Before Covid, when my wife and I did attend The Portland Expo and other antique sales, there were sellers of these advertisements. I collect WW2 aviation "Buy War Bonds", etc ads from national magazines. There were always boxes of these type of lingerie ads available. Ebay is also a source of these ads.
    Last edited by Stephanie47; 05-27-2021 at 10:09 AM. Reason: Added remark

  4. #4
    Silver Member LilSissyStevie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    In the total animal soup of time
    Posts
    2,145
    To be honest, I think I looked at those catalogs for the same reason every other boy did: to see pretty women in their underwear.

  5. #5
    Miss Conception Karren H's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    South Western PA
    Posts
    24,704
    My grandmother had the greatest bra and girdle collection imaginable! And she lived near by us so I was always volunteering to go over and do some chores while she was at work!! Long line... open bottom... one piece... she had them all! Bras with more hooks than I could count! Lucky we wore about the same size too! Wish I had inherited them but think my sister got to them and probably threw them away!

  6. #6
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    1,764
    Oh yes! Those old catalogs! Ok yeah, like Stevie noted, it was an opportunity to see women in their underwear. But, I also would linger over those pages wishing...so wishing...I could dress like that. No opportunity ever arose until decades later.

    Almost no one wears slips today. Almost a bygone era. I love slips, and have a decent collection. On occasion, my wife has raided my slips. There's a black slip with very pretty lace on it that she absconded with years ago. She won't let me have it back

    Nowadays, the slips...you get three colors; black, beige, and white. I would be floored to see any other color these days, even if I found slips for sale (which is rare enough). Pantyhose are also becoming increasingly difficult to find. The last store in my town of 120,000 people that carried something other than grocery store pantyhose closed up shop a while back. TJ Maxx stopped carrying, Kohls stopped carrying, and on and on.

    My mother had some beautiful ball gowns, but after she passed...I don't think I could have ever brought myself to wearing them, even if they did fit.

  7. #7
    Aspiring Member Kelli_cd's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    824
    I longed for a woman who wore these undergarments. It wasn't until decades later that I ended up being the one to wear them!

  8. #8
    Gold Member Alice Torn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Midwest U.S.
    Posts
    7,357
    Must admit that i looked through them and also the dress sections, and the models were so beautiful and those hairdos were so much nicer then, too. I never have tried on a slip, though, which is strange!

  9. #9
    Member LydiaL's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM (SE of there in mountain foothills)
    Posts
    720
    At first I avoided looking at women?s dresses and lingerie in the catalogs. Not sure if I thought I would be struck by a lightning bolt, I would go blind, or whatever if I sneaked a peek!

    Eventually I did start looking through those sections of the catalogs admiring the ladies and wondering just how the garments would look on me.

    While I did try on my mom?s nightgowns and other lingerie on the sly, it would be a few years before I bought my own. Alas, squandered youth.

  10. #10
    Miss Judy Judy-Somthing's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    3,259
    I never liked the colored under garments except Red, Black, and my favorite ivory.

    For those of us born in the 50s probably have more of a fondness for girdles, I do!

    It must have been torture for woman to wear them for long periods of time.

    My mother kept all the unused clothes in a spare room next to mine, so cool 60s dresses, bras, slips, girdles.

    The most memorial girdle was a Playtex OB latex rubber girdle.

    What a crazy idea, even though it had hundreds of tiny holes, you'd sweet like crazy!

    Of course, being a CDer I loved it.

    I see them on eBay selling for about $400.
    Last edited by Judy-Somthing; 05-12-2021 at 05:42 PM.
    "This is ME" I am not CRAZY, I'm just a GUY who likes dresses!
    Since allot of men dress up in woman's clothing that makes it a manly thing to do!
    Much more fun than fishing.
    I do construction like house building and I love CD-ing, what's the difference?

  11. #11
    Member Lori Ann Westlake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Posts
    232
    Robbiegirl, I never bought any of "my" clothes mail order, from Sears or anyone else. Apart from not wanting any telltale packages arriving while I was still living with my parents, I preferred to browse the stores anyway and take home what I wanted on the spot. I will say that J. C. Penney still has a lot of cute stuff in their stores in the way of outerwear, dresses especially. Our daughter thinks so too.

    However, I have been around long enough that in the past I was able to buy slips in all kinds of colors: cute lacy full-length slips and half slips not just in black and white, but in pink, blue, red, yellow, you name it, and with all kinds of lace and frills. In fact I well remember assembling collections of certain slips in a full range of available colors, as and when I could afford them hack then in the impecunious days of my youth.

    The decline of the slip is regrettable. Far fewer women are wearing them today. Most skirts are lined these days, eliminating the need for a slip, while scads of women are wearing pants anyway. Slips are still available of course, but in a narrower range of styles and colors. And there's less laciness, less femininity and frills. There are plenty of styles and colors in bras and panties, yes, but they're brazenly "sexy," while slips are more refined. There are few things more feminine and beautiful than a slip (including a half-slip), though the shapely elegance of a full-length slip reigns supreme. It combines the revealingly figure-hugging lines of an evening gown, with those delicate straps over the bare shoulders--but in addition, a slip is silky-smooth--and it's underwear, with everything that suggests.

    If we want more colored slips, I guess we can resort to dyeing them--I've done that before with garments--but we could still use more frills and lace.

    Incidentally I was casually browsing around a couple of stores recently for a nice nightgown, and I was disappointed there too. Everything I saw was grannyish, or else it was pajamas. I hope I just hit the stores at a bad time. We need more "floating femininity," more romance.

    Quote Originally Posted by Karren Hutton View Post
    My grandmother had the greatest bra and girdle collection imaginable! [...] Long line... open bottom... one piece... she had them all! Bras with more hooks than I could count! Lucky we wore about the same size too!
    Oh, you did have a "privileged upbringing," Karren! Not just a stepsister with lovely clothes to borrow, as you mentioned elsewhere, and a stepmother who strutted temptingly around in her bra and girdle (and her nylons and panties, no doubt), but all this to revel in as well! Bras with more hooks that you could count! With a front-fastening bra especially, this conjures up images of exploring fingers working their way slowly down those hooks, one by one... All very stimulating, I'm sure! Even "overstimulating," to a young teen! But irresistibly appealing to what Monty Python called "the naughtier type of person..."
    Last edited by Lori Ann Westlake; 05-12-2021 at 09:06 PM.

  12. #12
    Danielle cdinmd206's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Maryland
    Posts
    533
    Oh how I loved looking at all the lingerie in the SEARS ROEBUCK and MONTGOMERY WARDS catalogs. I so wanted to wear some of them. When I was entering puberty I was staying with my aunt fro a few days and one time I inadvertently walked in on her as she was taking her dress off. I apologized and went to leave and she asked what I wanted. She was standing there in a white lacy full slip. As I started to say something, she pulled the slip over her head. As long as I live I will never forget the sight of her standing there in a white satin garter belt, beige stockings, white frilly see thru panties and white lacy pushup bra and she had huge boobs. I was totally mesmerized and had a natural reaction. She laughed an said I guess you like my lingerie. I could only nod my head. That was the beginning of a wonderful time as she turned me into her new niece

  13. #13
    Miss Conception Karren H's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    South Western PA
    Posts
    24,704
    Quote Originally Posted by Lori Ann Westlake View Post
    Oh, you did have a "privileged upbringing," Karren! Not just a stepsister with lovely clothes to borrow, as you mentioned elsewhere, and a stepmother who strutted temptingly around in her bra and girdle (and her nylons and panties, no doubt), but all this to revel in as well! Bras with more hooks that you could count! With a front-fastening bra especially, this conjures up images of exploring fingers working their way slowly down those hooks, one by one... All very stimulating, I'm sure! Even "overstimulating," to a young teen! But irresistibly appealing to what Monty Python called "the naughtier type of person..."
    Right! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!! The list is endless as far as the "borrowing" opportunities I had growing up! lol Was it wrong to choose girlfriends based on her wearing the same size I did? The good old days!

    I also remember while browsing the linger section of the Sears Catalogue, I would have the motorbike section marked with my finger and if anyone walked into the room I would flip over to the bikes... Can't remember which I wanted more, a 60cc Bridgestone Motorbike or a Playtex Living Bra and 18 hour girdle! or maybe riding a motorbike while wearing the bra and girdle?
    Last edited by Karren H; 05-12-2021 at 09:57 PM.
    Current Obsession - Breasts and Lingerie!

    .......My Photos

  14. #14
    Platinum Member Crissy 107's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
    Location
    Maryland, USA
    Posts
    11,031
    I can remember looking through the Sears catalog at all the lingerie like it was yesterday. I also remember hoping nobody saw me staring at all the beautiful models. I remember thinking how lucky they were, for several reasons.
    I think that may have been my gateway to crossdressing
    Crissy

  15. #15
    Senior Member DanielleDubois's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Gold Coast , Australia
    Posts
    1,051
    I used to love the Christmas season catalogues the best when I was a teenager because they would feature more of the sexier lingerie like Merry Widows and babydoll nightgowns. Like Karren I was always prepared to quickly turn the page away from the lingerie section. Way back then it was only a fantasy Danielle would be wearing sexy lingerie.

  16. #16
    Princess Candice candykowal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Arlington Heights, Illinois
    Posts
    1,179
    I loved those catalogs as I spent a lot of time in my attic bedroom all dressed up looking through the pages for things I wanted.
    I mostly got white camisoles and bras, short and full slips with an occasional black or leopard print.
    I so loved the red and powder blues or the bra with the red rose between the cups.
    Mom would also buy pink Northern toilet paper, rose shaped hand soaps, and lacey towels for the attic bathroom I used.
    I remember showing Mom a plaid romper in the Ward catalogue.
    It looked like something Marsha Brady wore on the Brady Bunch and that Fall, I found a similar item in the attic closet we shared, it fit me nicely!
    All the colorful lingerie went out of fashion when I started college and we all were dressing like Madonna...like a virgin...you had to wear a white bra or you were a square!
    Candice Coleen Kowal ....all my friends call me Candy!

  17. #17
    Senior Member SaraLin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Central Fla.
    Posts
    1,171
    Call me weird, I guess...

    Back then, I was still pretty young (pre-teen), and did have a certain -um- boyish interest in the scantily clad women.

    What really caught my interest was a just a few pages away.
    I was captured by the section on young girls' clothes.
    All the pretty things that girls my age got to wear was my weakness.
    I imagined myself being able to get these things and wear them myself. I would imagine how they must feel and pretend that people would see me and comment on how pretty the girl looked in that outfit (I had an active imagination).

    And no- back then I never did get to indulge. I don't remember anyone in the family ever getting anything from these catalogs.

  18. #18
    Member SissieScott's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2021
    Location
    NY
    Posts
    120
    Those catalogs were my escape from reality, and would spend hours thinking of the feel, the look. and the scantily clad women even ....desiring and thinking the women would accept me dressed with them. What made me even more curious is how well I may *fill it out* considering my gynecomastia that I affectionately refer to as my *Moobs* Between the *creepy* factor and only having access to my mother's nylon white granny panties and boring plain white slips, it wasn't until years later and left for college I would get to experience the different materials, colors, and styles.....best of all they were MINE.

  19. #19
    Member Lori Ann Westlake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Posts
    232
    Quote Originally Posted by Karren Hutton View Post
    I would have the motorbike section marked with my finger and if anyone walked into the room I would flip over to the bikes... Can't remember which I wanted more, a 60cc Bridgestone Motorbike or a Playtex Living Bra and 18 hour girdle! or maybe riding a motorbike while wearing the bra and girdle?
    The perfect marriage of male and female! Daisy, Daisy... on a motorbike made for two!

  20. #20
    Silver Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central NY
    Posts
    3,655
    One of the reasons those Playtex rubber girdles are so expensive is that most have rotted away from age; they will often fall apart when stretched. Few survive today, though they do make rubber girdles in South America where they were popular a few years back.

    Alas, by the late 1980s when I came of age, slips were only in black, white and beige. Their use started steeply declining in the mid to early 1990s. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find pretty slips in larger sizes (above a 42" chest.) My ex girlfriend used to dye her white slips all kinds of different colors, to match the colored slips she wore when she was younger. I fondly remember a mint green one.

    Now in 2021 it is hard to find many things. A few popular brand name companies still made gartered stockings even a few years back, now I can only think of 2 and you have to buy them online. (Berkshire stopped making my favorite gartered stockings 2 years ago.) Most girdle companies stopped making them or went out of business (I can only think of 1 offhand.) National, a catalog that catered to mature women, had gartered stockings in many styles up until a few years ago; now they have 1 style of support pantyhose, 1 style of non-support pantyhose, and 1 style of knee highs. Guess the older women that still wore them regularly have now all died off.

  21. #21
    Rural T Girl Teri Ray's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Idaho
    Posts
    2,015
    Like others here my window to the world was the Sears and Montgomerry Ward catalogs. I loved spending time looking at the beautiful women in their panties, bras and slips. Am I the only one who remembers that many of the sears catalogs listed their items as: Good, Better, Best. I can see a catalog picture with the ad reading. "Our Best Girdle Ever!"
    Teri Ray Rural Idaho Girl.

  22. #22
    Senior Member April Rose's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    1,095
    Yeah, those catalogs were source material for endless daydreaming for me.....
    I am a vessel of the goddess. Let me express my calling to a feminine life through nurturing love and relatedness.

  23. #23
    Senior Member GretchenM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Denver, Colorado
    Posts
    1,867
    I hear you April. I have wondered if my parents ever figured out why the women's section suffered the most wear and tear. They probably did and thought it was just the curiosity of a young boy. My, my how wrong they were. Sometimes really powerful stress built up, and not necessarily the sexual kind. We now know that as "Gender Dysphoria." It would bring tears to my eyes once in awhile.

  24. #24
    Member sue ellan's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Nebraska
    Posts
    428
    it just makes your mouth water right?

  25. #25
    Aspiring Member Robbiegirl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    642
    Its always fun to see how lingerie fashions changed from one decade to another! I would gladly wear them all ! LOL
    Aldens Catalog 1956-57 - Slips, Panties and Jayne Mansfield's Pajamas!.jpg
    1965 JCPenney Christmas Book, Page 92.jpg

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


Check out these other hot web properties:
Catholic Personals | Jewish Personals | Millionaire Personals | Unsigned Artists | Crossdressing Relationship
BBW Personals | Latino Personals | Black Personals | Crossdresser Chat | Crossdressing QA
Biker Personals | CD Relationship | Crossdressing Dating | FTM Relationship | Dating | TG Relationship


The crossdressing community is one that needs to stick together and continue to be there for each other for whatever one needs.
We are always trying to improve the forum to better serve the crossdresser in all of us.

Browse Crossdressers By State