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The drawing above shows a
Union soldier wearing a
standard-size Army uniform.
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A page from a fictitious mail
order catalog
shows various women's fashions
from
the 1920s.
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Short History of Ready-Made Clothing
Before the American
Civil War, ready-made (also called
ready-to-wear) apparel existed but its
variety was limited. Mainly coats and jackets
(known as outerwear) and undergarments were
purchased using predetermined sizes. Most
clothing was made by tailors or by
individuals or their family members at home.
The Civil War was a pivotal event in the
historical development of men's ready-made
clothing. At the outset of the Civil War,
most uniforms were custom-made in workers'
homes under government contract. As the war
continued, however, manufacturers started to
build factories that could quickly and
efficiently meet the growing demands of the
military. Mass production of uniforms
necessitated the development of standard
sizes. Measurements taken of the soldiers
revealed that certain sets of measurements
tended to recur with predictable regularity.
After the war, these military measurements
were used to create the first commercial
sizing scales for men.
The mass production of women's clothing
developed more slowly. Women's outfits
generally continued to be custom-made well
into the 1920s. In that decade, factors such
as the development of industrial production
techniques, the rise of the advertising
industry, the growth of an urban professional
class, and the development of national
markets accessed through chain stores and
mail order catalogs, contributed to the
success of the women's ready-made apparel
industry. 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.
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description
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Mary Schenck Woolman, Clothing: Choice,
Care, Cost (Philadelphia,
London, etc.: J.B. Lippincott, 1920).
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However, the new ready-made clothing often
fit poorly. Each manufacturer created its own
unique and sometimes arbitrary sizing system
based on inaccurate body data or no body data
at all. Garments of widely different
dimensions were frequently labeled the same
size by different manufacturers. This
situation resulted in additional costs for
alterations and large volumes of returned
merchandise. This, in turn, increased costs
for the consumer of ready-to-wear clothing.
In 1937, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
prepared to conduct a study of women's body
measurements for the purpose of creating a
sizing system which the entire industry could
follow.
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