Ready To Wear Fashion Show – by the St. Louis Wholesale Garment Association

Such a fascinating glimpse into the history of ready to wear clothing in America (and St. Louis’s little known fashion history)! I love the art decor border of fashionable silhouettes, surrounding the introduction to the 1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant.

Thus begins the programme and schedule for the 1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant of ready to wear clothes, presented in Forest Park August 7-24.

The introduction reads:

“This gorgeous style spectacle portrayed by beautiful live models will be produced in the Municipal Theatre, Forest Park, St. Louis.

Come and meet the most prominent merchants and buyers who have accepted St. Louis Ready-to-Wear Styles as authentic and profitable.

Coats, Suits, Dresses, Waists, Blouses, Skirts, Petticoats, Knitted Outerwear, Bungalow Aprons, House Dresses, Muslin and Silk Underwear

St. Louis, the Garment City”

If you look at the next page, St. Louis Wholesale Garment Association, the featured businesses are ALL located downtown on Washington Avenue, except for 3 (who were on very nearby side streets).

For more history on ready to wear fashions, I found the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s site most interesting: http://museum.nist.gov/exhibits/apparel/history.htm

It basically says what this St. Louis Fashion magazine was demonstrating:

Ready-made articles of clothing were portrayed as modern and fashionable during a time when the new consumer industries were rapidly redefining the way Americans viewed mass-manufactured goods. Instead of seeing the purchase of mass-produced clothing as entailing a loss of individuality, American women began to accept the pieces of ready-made merchandise as convenient, affordable, and up-to-date fashion items that could be replaced easily as styles changed….