I have a copy of a November, 1943 Ladies Home Journal. It is 168 pages and measures a whopping 10 3/4″ x 13 3/4″. It was originally 15cents!

The ads are gorgeous. They are so colorful and beautifully illustrated. Many of them have a war theme, unsurprisingly.

There are plenty of articles and some really nice fashion sets. The articles are pretty deep too. This copy has articles on the war. I think they are actually more thought-provoking than the magazines you’d find in modern editions of LHJ.

I’d totally suggest looking into collecting old magazines. They are super insights into days gone by. They have all the fashions as they were happening and those fashions make for great inspiration for modern designers.

The articles are now historical, but they are still engaging and there is a lot to be learned from them.

The advertisements are often so colorful and seem very different from the ads of today. Often times, the ads seem very controversial by today’s standards. Sexism was not an uncommon theme at all.

Here are some pictures from the magazine for you to gander at.  Click the images so larger versions appear in new browser or tab :
Cover:

Lucky Strike Ad (so round, so firm, so fully packed):

Playful Cannon Towels ad:

Notice the wide shoulders?:

Rita Hayworth from the film “Cover Girl”. This is an ad for pan-cake make-up by Max Factor:

Vargas Pin-up girl, ad for Jergens Face power:

Really good artwork by Roy Spreter for a short story by Faith Baldwin, When a Wife’s Away. :

Filed under: Ramblings, vintage by Angie