As I was perusing one of my vintage magazines, I came across an ad that instantly grabbed my attention. Have you ever heard of a company called Fashion Frocks? I hadn’t, so you know I had to go down a rabbit hole and learn all about it.

It was this Cincinnati-based mail-order clothing brand from the 1920s to the 1970s, and they had a really unique way of bringing affordable, stylish clothing into women’s homes, with an interesting business model that gave thousands of women jobs.

Fashion Frocks didn’t operate like your usual department store. Instead,...