Woolworth's stores in the 70s to 80s

[rainfash]

As there is a thread with C&A, I would like to start a thread about Woolies in the 70s and 80s.
Woolies had a wide range of shiny pvc macs, and they were different to the C&A ones, as Woolworth's mainly had the 100% Vinyl, unlined raincoats, as C&A had many cotton backed PVC raincoats at that time.
Who remembers, which colours and styles Woolworth's had in the 70s and 80s ?
I remember a red and blue raincoat, shiny blue with shiny red pockets, red trim, and red cuffs.
Then they had a alot of raincoats with southwesters / hats, rather than C&A, where the raincoats had mainly hood or scarf.
Any recalls ?

[rubberdee]

I think Woolworth's also did their own version of the 'Pacamac' in the 60's or possibly before that.
Happy days

[WealdenMac]

One attraction of shops like C&A,Woolworth's and the department stores of the time was that it was quite easy for a lone male to wander in and surreptitiously "cop a feel" which was impossible in most of the specialist ladies' fashion shops which also sold excellent plastic mackintoshes, particularly Van Allan.

[mackintoshed]

WealdenMac I love your reference to 'cop a feel', I can remember doing this myself. I can also remember visiting second hand clothe shops, before they became know as charity shops, where often you would find a large table on which mounds of clothes would be pile up. I can remember rummaging through these with my hands and occasionally I would feel that exiting bit of plastic, or nylon, and perhaps a button, then pull it out slowly to reveal a gorgeous, if not crinkled, mackintosh.

[Sophie-Cagoule]

I remember the woolworths royal blue nylong over the head cagoules:)

[WealdenMac]

I remember the range of men’s and women’s plastic macs with thin belts. My first mac experiences were in a woolies mac.

My very first mac was a white plastic one from Woolworth's that buttoned up the girl's way. I'm not sure that my parents quite knew how to handle my very obvious attraction to plastic stuff. At first I was indulged but as I grew older I was expected to have "grown out of it". I didn't of course but it suited everyone to believe that I had. It didn't really matter since in the '50s there were more than enough opportunities to continue to see, touch and even smell one's fabric of choice.

[merv]

Woolworths was certainly a haven for rainwear lovers back in the day. Am I right though in thinking that they were the cheaper, poorer quality end of the market or is my mind playing tricks?

[rainfash]

Merv, you are right. Woolies were known as being unlined and cheap, and affordable coats , while as C&A had the cotton backed ones at a higher price. They had that super shiny, cheap, rustly, crinkly, crackling unlined vinyl coats, that had lots of plasticizers in it at that time.
I loved that super shiny, unlined vinyl material that their coats were made of. They often had a hat or southwester included, sometimes a thin belt. The design of the coats was mainly basic. Jst one or two colours, no patterns, no checkered coats, no flower prints, no other fancy design. Just simple coats, where the collar or the pockets or the cuffs had a different colour. I remember some shiny white coats with red or blue collar, or pockets, and blue shiny coats with white trim, or white cuffs.

[Priscilla]

I always thought of the Woolies’ macs as being more of the 50’s style, pastel shades, buttoned with head scarves. They were pretty basic, like the original Pacamacs. Usually they had loose belts and iadit to having pocketed one or two surreptitiously in my my youth. They were usually quite full to fit over other clothes especially the pronounced Marylin Monroe boobs and petticoated skirts of the time,

I recall that they did introduce some more trendy Macs in the late 60’s, black and white contrast panels,but never the fangs of C&A or Van Allan.

Hey ho,perhaps those days may come back with styles like those in Topshop and others. Why, if Lidl and Primark have dipped their toes in this market, anything is possible

[rainwearseeker]

what do the Woolworth raincoats look like?