Vintage 70s JCPenney's Catalog Resurfaces With Painfully Retro Flares and Platforms
A rediscovered page from a 1974 JCPenney's catalog has gone viral online, as internet users are left both marvelling and shocked at just how high high-waisted pants were.
JCPenneys began its catalogs back in 1963, after purchasing the Milwaukee-based General Merchandise Company a year earlier. The catalogs developed over the years, eventually turning into a 1,000-page booklet before being ultimately discontinued in 2009.
Now, the catalogs are a frozen moment in time for history fanatics to look back at what people were wearing (and ordering) in days gone by.
The catalog page was posted online by Reddit user "GodBlessTexas" and showed four outfits retailed by JCPenney that are so-seventies-it-hurts.
Each pair of flared pants were matched with their own matching shirt, and angled hats made them look impressively smooth, but it's the waistband that caught the attention of the 20,000 that voted on the post.
The model on the left's waistline is just under his armpit.
To go with the wide flares, JCPenney recommended heeled boots, to stop the hemline trailing on the floor, of course.
The vintage advert was posted to the Subreddit "Old School Cool" which shares "history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers."
JCPenney's 70s looks have been praised online for their ultra-coolness and drew in a heap of comparisons to various pop culture references, from The Commodores to Black Dynamite.
"Not enough letter Os in the word smooth to describe these fellas," commented one user.
"You may be cool but you will never be Menswear by JCPenney, 1973 cool," added another.
While others were left reminiscing on their own clothing from the time, with some claiming to have owned the exact high-waisted pants pictured—though none claimed the chest-level pants.
"I had the pair on the right. They were my favorite pair of pants. I tore a hole near the crotch while climbing a tree. Saddest day of my life," wrote one user.
"I was in junior high and high school in the 70s and I wore the same pair of slacks to a dance and I'm a girl. Thought we were cool," commented another.
In June, a similarly found vintage 1905 Sears catalog went viral online after being shared to popular app TikTok.
Just like the JCPenney catalog, it was a true picture of the era it was produced, showing "female pills" for problems like hysteria and nervousness, along with arsenous tablets for skin disease and a "bust developer."
"The weirdest thing I've seen so far is probably 'Pink Pills for Pale People.' They claim to build the blood and cure pale complexions that are the result of 'mental worry and early decay.' It's so fascinating to see all of the problems that they claimed to cure with medicines back then," TikToker Laura Evans told Newsweek.
