The Ceil Chapman dress advertisement I posted yesterday came from a fashion scrapbook that was probably assembled in the early 1960's.
Sometimes a great source for research and design shows up in unexpected places. What looked to me like a child's paper scrapbook collection turned out to be newspaper clippings from fashion advertisements during the early 1960's. While few dates appear, and few brands, designers, or store names are included, sometimes the scrapbooker would cut out that information with the fashion illustration. I.Magnins, the Broadway, Bullock's Wilshire, Bullock's, and other southern California department stores are represented.
The image above is not edited, and shows how dark and faded the paper pages and illustrations have become. Below are those individual pages shown in the scrapbook above. They are darkly yellowed and fume faded, sometimes having glue spots. However, the illustrations are a gold mine of fashion illustration styles, dress and suit silhouettes and pattern design from this era.
I plan to share more of these fun scrapbook clippings in future posts as I research this historical resource further.