Fredericks of Hollywood, 1947-1973: 26 Years of Mail Order Seduction

Fredericks of Hollywood, 1947-1973: 26 Years of Mail Order Seduction by Gottwald, Laura & Janusz eds.. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780877495826.

Frederick’s of Hollywood: 26 Years of Mail Order Seduction. Edited by Laura & Janusz Gottwald; introduction by Frederick N. Mellinger (founder & inventor). 1st Edition, Published by Drake Publishers for Castle Books, in agreement with Strawberry Hill Publishers, 1973. 8.75 x 11.5 inches. Hardcover, mottled gray/green paper with black spine titling, in pink/pale green pictorial jacket, 255 pages. Illustrated in b/w. A genius compilation of vintage catalogs, with wild illustrations and often hilarious ad copy of the designs of Frederick Mellinger, the inventor of the push-up bra and founder of Frederick’s of Hollywood. “Editor’s Note: These are the clothes that fulfilled and helped define the American woman’s dream from the mid 1940’s to the early 1970’s. We’ve tried to capture some of this dream in our selections from the Frederick’s collections. All of the copy and fashion illustrations are directly photographed from the Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs. We have also tried to preserve the feeling and texture of the original catalogs in the design of this book. In compiling these materials we encountered some difficulties. All the original artwork had been lost or destroyed. A number of catalogs were also lost (most notably the years 1959 through 1962). And, all of the existing catalogs were poorly preserved, thereby forcing from the book many items which couldn’t be salvaged or reproduced. However, the less-than-perfect quality of some of the reproductions is far outweighed by both their authenticity and the design of the fashions themselves. September 1973”