Awesome 1975 JC Penny's catalog

Rolling Stone writer and "But Enough About Me" author Jancee Dunn's dad worked for JC Penney for 35 years. She recently scanned some terrific pages from one of their 1975 catalogs. Ah, I yearn for the good old daze when big department stores dealt in Superfly threads and party hookahs. Link and Link (Thanks, Tom Vanderbilt!)

[#1 posted by JHudson , September 24, 2007 11:51 AM]

Dammit, now I've got "Stayin' Alive" stuck in my head...

(I particularly like the hat.)

[#2 posted by The Big Fez , September 24, 2007 12:00 PM]

James Lileks would have a field day with this.

[#3 posted by extra88 , September 24, 2007 12:26 PM]

OMFG! I would have sworn those dude duds were from a Halloween costume section, even in 1975. It's the hat, that is a pimp hat. The rest of it seems normal for JC Penney and the period, in all its polyester glory.

[#4 posted by Chris , September 24, 2007 2:47 PM]

Those are awesome! It's hard to believe our country's...zeitgeist would ever had allowed for things like J.C. Penny stocking and selling pimp outfits or waterpipes.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , September 24, 2007 7:18 PM]

someone came out with a scanned copy of a 1971 sears catalog several years ago...you can check it out here..
http://www.aperfectworld.org/sears.htm

[#6 posted by BillyB , September 24, 2007 8:34 PM]

The men's clothing reminds me of my freshman year at design school, when a classmate found and pinned to the studio wall a strange piece of '70s fashion kitsch: a full-color brochure labeled "Men in Belted Sweaters." I'd fruitlessly searched the web for this odd artifact in the time since then, but only just now did it turn up again, as an eBay sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/MEN-IN-BELTED-SWEATERS!!---Must-See-Pics!!!!_W0QQitemZ200154718431QQcmdZViewItem

[#7 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden/Moderator , September 25, 2007 12:55 PM]

Chris (4), I solemnly assure you that it happened, and in too many cases it looked awful. It wasn't just the pastel colors, or the popular pairing of qiana with polyester doubleknit. Those are unforgiving styles. If the clothes didn't fit properly, or you didn't have the right build for them, the effect could be traumatic.

That was also the period when colored underwear for men became popular. Not all men remembered to mirror-test that day's combination of pastel trousers and dark underwear before leaving the house.

As for the hookahs, a lot more of them were sold than were ever used.

[#8 posted by Redjello , September 26, 2007 4:10 AM]

I wonder how many laughs our kids will have when they pick up the 2050 JC Penney catalog...