One of the items in my collection that I treasure is this 1905 mail order advertising booklet for men’s suits.
Produced by the “Regen Woolen Mills Company” out of Atlanta, the booklet features great illustrations of their men’s sartorial offerings, as well as actual samples of the fabric used to make the suits! The little squares of fabric are taped right in to the pages and you can still feel their texture and see the actual threads. There are about 8 different fabric samples in the booklet, and customers were encouraged to make two choices of fabric:
“While we carry a large stock of woolens at all times, sometimes we run out of a pattern and if you have made a second choice there will be no delay, as we will know just what you want.”
I’ve included a scan here of one of the pages.
Here are a couple of illustrations of the suits they had on offer. According to the text, their single breasted suit is “the most popular garment and the most becoming style to the average man.”
Finally, here are some pages demonstrating the way their suits are constructed, as well as a page showing how to order. I especially love how emphatic they are about the customer not having to worry about sending them money. One such statement is, “it is absolutely impossible for you to lose a cent in placing an order with us. You take no risk whatever.” However, there are at least three other versions of this idea with varying wording.
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