That is really awesome. And look at how those women are shaped--unlike today's "plus-size" models, they're not large, but still shaped along the lines of the mainstream beauty ideal (large bust, well-defined waist, noticeable hips, no lumps and bumps around the belly). They look like ordinary large women, who are shaped all kinds of ways. (For that matter, thin women are, too. :))

Laughingrat, I have no idea what you're getting at there - what are today's plus-sized models like then, if not as you've described?

Aaah, OK - after several more rereads I think I get it - you are saying that they look like more of a spectrum of the bodies we see on the street, rather than a supermodel inflated a few sizes... I blame lack of caffeine for my initial confusion.

It looks like an ad from the 1960s or 70s-- during the rise of the women's lib movement.

I LOVE it!

I've always found it weird that a lot of the contemporary so called "plus-size" models are actually thin. It gives out strange vibes to label a normally thin woman "plus-size".
This ad is good though, the women look genuine, and not like photoshopped cyborgs.

Wow! This is so wonderful! Note there isn't a bunch of rhetoric and pseudo-science about how these hose will magically make you look smaller.

Anecdotally, I'm a size 14, maybe just a bit smaller than the gal in the middle, and my kids are always telling me I'm beautiful... but they don't "know" that I'm big, in fact they call me "Little Mama". So funny how our concepts of beauty is so socialized... makes me sad a little.

Thanks for this ad, it made my day.

Claire--sorry for the lack of clarity. You should have seen the first couple drafts of that comment, they were even more opaque! Yeah, if you look at a lot of the plus-size models around today, they are basically shaped like your average cover girl, just bigger. (Or, quite possibly, they're airbrushed to look like they're shaped that way.) That doesn't reflect the way most women's bodies are shaped; even thinner women might have an ill-defined waist or a noticeable stomach, and heavier women certainly will. I really liked how this vintage ad showed large women who looked, well, normal.

This looks like the awful vintage pornography that a friend of the family kept on his kitchen wall when I was a child. Hopefully that's a coincidence, and they're not actually related.

The sizing information at the bottom is really interesting. I fall into the "large category" (maybe bordering on extra large) for this ad -- but by modern standards, I'm a 2 or 3 X.

Look at the color range, too! The words they use are really inclusive (not a single "nude" for a Caucasian tone), and the variety they deliver is, in many ways, beyond much of the variety available today in plus-sizes at a single store/brand.

I love this ad because the woman on the left is actually shaped like me. Modern "plus size" models are still, on average, 3 to 4 sizes smaller than I am (I wear a 22/24) and not at all shaped like me. It makes it hard for me to consider someone who is a size 12 or 16 and has the smallest of bellies plus size when they aren't sized out of certain clothing stores the way I often am.

On the same day this was posted I bought some old women's mags (McCalls, Redbook) from a thrift store - I got some from 1977 and 1979 and one had this exact ad! What a cool coincidence.

There are a lot of other interesting ads in them, including TONS of preschool-age gendered play stuff (they are Christmas issues), beauty ads, housekeeping stuff, etc. Maybe I will bust out the scanner and share with the intertubes.

I love this ad, I really do. The only thing I would change is to get rid of the "big" verbage. Is there anyway that women of any size can just be called women, not plus-sized, average, tall, petite. For example, look at QVC and HSN. They not only showcase most of their clothing in all sizes but they do so discretely, allowing nearly everyone to feel comfortable about shopping with them. Take Issac Mizrahi's new line. He showcased it on women of every size and he only highlighted a size difference when he mentioned that more plus-sized women should consider dresses, not because they are giant tents (like so many try to do) but because they offer "a clean line which favors any shape." I know he was trying to sell his products but I appreciated the approach.