The above scan is from a 1954 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog.
Though the image is rather frightening, it's very real. In fact, back in '54, Sears sold enough to occupy FIFTEEN PAGES!!
These aren't little boutique-mailer pages - they're BIG HONKIN PAGES chock FULL of women bound up, swaddled, stretched, packed and shoved into these devices.
Women actually WORE these things?!
Fashion is nothing short of cruel - put your thumb over their heads and it's not hard to visualize the image as a space vehicle from Star Wars - they're like that biscuit dough that comes packed in a tube; a quick whack on the counter and the dough pops out the side with a kind of "PSsshhhk!" noise.
I bet a sudden seam failure could generate thrust!
Anyway, since there's a plethora of antique ads - real and Photoshopped - going through the Net right now, I thought I'd share some of the more interesting images from my own collection of old publications.
More to come - and if you think these cotton sausages are wild, just wait.
