Do you remember this ex-Angel's K-Mart collection?
Can you guess which one?
"Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."
Joni Mitchell probably didn't write "Big Yellow Taxi" about K-Mart, but gosh, were her words prophetic.
We had it all... A department store chain where you could get truly anything, and it was all priced to sell. Look... There are technically still 3 K-Mart locations (at the time of writing), but that's nothing compared to the store's ubiquity at its peak. Did it kill Mom & Pop-style general stores and five-and-dimes? Maybe. But the tradeoff was worth it. Mom could get some capris, and Dad could look at mulch, all while the kids stayed lost in the toy aisles. It was a great time to be alive.
Making it all the better was Jaclyn Smith's collection of reasonable, chic women's separates that began populating K-Mart clothing racks in the mid-80s. By then, Smith was a TV legend, having been the only Charlie's Angels star who appeared for the entirety of its run. Now, her sights were set on another frontier: Fashion.
In '85, Smith spoke with Ruth Olis of Gannett News Service, who grilled the actress about whether she would actually deign to wear K-Mart clothes.
"Most definitely I wear them," said Smith. "Here in California I dress casually and I can wear them almost anywhere. There would be no reason for me to design them if I couldn't wear them. My secretary and my mother have some, too."
Of course, she did. Anybody would be lucky to be caught in the Jaclyn Smith K-Mart collection.
Versatile. Affordable. What's not to love? Smith would know, as she'd put some real effort and collaboration into the then-new line. Farrah Fawcett-Majors gets all the credit for her hair, but Smith was absolutely a style icon.
"Fashions that are too eccentric lose their femininity," she said. "I still like to maintain some form of femininity. I want to look like he wants to open the door for me."
Luckily for Smith, the doors at K-Mart opened automatically to welcome shoppers into a bygone world of savings. Ah, if we only had a time machine...



