Custom Tailoring. Spring & Summer 1917. B & K Co. A National Institution

Folio, 46 by 35 cm. 16 color plates, 17 leaves in all, printing only on rectos. Fashions from the late 1910s, depicting male fashion from the era. Usually just one or two men in the foreground, but up to four men, sporting the fashions being promoted. The backgrounds have all kinds of upper crust settings and activities going on, and here there can be other men, as well as women, in the illustrations. So the illustrations take us to the beach and seashore, the boathouse, the country club tennis court and golf course, the riding ring, the country house. Men in sports jackets and boaters are shown in many of these illustrations, but there are also men in business suits and there are two plates of formal wear as well, both morning and evening jackets from a time when there was a difference! A final color plate presents a multitude of jackets, vests and slacks without a model -- there is just one man pictured in the mix. The last plate, uncolored, shows three caps and one casual hat. Whether or not one misses these fashions for actual wear, it is undeniable how visually appealing the fashions were. The men in the illustrations are of course young, and often scarcely out of puberty, and they are drawn with exaggeratedly elongated, svelte bodies, as was the ideal at the time. (Think of Sargent portraits.) Scarce -- no other catalogues from this company found on OCLC. Condition: cover worn and stained, with gilt lettering virtually entirely gone. A long three by one inch chip or loss on lower front joint, and roughness and surface lifting at upper part of this joint. First plate is heavily foxed. Afterward, there is a light corner dampstain affecting some of the plates, and some other soiling. By and large, though, the large illustrations are unaffected and remain highly appealing. …