✨ The Advance Tailored Woman – January Issue
Fall & Winter Styles 1938–39
Step back into the sophisticated world of late-1930s fashion with this scarce issue of The Advance Tailored Woman, a fascinating pre-WWII fashion publication produced in New York’s Garment District during the final years before wartime fashion transformed American dress.
Published by Garment Fashion Publishing Corporation, located at 151 West 40th Street, New York, this 38-page magazine showcases an extensive collection of tailored women’s fashions, including smart suits, coats, ensembles, dresses, and accessories reflecting the elegant silhouettes of 1938–39. The pages are filled with fashion illustrations, styling details, and pattern offerings numbered in the 7000 series, providing a remarkable glimpse into a little-documented mail-order fashion and pattern enterprise.
The fashions capture many of the hallmarks of the era: strong shoulders, fitted waists, slim skirts, luxurious fur-trimmed coats, and polished city styles designed for the modern woman. Particularly striking are the tailored suits and coordinated ensembles that bridge the glamorous late 1930s and the practical fashions that would soon define the wartime years.
Unlike the better-known publications issued by Butterick, McCall, or Simplicity, The Advance Tailored Woman appears to represent a lesser-known New York fashion publisher and pattern service, making surviving examples especially intriguing for collectors and researchers. The publication offers valuable insight into fashion marketing, mail-order sewing patterns, and women’s apparel at the close of the Depression era.
Highlights:
A wonderful and increasingly hard-to-find survivor from the golden age of home sewing and American fashion publishing, preserving the styles and aspirations of women on the eve of World War I