Vintage Lingerie Catalogue Scans (Pre-1996) Talk

[pwd_budlk_street]

Originally Posted by DiegoJames

Used to love scouring my mother's Kays or Freemans catalogues lingerie sections for a peek of nip or bush

Great shot. Reminds me why this thread is still one of the best on the web. I don't think millenials or younger would ever appreciate this picture. For us, it is pure nostalgia to better times. Back in the day, even if your mother was a religious conservative, the odds are that clothing catalogs showed up in the mail box. As teenagers, we lived for those drops. Could not wait to sneak off and scour the issue for nipples and pubes. As I am older now, I am amazed how it all went down. Think about it - your mother or sisters ordered a catalog filled with beautiful, half naked women. For them, it was mehh..just a shopping catalog while we lived for those issues. I recall pulling many from the gargbage as they were getting thrown out. I also think about the girls themselves. They were probably 17-18 year old aspiring models, hoping to be on cover of Seventeen. They register with some modeling agency that advertised in a beauty mag and get the call for an assignment. They are told it is some lingerie but no nudity and no more than wearing a bikini at beach. They jump all over it. They show up and are given basically transparent underwear, then get makeup and hair done..all excited to be a working model. Being the 70s,80s and early 90s, no brazilian waxing and girls probably did just side maintenance to keep it in inside bikini. If they did have concerns, they were probably told that editor would touch any photos that revealed too much. As we all know it was a complete lie. They would never spend money on touch-ups as their product was lingerie, not model perfection. No women complained I guess..and voila, we got decades of jerk material. What an era. You have to believe that some of these girls were mortified to see their hairy bush and tits for all to see.

[stardust2003]

yes... the fabulous quality of the photos.... that smell of a new catalogue.... and all for free !

[silkies]

Originally Posted by baronblood1964

My favorites were always the nightgowns. The women looked so glamorous and feminine in their silky, lacy gowns and babydolls. I still love these vintage nightgowns. Today's lingerie isn't even close to how wonderful it was in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's.

[constantstroke]

Originally Posted by pwd_budlk_street

You have to believe that some of these girls were mortified to see their hairy bush and tits for all to see.

Or it was a way for them to show off with a veneer of "respectability" and without the stigma of appearing in a "nudie" magazine.

[Grouchy]

Originally Posted by stardust2003

yes... the fabulous quality of the photos.... that smell of a new catalogue.... and all for free !

Just as an aside...

In the 19760's and 70's, my brother, who is older than me, worked in the print industry. He worked for a company that processed the "raw" images into the stuff we saw in the catalogues and similar publications.

Lets remember this was long before the days of digital photography and "Photoshop".. everything was done on film or paper, both negatives and positive images and mostly by hand. The company he worked for didn't just do the lingerie pictures they processed literally everything that was featured in the catalogue.

He told me that the raw images received from the studio came with notes attached to direct the processors as to how the owners wanted the images displayed.. things such as "make blue background lighter" or "darken models legs" etc...

He also told me that in the case of clothing and lingerie pictures they had to retouch them to remove the various items that had been attached to the garments to enable them to look good in the pictures. A common thing was to attach fine fishing line to the hem of a skirt or slip (for instance) and this was then pulled out or downwards by a photographers assistant off-camera in order to smooth out the garment and make it look less wrinkled and "hang" better.

His job as one of the retouchers was to manually remove all trace of the "extras" and leave the model in the garment without any evidence of outside influence. Many of the pictures they processed clearly showed several assistants pulling the garment in various directions to show it off to the best...

[sliplover46]

I happened to save some pages from the old Shadowline catalog. Wish I had done the whole catalog.

[Rogag]

Still a favourite was the 'Contesa' range of lingerie that featured in the Great Universal/Marshall Ward and Kays catalogues in the 80s

[silkies]

Originally Posted by sliplover46

I happened to save some pages from the old Shadowline catalog. Wish I had done the whole catalog.

Here are some more pics that I found from that same era/catalog.










As an aside, Shadowline still makes the lace top nightgowns as part of their Silhouette collection, and they still use the silkiest nylon I have ever felt. I'm a huge fan of Shadowline. I have a stockpile of their gowns and high leg panties, just in case they ever change or go out of business.

[Rogag]

A favourite page from Kays catalogue 1983. 40 years on it still does it for me, sexy model and seductive lingerie, love every detail of her Bra, Panties and Suspender Belt - with Stockings.

[BLACK_NYLONS]

The Contesa page is amazing. Lovely outfit with a bra that shows of the model’s cleavage to perfection. Unusual to see her panties being worn over the top of her suspender belt but correct in my opinion. Nice stockings too with a lovely sheen. The lilac is a lovely colour as it would work well with any stocking shade.