I just wanted to share this delightful 1920s advert for Chanel No.5 perfume today. As I’m sure you know by now (I’ve gone on about it enough) this is the perfume I wear and I so prefer the charm of the flighty flapper in this ad to the modern over-airbrushed perfume ads. It was drawn(…)
Is it just me or does this strapline sound a little insidious? A bit like ‘Mothers Littler Helper….’ Beechams Pills were actually a laxative (containing soap, yum!) rather than something addictive, but still… Would you know what this ad was for?
A very pretty 1920s advert for Ivory Soap. Never has soap sounded so appealing! Hidden springs of beauty in your skin – set them free! In your marvelous skin itself Nature has set up a beauty shop! Did you know that? Complicated little cells renew its silken surface day by day… invisible springs of moisture(…)
This advert from 1936 is from a Lucky Strike advert (hence the cigarette I suppose). I don’t know who the model is, but she looks like Marlene Dietrich wearing a fabulous orange saree (perhaps a wedding one – anyone know enough about bridal sarees to confirm?). I guess that was probably intentional, Dietrich was one(…)
1930s Dutch advert for fur coats from 1938. Which is your favourite style?
This is a bit like an adult version of Frosties’ Tony the Tiger for this ad for Dickie’s trousers from the 1960s. Don’t they look greeeeeaaaaat? (see what I did there…?) Actually it reminds me a bit more of Alan Partridge ‘You’re a tiger….’ I was so excited to hear that there’s an actual Alan(…)
A series of 1940s adverts for fashions by Lynn Lester suggesting a summer wardrobe for June 1947. This summer capsule collection has some wonderful descriptions underneath each item – you just don’t see that any more! There are some great new fangled fabrics, like “SnoSilk”, and also some unusual clothing styles. I had no idea what ‘cape(…)
I’m sure you all know by now that I’m very anti-real-fur, so I constantly find it strange to see vintage adverts for fur when it was seen as something desirable and, well, socially acceptable! These adverts for furs are both from the 1920s. I just don’t think you’d get adverts for fur coats any more(…)
Isn’t this just the prettiest advert? It dates from 1931 and is an advert for Casino de Paris. I assumed (because of the name) that this was a Casino but couldn’t understand why they’d be advertising with a showgirl riding bareback on horses. I looked into it and it turns out Casino de Paris was(…)
1930s advert for Lucky Strike from 1936: ‘Lucky Strike, Girl with Snowshoes’. Photo by Nickolas Muray. Source and copyright: George Eastman House Collection: No known copyright restrictions
Girl in a green bikini holding a starfish on a poster from the newly nationalised British Railways, advertising Whitley Bay in North Tyneside. Signed “Michael”. Date: 1949 Source and copyright: The National Archives No known copyright restrictions
One of a set of ten government anti-smoking posters from the 1960s. This example focuses on what smokers could afford to buy if they gave up cigarettes. Isn’t this a great campaign? I wish I could find the other posters from this campaign! Source and copyright: The National Archives UK: No known copyright restrictions