Function and fashion

Abstract

publications concentrate on denim jeans or dungarees, their origin, and image, while omitting overalls from the discussion. And in some cases, though part or all of the subject of a publica- tion focuses on work clothing, overalls receive only brief comments or no mention at all. 2 Two volumes give the same erroneous date-1905-for the introduction of bib overalls.3 This paper explores the chang- ing details of bib overall design from the mid-nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Marketing and sale of overalls are profiled from 1930 through the late 1940s, relating promo- tion of overalls to prevailing practices in advertising and retailing and to the social, political, and economic changes in the American labor force during the Depression, World War II, and the postwar period. We also illustrate the intermittent use of overalls as both fashion statement and functional gar- ment from the end of the war to the end of the twentieth century. Exploration of these topics included examination of extant gar- ments in costume collections, dated photos, mail-order catalogs, patents, home sewing patterns, historic printed materials, published advertisements, and articles on retailing.4 Much infor- mation about overall manufacture has been lost to history. Even such promi- nent manufacturers as Lee (Merriam,