Traveling men’s clothing salesmen carried book of fabric swatches and illustrations of the latest designs from small town to small town. When Sears and other mail order companies began to sell ready made suits to the small town man they produced Sample Books to mail to any customer who wanted to order from them. While real sample books are rare and incredibly expensive I found some ads and pages from sample books that give us a good start to seeing exactly what colors and weaves were made into 1900s and 1910s Edwardian era clothing. These are mostly all for men’s wool suits, trousers and outerwear.
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- 1902 Sample book ad for suiting and overcoats
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- 1902 sample book ad
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- 1903 men’s suiting
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- 1906 men’s trouser fabrics
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- 1906 men’s trouser fabrics
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- 1911 men’s suiting
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- 1911 men’s fabrics for pants (top 2 rows) and overcoats
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- 1912 men’s suiting
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- 1912 men’s suiting
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- 1912 men’s suiting
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- 1912 men’s suiting
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- 1913 Sears Men’s Suiting for fall Sample Book ad
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- 1914 Sears Fall Winter Men’s Clothing catalog ad
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- 1914 Sears Spring Sample book ad
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- 1918 Banner Tailoring suiting
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- 1918 Banner tailoring suiting
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- 1918 Banner tailoring suiting
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- 1919 Men’s Suiting
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- 1919 Men’s Suiting
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- 1919 Men’s Summer Suiting
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- 1919 Men’s Summer Suiting
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- 1919 Semi-Conservative Men’s Suiting
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- 1919 Young men’s Suiting
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- 1900 men’s stripe shirt patterns
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- 1915 men’s underwear fabrics
1916 suits swacthes
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- 1916 silk wool mixture suiting
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- 1916 black serge
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- 1916 black wool ribbed with orange thread
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- 1916 homespun scotch wool overcoat fabric
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- 1916 grey check wool overcoat fabric
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- 1916 back coating- black on front, colors on back
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- 1916 black pin check worsted
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- 1916 dark grey wool suiting ribbed with maroon
More Edwardian Men’s resources:
- 1910s Edwardian men’s fashion – suits and business attire
- 1910s Edwardian Men fashion – casual clothing
- 1910s Edwardian men’s clothing – workwear
Move onto 1920s men’s fashion fabrics
Debbie Sessions has been teaching fashion history and helping people dress for vintage themed events since 2009. She has turned a hobby into VintageDancer.com with hundreds of well researched articles and hand picked links to vintage inspired clothing online. She aims to make dressing accurately (or not) an affordable option for all. Oh, and she dances too.
