I wore Bobbie Brooks too. Good stuff.

Used to be a good quality line of clothes, now sold at the Dollar Store. Far removed from the old days.

I remember it, too expensive for me though...I'm 69.

I remember it as a Junior brand when I was in my teens. Did you know that Bobbie Brooks was the first clothing company to cater to teen fashions? Before most clothing was styled just like mom's once a girl outgrew the children's department. Now the label has been sold and the clothing is in name only.

I remember it well. Mostly I had their blouses or shirts.

Oh having their cardigan sweaters was the big deal. I would get one for my birthday and then another at Christmas. Do you remember wearing them at your shoulders to show the label and also wearing them backwards and buttoning it all the way up so it look like a crew neck sweater in the front. That was the beginning of me recognizing labels as almost a teenager.

I remember wishing I could own Bobbie Brooks as a teen, but sewed my own clothes back then (a much more common practice at our small rural high school).

Glenda, I had to look up housecoat, lol. I've somehow missed that term, and am still not sure what one is. Is it another word for robe?

No Bobbie Brooks for me either. :(

We sewed too, grainlady. I don't remember Bobbie Brooks, but I do remember other brands which we could not afford. Lanz was one, and I think there was a sweater line called Jac (maybe).

Glad you found something you liked, Glenda. I've never been in a Dollar General, but I thought it was like 99 Cents, where everything is 99 cents.

I've had a few blouses that were Bobbie Brooks, nice quality.

I call my robe a housecoat too, maybe a regional thing? Where did you grow up Rhizo?

I remember the label from my teen years (1970's) mostly as clothes my mom bought.

Rhizo, house coat to me!

Loved Bobbie Brooks. Housecoats here, too. I will have to check out Dollar General - I need a new housecoat.

grainlady If I understand correctly, think it's great that your school taught sewing and feel it's a shame Home Ec is no longer taught in schools.

I will soon be 80 and I remember Bobbie Brooks when I was in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. Mostly the blouses with Eton collars. I remember Lantz also, but that brand was much more expensive than B.B.

I took home in junior high and fondly remember the requisite coffee cake with crushed corn flake topping we learned to make. We had to make a blouse in the sewing section, but that effort I'd rather forget. Nonetheless I did learn something.

Edit above: home EC.

I wore some Bobbie Brooks clothes growing up in the 1950-60's. They were gifts from an aunt who had no children of her own. My mom, and later my sister and I, sewed a lot of our clothes. I learned to sew and cook long before I had to take Home Ec. I wanted to take Shop instead but no girls were allowed to take Shop.

I thought housecoat and robe were two different things, or at least they were at my house. A robe was something you wore over your nightgown with a wrap around tie. A housecoat was a short loose light weight "coat" that zipped or buttoned up the front. You wore it over your slip and hose around the house so you wouldn't get your dress dirty. You would wait to put on your dress until the last minute before going out the door.

I remember the line, but no specific articles of clothing that I had. Most of my clothes were sewn too....either I did the sewing, or my mother did up until the year she went to work outside the home. I was in high school and had a bit to spend from babysitting money by then. One yard of fabric + zipper from Penney's fabric department and I could make an A-line skirt in an afternoon after school ;)

I was the only child in houseful of older women, and no one really bothered to teach me much along the home ec lines, much to my distress later in life. My mother did make many of my dresses when I was younger, except that she made them larger so that I could "grow into" them. I looked really dumb until I did, and I also figured that "growing into" my clothes was why I was overweight. I was only listening to my mother's instructions.

Bobbie Brooks reminds me of the John Cougar Mellankamp song Jack and Diane...there is a line "Dribble off those Bobbie Brooks" (No offense to anyone)

I grew up with an Aunt who wore a "housecoat". In her house it was different than a robe. They were always pretty and worn to do the cleaning and cooking but presentable for company. She actually wore high wedge house "slippers" too. At night she would put on her nightgown and robe. She must be looking down on me horrified that I will take the dogs out in my robe and slippers! (My neighbors are mostly cows so I doubt I am offending anyone.

Just remembered a funny rule growing up. You could greet someone at the front door in your housecoat but never in your robe. It wasn't considered proper.

Well, I greeted my neighbor in my robe recently when he brought his daughter selling GS cookies. I wasn't too happy about it, but if you knock on my door at 7 p.m., you take what you get.

I don't know what "housecoat" is. Just robes is what we wear in CA. I do see those little cotton, zip up light weight robes, which I assume is a "housecoat" to others. Like a little dress.

My house coat zips up the front. I had three Vanity Fair house coats that I use for coverups going to water aerobics in the summer. I was down to one, now I have one old and one new house coat.

What colors/prints did you find Glenda? We are traveling this week and am seeing lots of DG stores. I haven't been able to find any housecoats while out and about today, but tomorrow maybe i'll get lucky, ha.

They had two, a white and an orangie color. I might go back and get the orangie one as well.

I sure do remember Bobbie Brooks and wish I could find some now...I have a pair of jeans that I bought probably about 15 years ago and they had to have been the best ever...Now they are faded and really getting frayed (probably in style) but I can't let them go.....Most of the time, it's robe to me but housecoat does come up every once in awhile...And, I really could care less if anyone sees me in either, no matter what time of day, lol.....If anyone knows where you can get Bobbie Brooks jeans, let me know.......

pink_

I learned how to do basic sewing, embroidery, crocheting and knitting from my mother as a small child (my older sister got a B-B gun and couldn't be domesticated because she was always trying to keep up with our older brother). There was even more sewing in 4-H, and I got much better by taking Home Economics grades 8 through 12 where we learned darning socks, making an apron, 2-piece wool PLAID suits (jacket and skirt) and a blouse, to tailoring techniques by our Junior year.

Our teacher got us as Freshman when she landed her first teaching job out of college and had us for the 3-years Home Ec. was offered. She loved us so much she created a special class for us for the 4th year. We even designed and made our prom dresses, which were nothing like they are today, naturally. We're talking modest designs and dotted Swiss material back then (LOL). Most of us also made our wedding gowns.

Back to housecoats and robes.... On the BBC show, "Keeping Up Appearances", Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet) wore a small print blue housecoat (with a string of pearls) in the morning doing her household tasks, until she had to "dress" for the day. At bedtime she wore a pink ankle-length, wrap-around, terry robe over her nightgown.

I loved Bobbie Brooks clothing.....Nice styles and lasted forever.

I knew them as house dresses. The commonality in this discussion for me is that everyone had a mother who sewed their clothes and I sewed my clothes as well. I was born in 1945 right after the end of the war and I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that everyone had those skills. My mother taught me to make doll clothes first and then potholders and on to close for myself. I still have the book from the sewing classes I took in school. These were the depression years and not a lot of department stores nor a lot of money. I took sewing and Home Ec in school every year and I am so glad I did. Do they teach home ec in schools now? Also did your girls learn to sew and do embroidery as they grew up?

Maggie, one of our nieces teaches high school Home Ec but now it's called Family and Consumer Sciences! There were no boys in my high school class, there are several in hers.

My mother always sewed, there wouldn't have been clothes when she was growing up if she hadn't. She has told me when first married and my sister a baby, she would rent a sewing machine for 3 or 4 weeks and do nothing but sew - a years worth. About the time I was born, she bought a machine....and I still have it, learned on it.

My favorite aunt loved Bobbie Brooks clothing. When I see the name I think of her. Her favorite fragrance was Jean Naté.

When I was young we used the term housecoat. My late husband called it a robe. I don't know that there is a distinction, but I think of a longer garment with a tied belt as a robe, and a shorter garment with buttons as a housecoat. In her later years, my grandmother always wore the button-front, print, house dresses that were more of a house coat. She would never have been seen in public in one. I have a few that belonged to my aunt--I wear them in the summer over a thin, short, nightgown.

Thank you, glenda, for the memories.