Just before Christmas I was really lucky and won an uber-generous giveaway from Flibbertygibbet - a copy of 'Catalog, The Illustrated History of Mail-Order Shopping'.
The book is chock-full of fantastic images from the last 125 years of catalogues.
There are things I really wish they made these days, like these coloured toasters - fab.
Things I would have really coveted when I was little. Gender-specific and stereotypical they may be, but I would have loved this toy kitchen and laundry set when I was a child.
Unusual items like a pop record with knickers box set. The knickers look a bit 'Bridget Jones' to my mind - comfy but not really what a teenager would want.
Then there are the snigger-factor adverts - I'm not sure the word 'shag' has quite the same connotation in America - as well as the question of hygiene with so much pile surrounding a loo. And just in case you can't see from the photo - the shag is 100 per cent nylon, mmm lovely - static!
What a great book. I love the 'saucy fringed briefs'! How times have changed (and the prices).
Posted by: lindsey | 01/05/2009 at 05:24 PM
Lol. I remember those shag pile carpets, we had one in our living room during the 80s. You wouldn't believe the things that used to get lost in it.
And I could just see my teenager wearing those 'fashionable' knickers :)
Posted by: Sharon J | 01/05/2009 at 08:21 PM
What were people thinking in those days!
Posted by: Shauna Chapman | 01/14/2009 at 03:54 PM