National Cloak & Suit Co. (Corporate Name)

Women's fashions of the early 1900s, 1992: CIP t.p. (National Cloak & Suit Co.)

The National style book, 1915: volume 19, number 2, page 1 (National Cloak & Suit Co., New York City)

Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi University Libraries, via WWW, February 9, 2017 (The "National" Style Book - 1911; in 1888, the National Cloak and Suit Company opened to address the clothing needs of women; with the flagship store in New York City, the National executives decided to create a mail order arm of the business to provide consumers in rural areas a greater selection of clothing options; many consider National to be the first mail order clothing store; by the 1920s, National Cloak and Suit Company had changed its name to National Bellas Hess, but their dedication to mail order and customer service continued to the 1970s when the company ceased to exist; in addition to Made-to-Measure articles, the National Cloak & Suit Company sold ready-made clothing; the most popular items were shirtwaists of which they offered twenty-six pages of options; other ready-made items include hats, scarf-veils, belts, neckwear, and corset covers; a handful of pages for children's clothing were included with no clothing for men) http://www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/exhibitions/item_of_the_month/iotm_mar11.html