How much did ladies pay for their dresses back then?

[16_sparrows]

Watching how quickly prices on Ebay jump for vintage dresses I began to wonder how much the dresses originally cost. I know this varies by era due to value of a dollar and designer, but I'm interested in the average cost for a dress in each era.

 

[mysterygal]

MK has some great material I was looking through. There was an old Sears catalog...was great looking at! Dresses were like $5....though didn't people on average make like .25/hour?

 

[maisie]

I recently got two gorgeous 40's evening dress, one red and the other black with studs, they seriously are fabulous they fit every curve and were made to look stunning! They were however NOS (great!) abd had the price tag of $15.99 each!! Very pricey for dresses of the day!!

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I have several 1930s-40s catalogs; the range in price is quite interesting. There were inexpensive 'specials' for perhaps as little as $1 or so, and more exquisite dresses, made of better fabrics, with fancy trims, or with a designer name, that cost as much as $20. I recall reading a story in a magazine--the main character went without lunch for a month to afford the evening dress of her dreams. It was a 'second' in the bargain basement, and cost $18.

Shoes might be $5-12 or more, depending on quality and material (and designer name.)

I have seen fur-trimmed coats for in some catalogs $80--imagine how expensive that was at the time!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I did some demographic research for an article a while back, and turned up information that as of 1939, the average family of four was getting by on approximately $1700 a year, or $32 a week. (Most Americans at that time were what we'd consider "working class" today -- the "middle class" was a distinct minority, and enjoyed an average income of around $2500 per year, or $48 a week.)

So a dress or a suit costing $20 was an outrageous extravagance in all but the most privileged households. The average woman of the era would make do with the inexpensive Sears-and-Roebuck style clothes, or, more likely, would make her own -- fabric and sewing notions were a lot cheaper than ready-to-wear.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

more likely, would make her own -- fabric and sewing notions were a lot cheaper than ready-to-wear.

I have seen ads for Singer based on this, very much along the lines of "I took a Singer sewing class—just look at how many cute dresses I have made for half the cost of ready-to-wear fashions!"

 

[Marc Chevalier]

From a Spring/Summer 1931 store catalogue:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[decodoll]

I have seen ads for Singer based on this, very much along the lines of "I took a Singer sewing class—just look at how many cute dresses I have made for half the cost of ready-to-wear fashions!"

Many more people sewed in the 30's to the 50's. A lot of the reason for this was to save money. Even when I was a kid in the 70's and 80's my mom would make a lot of our clothes partly in order to save money. Unfortunately, nowadays, you're not always saving a whole lot by making it yourself.

I was watching a William Powell/ Myrna Loy movie over the weekend set in the early 1940's. They are in a department store and he tells the clerk he wants to buy the most expensive nightgown they have, and it turns out to be $90!! Just imagine how decadent that would have seemed to the average 1940's moviegoer!

What wouldn't I do with a hundred bucks and a time machine! lol

 

[Lauren]

http://www.aier.org/colcalc.html
Check this out

 

[Rosie]

Thanks Marc for those scans and thanks Lauren for that calculator.

It is amazing how prices have changed. This page gives an equation to find out how much things would have cost years ago, based on their prices now.

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/cost.htm

 

[Tourbillion]

I loved the 30's dress ad's. But it seems that by 1947 things got more expensive.

In the 1947 Terre Haute Tribune, there is an ad for a mother's day sale.

Day Dresses: $14.95
Night Gown: $5.98
Slips: $3.50 - $4.95
Nylons: $1.99
Sisol Bags: $4.95
Hankerchief: $0.25

So, let's do the calculations...

Day Dresses (on sale) $134
Night Gown $53
Slips $31-45
Nylons $18
Bag $44
Hankerchief $2.23

This is Indiana, not NYC on 5th Ave., so stuff must have been more expensive because of the war, but still, this stuff seems kind of expensive for a sale.

In my 1922 pattern newspaper, the patterns are .25 to .45 each which is $3-5 today. More reasonable, and I'm sure fabric wasn't as crazy as today.

 

[fortworthgal]

I have a Fall 1941 Montgomery Ward catalog, and a Fall 1941 Singer pattern book. Very interesting! The prices in the MW catalog seem to range from about $5 per dress up to around $15.

The books are so interesting. The MW catalog also features shoes, undergarments, toiletries, menswear, tools, etc. - all the items that MW typically sold. When I get some time, I'll have to scan and upload some of the pages!