1920s Dress Card Sample

Picture of the Day for 5/23/2015. I've been meaning to blog about this item for a few months now. It's a dress card sample from the 1920s that I picked up at one of my favorite vintage stores. From what I can glean, the cards would be used by door-to-door salesmen or be available at store counters. The cards would come with fabric swatches, provide an illustration of the dress, list the sizes, and list the payment method.

The flapper girl dress in this sample cost $3.95 total. You would pay the representative $0.75 up front and then pay the postman the remaining balance upon delivery. I guess this was the old-fashioned version of not trying something on in the dressing room before buying it.

As I was Googling this item, I was surprised to find this practice continued well into the 1960s. I didn't see anything from 1970 and beyond, but I didn't dig too deep into the topic.