1930s deadstock swimsuit

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281692389610
This vintage bathing suit was made in the 1940s. It is made of blue wool with a drawstring waistband, considered sleeker and sportier at the time than the belted models. It still has the original size tag and care tags attached to the suit.

Waist (unstretched) – 12″ (doubled = 24″)
Waist (stretched) – 18″ (doubled = 36″)
Side Seam – 10-1/2″
Rise – 15″

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1930s Canvas Backpack

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271872414732
made in the 1930s. It is made of canvas, with taped seams, heavy webbing straps, riveted to the bag, and with a buckle closure on one side to make taking the bag off and putting it on easier. There is a zippered pocket with an early style round hole Talon zipper, a re-tooling of earlier Hookless dies. The name Robert Brunelle is written inside the top of the bag.

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1930s-1940s canvas moneybelt

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281659066313
This vintage moneybelt was made in the 1930s-early 1940s. The style of pin-lock zipper with flat pull and symmetrical D shaped stops was more typical of mid-1930s manufacture, but from the period demand, I would guess this dates from the early part of WWII. It is made of canvas, with leather reinforcement and a selvedge webbing waistband.

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1920s-1930s Hookless zipper boot ashtray

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281666464193
BF Goodrich introduced the Zipper Boot in 1923. It was one of the earliest successful uses of the Hookless Slide Fastener. The fastener became so inseparable from the boot in these early years that the boot’s name, the Zipper came to be the generic term for what had previously been called the Hookless slide fastener. This ashtray depicts the early version of the boot, from about 1924, which features the no-hole version of the Hookless fastener.

 

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A period advertisement for Hookless, showing a close-up view of the type of fastener depicted on this ashtray.  Ad shown for descriptive purposes, and is not included with the ashtray.

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1930s Talon zipper pull

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271865225987
This zipper sider and pull was made by Talon in the 1930s. It has the round holed slider which was a re-tooling of earlier Hookless labeled zippers. Many reproduction manufacturers inaccurately put reproductions of mid-1920s style Hookless marked zippers on 1930s style jackets (not to mention the separable bottomed zipper wasn’t even invented until 1930, so any solely Hookless marked zipper is entirely anachronistic for a zipper front jacket). Upgrade yours to an original Talon marked slider!

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1920s-1930s Hookless Zipper money bag

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281687478268
Made between 1928 and 1932, this vintage bank bag bears the stamp of the Seaside Trust Company, located in Margate, New Jersey, just down the boardwalk from Atlantic City and home to Lucy the Elephant. The bag bears a transitional double marked Hookless + Talon zipper, only produced from 1928 to 1932. There is a snap, marked YEO (presumably the manufacturer of the bank bag), through the hole of the zipper pull.

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1930s-1940s Penney’s Brown Tweed Suit

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281687585363
This vintage suit was made in the late 1930s – mid 1940s and was sold by the J.C. Penny Co., Inc. It is made of flecky brown Donegal Tweed, in a three button cut. The jacket has a purple half-lining. There is a faded union label in the pocket, unfortunately now illegible. The patns have buttons for braces, dropped narrow belt loops and a Serval zipper. They are cuffed.

Chest (pit to pit): 21″ (doubled = 42″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 18″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 23″
Length (base of collar to hem): 28-1/2″

Waist (side to side): 15″ (doubled = 30″)
Outseam: 40″
Inseam: 29″
Rise: 11″

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Cushman Japan reproduction wool half-belt jacket

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281687597362
This jacket was made by high end Japanese manufacturer Cushman, inspired by a mid 1930s workwear jacket. It is made from gray and eggplant plaid wool, with a half-belt back, built in vest, handwarmer pockets, belted cuffs, breast pocket and zip front. The jacket has a Waldes main zipper with an early 1930s Talon influenced grommet stopbox. The pocket zipper has a ball and chain pull, again typical of mid 1930s jackets. The jacket is, as was typical of this style of 1930s jackets, unlined. The front panels have a sort of half-lining, from the same wool as the jacket, which folds forward into the attached vest. It has cat-eye buttons. The side adjuster belts have fancy metal buckles. The jacket has a black and yellow label reading, “Outerwear by Cushman, Smarter Styling – Longer Wear”, in addition to a keystone All Wool tag.

Chest (pit to pit): 22-1/2″ (doubled = 45″)
Sleeve (center of collar to end of cuff): 34″ (roughly equivalent to 18″ shoulders and 25″ sleeves)
Length (collar seam to hem): 25″

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1930s Albert Richard Grizzly jacket

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281655706660

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This vintage jacket was made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Fried Ostermann between 1936 and 1938 under the Albert Richard Sportswear label. The jacket is made of front quarter horsehide leather, with mouton panels and collar. Originally sold as a “Laskinlamb jacket”, this style has come to be known by collectors as the Grizzly. These were popular in the mid to late 1930. The jacket has Albert Richard’s patented Tu-Length cuffs, which have buttons on either side, allowing them to be worn down for a longer sleeve or turned up and buttoned for a shorter sleeve length. The jacket has a Talon main zipper with a grommet style stopbox. The slider is of the deco sunburst design with oval slider-to-puller connection, which was only produced in the mid 1930s and which was replaced by a simpler design around 1938. The pull is a rectangular holed, plain backed version, also typical of mid 1930s production. The jacket is lined with plaid wool, with leather pit guards and ventilation grommets. The sleeves have knit storm cuffs to keep out the wind. The collar has a buttoned chinstrap throat latch to cinch it up tight in bad weather.

Chest (pit to pit): 20″ (doubled = 40″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 17″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff, turned down): 26″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff, turned up): 24″
Length (Base of collar to hem): 21-1/2″

A history of Albert Richard which I wrote for “The Art of Vintage Leather Jackets”:
Fried-Ostermann was founded c.1902 as a glove manufacturer. They bought out their competitor, Price Gloves, and relocated production of that company’s products to their original factory, located at 617-645 Reed Street, Milwaukee, WI. By 1915, the company had gained a partner, and was known as the Fried, Ostermann, Meyer Co, but that looks to only have lasted until 1917. As the company grew, they relocated to 1645 S. 2nd Street, Milwaukee, WI.
Fried-Ostermann diversified out of gloves and into outerwear in the late 1920s with the formation of a new division of the company, called Albert Richard. The leather jackets, mackinaws, overcoats and sportswear produced by Albert Richard would soon come to eclipse the glove-making side of the company.
Pre-war advertising stressed health and sports, with endorsements from college football players. These ads also talk about bringing items of clothing which were previously thought of as workwear, like mackinaws and leather jackets, into the realm of ordinary streetwear, citing their comfort and durability.
During WWII, the Albert Richard factory made A-2 (contract AC 23383), M-422A (contract 1406A), M444A and M445A flight jackets under the name of their parent company, Fried-Ostermann. They advertised leather jackets, overcoats and sportswear heavily during WWII, giving their jackets model names like the “Spitfire” and the “Meteor”. During the war, the company gave away wall-sized posters showing a range of american military airplanes.
850 workers were employed by Albert r in 1946, with plans to hire another 400. The company was one of the first to use fiberglass insulation in coats, a technology borrowed from b-29 bombers Sheepskin collared “storm coats” became a signature model after the war.
President of Fried-Ostermann, Richard Fried, sold their Albert Richard Division to the Drybak corporation of Binghampton, NY in late 1952. Drybak, a maker of canvas hunting clothing was looking to diversify their line. In the deal, they got the licensing, branding, patterns, dealership network, but other than the Vice President and designer for Albert Richard, all of the employees and equipment stayed at the plant in Milwaukee. Fried-Osterman re-focused the attention of their plant on the production of gloves, and on producing leather jackets under house labels for mail order and department stores.
Starting in 1953, under Drybak’s ownership, Albert Richard clothing was once again produced, this time under contract at a factory in New Jersey, which Drybak declined to name. The plan at that time was to have production moved to New York by 1954. Labels were changed in this period to read “Albert Richard by Drybak”. In 1955, Drybak acquired the Martin Mfg. Co. in Martin, TN. They closed their Binghamton operations in that same year and relocated their hunting clothing manufacturing and their Albert Richard division to the Tennessee plant to take advantage of the lower labor costs in the south.