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CUSTOM-MADE
HOMEMADE

READY-MADE

C&A frequently placed advertisements that promoted ready-made clothing and put forward a variety of arguments against tailor-made and homemade clothes. In the early 1920s, for example, reference was made to shortages caused by the First World War. This situation, it was said, had led many who had been buying off-the-rack clothing to return to purchasing more expensive custom-tailored garments.

CUSTOM-MADE

HOMEMADE
In addition to having clothes tailor-made, making one’s own clothes was extremely popular. Many women owned a sewing machine or had access to one through family members or neighbors. Fashion magazines featured the latest sewing patterns, and fabric shops or related areas in department stores sold fabrics as well as small items like buttons, hooks and eyes, ribbons, and trimmings.
WHY?

In 1926, C&A tried to win over women who were making their own clothes by highlighting its large selection of fashionable clothing at affordable prices. It also criticized the frequent copying of patterns, found fault with the often poor fit of homemade garments, and—with its placement of a “waarom” (why) beneath the picture of a woman sewing—called into question the use of valuable time and money for this activity.

WE DON’T
MAKE
 CLOTHES!

C&A has four stylish women dressed in the latest fashion declaring that they no longer make their own clothes or spend nights “toiling” at the sewing machine. Instead, they are “wise” and go to C&A.

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ADVERTISING GALLERY
April 1921 / ref no. 128548
May 1926 / ref. no. 128548
October 3, 1926 / ref. no. 1404
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STORIES