Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Advertising Clothes (1940)

Good morning!

I am home sick with a touch of fever (and on a rainy Tuesday morning, too...all I need is to doll myself up in my favorite dressing gown to feel more like a Brontë heroine!), so this is just a short post, but I wanted to show you guys the craziest thing I found on Sunday when I was going through the ads. Bellyed up to some advertisments I was tracking down was a featurette that ran under the byline "Advertising Symbols Glorified In New Prints For Spring Clothes". Bust! My! Buttons! My attention was grabbed with a "whoah".

In this article from 1940 Life magazine, I could see some proto Warhol, proto pop art going on as textile maker Princess Fabrics rolled out swatches of material and ready made dresses emblazoned with, just as the title promised, advertising logos of the early 1940's. I mean, really. REALLY. Take a look:


The symbol for Greyhound on the right is so muted I thought at first I was just looking at a tiger stripe pattern...if you look twice, the lithe mascot for the company is leaping across the pale yellow background in a dizzyingly tight formation. How ingenious! I was reminded, in looking at these, of Project Runway's myriad of challenges that require the designer to incorporate some particular brand or maker or theme into their designs-- the Greyhound as an animal print would definitely win that runway, in my opinion. A print even Kors could love! On the right, the Indian head symbol for Pontiac invokes the car manufacturer's name sake, Native American Chief Pontiac of the Great Lakes Region. You can see the old logo for the brand on the sign in this gorgeous color postcard of a proud car dealership in Oklahoma:

How blue was my Pontiac. (source)
Ballantine Ale (on the left) was a popular brand of pale ale in the forties' and fifties'; you can see more about their history on their official website. Aren't both of these gypsie-cap style forties' bandanna usages interesting? The curls still peeking out from the sides and the tight wrap are calling my name. I wasn't sure what Coty manufactured until I googled the brand and came up with the pretty op-art powder-puff containers you always see at estate sales in a Forest Hills woman's luxurious dressing room. They make face powder among other cosmetics and beauty products. Mystery solved!



Ballantine and Coty products, respectively. (source, source)
Here are two of the print dresses in action. My greatest regret is that the photo editors didn't see fit to do these in color as well! You KNOW they were some doozies. I love, in pre-sixties' use of novelty prints, how the print is truly subdued enough that you wouldn't know it was a chevron or a powder puff or a greyhound until you really looked at the print. That subtlety is so much more interesting that hundred point font interlocked C's for branding.

Look at those buttons! LOOK AT THOSE BUTTONS!
Red, yellow, and blue seem to be the three dominant colors in this line. Here are some more prints from the article. Which one do you deem most appropriate for inclusion in your wardrobe?


The coffee drips! The Uneeda biscuit child hovers! Do you see the little print logos in between his phantom form?

I think these four may be my favorite. The Bell telephone logo kind of lends itself to a print anyway, but the Spearmint and the Peanut....and heck, the Pegasus, are neck and neck for the one I would have to buy. I didn't even know Spearmint had a spokesperson. I thought it was the twins from those ads, but that's Wrigley's Doublemint. Look at this ad on a wall from someone's Flickr account. HOW. OMINOUS.

I will never buy this gum! I will also never sleep again! source
So tell! Which print do you like best? Which American symbol of right now do you think could be included in a similarly subtle overall spring print? Can you think of any old time advertising mascots that were completely terrifying and are (rightly) no longer representing their product? I'm writing Target right now-- we need to see these on our local clothes-sellers racks, but NOW!

That's all for today...I'm off to watch a ton of Criterion on Hulu and nurse this illness. Keep a good thought for me, and I'll see you tomorrow!

23 comments:

  1. Yes, you are correct with Target. I would like to add Apple's apple of course, AT&T, Starbucks, and even the Ford oval, even though it is the same as it was when the company was founded. It looks vintage by today's standards, but, who cares? I must continue to sing your praises with these blogs posts you obviously put so much thought, time and enthusiasm into. I have told you this before, and I will continue to gush about how enjoyable your talented efforts are for those of us that follow you. I fear applauding you too often so as not to seem a looney. Please keep this in mind when you see my comment box. I always learn something from your creative effort and for this I am grateful. That is the reason I listen to NPR on a daily basis. SO, between you and NPR, I am pretty well covered. HAHAHA. I wish you a speedy recovery in getting rid of the bugs that ail you.

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    1. Those are good modern brands I'd LOVE to see in a print... you know the Apple one alone would sell out in a hot minute if we could twist Target's arm into getting them into production!

      And it is comments like these that keep me dragging my feverish self out of bed to write every day! So thank you for your kind words and your readership! :)

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  2. Ballantine Ale!

    Make sure you get YOUR milkman drunk in the middle of the day with Ballantine Ale!

    Also, the true name of the Wrigley's Spearmint gum mascot cannot be pronounced by human tongues. That, and the weathering on that ad makes it look (appropriately) blood-spattered.

    GET WELL!

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    1. 1) Ain't no sin in gettin' a milkman (or, possibly a tv repair man, in this case) drunk in the middle of the day! Ballantine's backing me up on this one.

      2) The thing you said about the Wrigley's guy made me actually laugh out loud.

      3) I will! I WIIIIILLL. :) xoxo

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  3. Powder puff print is the best. Doesn't Walgreens still sell Coty powder? Hope you feel better soon!

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    1. I love that one, too! And I'm learning a world of stuff I didn't know about Coty this morning... I swear I've never seen a package outside of an estate sale, but apparently they're at Walgreens, Walmart, everywhere! I'm going to keep an eye out next time I'm in a big box retailer and try some on for size!

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  4. Those are so neat! I couldn't pick a favourite among such cute prints :)

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    1. I'm torn between the Pontiac and the Mr. Peanut, but you're right, they're ALLLLL cute!

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  5. I like the Pontiac the best I think! So deco! There are so few really good logos these days...Starbucks is quite nice and would do for a nice pattern. The UPS shield logo, without the 'UPS inside, would make for a lovely, deco-esqe print...even the colours would be nice!
    I'm flabbergasted that you didn't know about Coty, chick! They're still in business and their powder still comes in the same boxes with the old powder puff pattern! I know because their loose powder is what I've used since high school! The only thing that's changed is that in the last couple of years, they've altered the smell a bit. It used to be very powdery and perfumy and feminine, but they've given it a strange Noxema-ish menthol undertone that isn't horrible, but isn't what I associate with them. I wish they'd change it back! It's sold at loads of places, Walgreens, Walmart, etc. It really gives a nice, soft, vintage finish to your make up! You gotta try it! :)

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    1. I do like the idea of the UPS shield in that brown and golden rod, and it WOULD look totally deco.

      I'm going to pick up the next Coty I see and find out what all the hubbub is about, I've been missing out! :)

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  6. Boo for being sick. I hope you're already feeling better.

    OK that Wrigley's ad is crrreeeepy. Just ick.

    I think my favorite prints are the Maxwell house cups and saucers and, of course, Coty. I love it for being one of the few things still around that's still in its awesome vintage packaging. Can't get any better than that. Oh, darn. From looking online it looks like they have recently changed their packaging. What's up with that? I haven't used any powder in a long time, but I used to use Coty in high school and it really was good.

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    1. I'm much better today, thanks! And RIGHT, about the Wrigley's ad?! I don't think, out of the many mascots I know on a first name basis from a childhood steeped in tv advertisements, that I've ever seen that guy before! I think they must have put him back in his ancient tomb with the ceremonial dagger to keep him closed in it before our time.

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  7. How neat! I'd liek a bolt of the Maxwell coffee fabring for curtians!

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    1. Wouldn't they make THE CUTEST cafe curtains in a little breakfast nook? I went to great lengths to see if I could find any examples of these on ebay or etsy or anywhere online, and came up with bupkis. We can dream!

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  8. Is it weird that I now want a maxwell house dress and a mr. peanut dress now?

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  9. also my granny had one of those coty powder boxes in her bathroom as long as I can remember. I am positive it was from the 40's but it was still hanging around in the late 90s.

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  10. LOVE ALL OF THIS!!! The Greyhound pattern almost reads as a zebra print. I keep promising that i'll make Mary a dress with a jaunty hood!

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    1. I couldn't tell it was greyhounds to begin with! And did you see the green dress I got last week with the (feathered) hood? We need to bring back the Barbara Stanwyck esque evening-dress-with-hood look, I'm with you 100% (and bet that Mary is too, haha)!

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  11. I totally want a Mr. Peanut dress though I've always found him to be rather creepy. Any mascot that could be eaten along with the product that he is advertising completely creeps me out - Mr. Peanut....Charlie the Tuna...that sort of thing. And yeah...wow..that spearmint guy is c-razy.

    These product patterns are amazing. Hope that you feel better soon. Take good care of yourself!

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    1. Oh I know! It's like in those midcentury cookbooks when a chicken is salting himself and jumping into a crock pot...part of me loves it, part of me goes waaaait a minute....

      I'm much better today, thanks! Have to get rested up for that sale of the century this weekend, I hope it isn't a bust!

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  12. the russians have done this in the 20s. with Soviet symbols and various progressive symbols like tractors etc..
    Unfortunately I can not find pictures on the net. But you work in a library , maybe you find a book. :-)

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    1. How neat! I'm going to try and find some info on that, now I have a challenge! :)

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