Take a look at those Top-Siders... $8.95 calculated for inflation in today's dollars would equal $71.76.
Cushioned insole, rustproof eyelets, classic blue or white canvas- no other colors needed! Quality made-in-America product.
We pay more nowadays for cheap Asian crap.
How depressing.
Last edited by Oliver (2016-01-05 22:44:09)
The guy in the silk golf jacket, that's me…!
Is it me or is there an almost 40s-50s hip retro look going on in some of these styles / illustrations, at least for 1960. Even the drawings seem pretty retro compared to a lot of the stylized illustrations in ads posted above it! Also worth taking note of the demographic that A+F were appealing to in those days... How the mighty have fallen!
Last edited by Oliver (2016-01-06 08:24:52)
Yep. +1, had the same feeling.
Adding to eBay search list: Jack Tar cap and boatneck pullover!
Btw, I love how those madras & dacron-cotton striped beach shirts are cut to the same proportions as a sport coat; a far cry from the silly looking '60s cabana suits that followed. Look how perfectly they drape alongside that English Henley blazer; proper half-sleeve length and natural waist trunks too. I'd love to find something like that!
Whenever I see these old ads it makes me wonder how we've taken such classic, symmetrical and perfectly formed looks and bastardized them to such extremes?? I mean, men literally do not know how to wear shirts and trousers anymore. They dress worse than infants did decades ago... I don't understand it. How did we take something so flawless and exemplary and completely shred it to the point of it being unrecognizable in current times? We've somehow broken the perfect archetypal mold in the name of modernization and it really sucks. These illustrations should be the classical representation of how men should be dressed; even if styles have moved on, the basic principals of fit should have been etched in stone yet somehow that's been lost with time.
Also, has anyone read the description on that MAdisonaire advert??
"the natural choice for the individualistic young man in the halls of learning and the world of business, who wouldn't be caught dead in an overpadded suit, sport coat or top coat"
I motion that we rewrite the constitution to somehow incorporate this sentence!
Except non of them actually look that young?
Well that's for the above ad, not the A+F catalogs which seemed to target a much older demographic, at least compared with the ugly psuedo-trad teenybop college stuff they market nowadays.
Ah, good point, sorry misread - but even the chap in the ad looks older than me! hahaha
truly great old Top-Sider page Ollie. ...
Some of these pages need to also get over to the Tropical Ivy thread
The pleated pants and shorts? make me wonder whether 1960-era Abercrombie & Fitch customers were throwback sticklers insistent on pleats and whether the company was pushing NOS and/or whether the catalogue and/or illustrations actually date from 1960 ....
Because those rich pleats are the antithesis of Ivy.
Yet many other items in the catalogue are timeless things that fit right into Ivy
Such a classic look.
I found some handloom madras shorts by Corbin on etsy...but the 70 quid price tag has put me off
Last edited by Bop (2016-03-03 07:20:21)
Such great ads, AC. Thanks for my viewing pweshure.