Klamath Heritage: Mode O'Day

Mode O’ Day, c. 1960 (Image from the Leo Morstad collection at the Klamath County Museum)

Klamath County Museum’s Photo of the Week for Oct. 7, 2018, shows the Mode O’Day dress shop, a lesser but long-lived fixture on Main Street from 1935 until 1984.

Mode O’Day opened at 602 Main Street in Klamath Falls in December 1935. In the midst of the Depression, dresses ranged in price from $1 to $3 each. Shortly after opening the store moved to a new location at 835 Main, tucked in between the J.J. Newberry department store and Waggoner Drug Store. The store remained in this location until it closed. Zach’s Bikes was one of the more recent occupants of this space.

Many women remember Mode O’Day as a place to find affordable but attractive and reasonably priced dresses. At one point there were more than 800 Mode O’Day stores across the country, with most being owned by local franchisees. The Mode O’Day brand was started in Los Angeles in 1932 by three brothers, Ernest, William and Bert Malouf.

In Klamath Falls, Mode O’Day held its ground against more prestigious fashion shops on Main Street, including La Pointe’s and Whytal’s. Other women’s clothing stores located on Main Street in the 1950s and ’60s included Anita Shops, Craig’s, Hartfield Stores, Leon’s Exclusively Yours, Marvin’s, Muriel’s, and Town Shop.

The Studebaker seen in this photo suggests a date around 1960. This image is from the Leo Morstad collection at the Klamath County Museum.

Information provided for Klamath Heritage is provided courtesy the Klamath County Museum.