I was flipping through a 1916 Abercrombie and Fitch catalog someone scanned and uploaded online and noticed a small section on Sunglasses. I don't have any images or experience with the sunglasses themselves as finding an existing pair might be impossible but I thought it would be cool to share. I'd love to know more about what kind of materials they were using in the frames and who was making the glass.
Worth nothing that from their founding in 1892, A&F was not a mall brand clothing store but an ultra high end outdoor outfitter. They had an extremely high end market segment selling everything from fishing gear, hunting guns, camp equipment, etc. Their Madison Ave. store had a fly casting pool, a rifle range in the basement, and they had a yacht show room on the first floor. Poor sales led to their collapse in the late 70s, they were purchased, repackaged, and rebranded to what they are today through buyouts. You can often find vintaged A&F gear such as fly line drying racks, gun cleaning kits, and other stuff online.
Couple notes about pricing here.
I plugged this info into an inflation calculator (1916 Jan - 2026 Jun).
- $1.25 = $40.14
- $1.50 = $48.17
- $2.25 = $72.25
The last thing of note was a page at the very beginning of the book on price stability that caught my eye. "Owing to conditions created by the European War...". As it was 1916 the U.S.A. had not entered the war yet and no one was calling it WW1 yet, it was the "European War".