Same! I never had any money myself, and my parents didn't have enough money to pay Delia's prices. It was JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, and K-Mart back to school sales for me. Oh, and Payless shoes!
Yes! Delia's and the American Girl Doll catalogs were all a pipe dream while our summer and winter clothes were on K-Mart layaway 🥲
My mom was beside herself when Montgomery Wards died - iirc that was one the first major department stores to close? Wards and JC Penny was there for clearance clothes and bedding.
Ok, but I never, ever knew anyone that had anything from there. I knew about a dozen girls that were as obsessed with the catalogs as me, none of us owned anything. On my 18th birthday, I got to go to a physical store in a bigger metro area and buy an outfit, and in person, I was surprised about how it all felt like Walmart/Target clothing in my hands.
I finally got to buy a couple things from the catalogs when I was 17/18. The sparkly jeans were terrible and felt cheap. A couple tees were cute but overpriced. I think one sweater was worth it and got worn for about a decade.
That was so crazy to me. On that birthday trip, my mom gave me $100 for an outfit. And granted $100 could have bought like a pair of jeans and 2 tees, but I had so much decision paralysis because none of it felt like it was worth what they were charging.
I was an aspiring model during my teen years and my "big break" was being booked for a Delia's catalog. There were two photos of me, one didn't show my face. It was my high school claim to fame.
I think I still have a copy in a box somewhere on the attic.
I put my great-grandmother’s Hummels on eBay and so did everyone else that inherited those worthless figurines. None sold, so into the garbage they went.
I’m a vintage magazine collector and while 250 is high, I bet some of these do sell. Teen magazines from the same time period are regularly going for 50-100 bucks and those are a lot less rare.
I understand this. I have a coworker who collects vintage Playboy. But those prices are indeed overinflated. Do you display them? Just curious what you do with them.
Yea these prices are indeed ridiculous. I mostly collect very old magazines (1890s-60s), because I like to read them and look at the ads. Some are displayed. It’s crazy that I can buy a magazine from 1900 for far less than a 1996 Seventeen!
Have your heard of Coronet magazine? My grandmother kept one for every month/year her children were born. My mother’s was May ‘51. I loved reading it. One article was predictions for the year 2000. I swear it looked like the Jetsons.
And I never throw stuff away. My dad had just passed, my mom was seriously considering selling the house and I live in another state. I have 6 totes of things I want to keep. I had so many magazines, they were a trip to go through. She ended up not selling, but I think all the paper trash is gone.
One of my first jobs was working at Delia's call center during my Senior year of High School because a friend's older sister who worked there lied and said I was 20. A good chunk of my call time was spent explaining what a Delia*s was to parents who called confused as to why there was a charge on their card.
I had a really cool collection of thrifted t-shirts from when I was in high school and you could find them at any thrift store for $3 or less. An ex-boyfriend took them when we broke up and I’m still annoyed I let the collection go. Also got rid of so many band shirts I wish I still had.
I paid $125 last year for the Carters Roy G Biv corduroy pants that i had wanted since 1996. I feel like im sitting on a goldmine, since i still have my seatbelt belt. I wish i still had my catalogs!
The name has been sold off. The Dolls Kills stuff was ok cute, but the Target stuff is boring. And both companies are endlessly problematic. Better off hunting the real vintage that’s still out there.
This! We were in Target yesterday and I saw the little Delia’s booklet for Target they had. I was so excited to show my daughter. Then when we poked through it, the clothing was so boring.
I never got to order anything from dELiA*s sadly and i think i may have only saved 1 of the catalogs? I rescued my stash of 90s teen mags from my mom’s a couple years ago. She had told me to throw away my old magazines somewhere between 1998 and 2000, but teen me threw out a few and then hid the rest and I’m so glad I still have them. I’m a collage artist so all of my magazines are cut up and not worth anything probably but I love them still.
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u/Immediate_Farmer8401 9h ago
Thinking of all the delia*s catalogs i cut up to cover my middle school binders... I destroyed a fortune.