Frost Bros. Award Winning Advertising

Frost Bros ad for Traina-Norell dress, 1955.

Yesterday, I showed you a Frost Bros. ad for an Irene Lentz suit that hailed "American Haute Couture."  Frost's did a series of these ads with the tag line "In Fashion In Texas" in the mid-1950s featuring fashion from the top tier of American designers.  These ads were featured in the local San Antonio newspaper as well as in full page spreads in Vogue magazine.

Frost Bros. ad for an Edith Small suit, 1955

Frost Bros. ad for a Patullo-Jo Copeland dress from Vogue magazine, 1957

In early 1956, Frost Bros. won several awards for their advertising, including the Gold Award for Outstanding Color Advertising from the National Retail Dry Goods Assn. and the Seklemian Grand Award for Outstanding Retail Advertisements from Retail Advertising Week.  Frost Bros. had their own advertising staff who worked hand in hand with Express Publishing Co. to produce the ads. 

Please note: 7 out of the 8 advertising staff members who were singled out for praise by Frost Bros. President Gilbert Lang in 1956 are women.  That makes me smile.

Frost Bros Advertises American Haute Couture, 1956

Frost Bros. was the place to shop in San Antonio, Texas.  It was a very exclusive and old world store for people with old world money.  Frost Bros. carried only the best of the best and made the prices at Neiman's look like Woolworth's.  With those prices, though, you got personalized service and you could purchase fashion from Paris and Italy, as well as the best of American designers. 

In a full 1 1/2 page spread in a San Antonio newspaper in 1956, Frost Bros. advertised the latest fashion from the best of American designers.  Titled "American Haute Couture," the ad featured a pinstriped suit by Irene Lentz. Of course, the high end garments by American designers that Frost's offered were not haute couture in its literal sense, meaning they were not made by hand for one specific customer.  In using the term, though, Frost's is attempting to elevate American fashion to the heights it deserved for its clientele, essentially saying, "You don't have to go to Paris to be in fashion."

Today, I want to share with you the copy from this ad, as the writing is superb and communicates the romance and allure of high end fashion.  Bravo to the unsung writer who penned this copy, beginning with a quote from Irene Lentz.

"To each generation is given a few high-antenna creative people.  They live in the rarified reaches where beauty begins.  A choice few of these find fashion as their medium.  In the olden days, these great artists of fashion were believed to be only in Paris.  Today, a rich vein of them is found in America.  They constitute one of the land's richest natural resources, bringing beauty to our clothes, our behavior, our manners.  They contribute sharp drama as well as gentleness to our way of life, and their works comprise a sector of our contemporary culture."  We apply these words spoken by a fashion philosopher of California, designer Irene, whose highly American design you see in two dimensions [above] and in three dimensions on our Third Floor, to all great American designers.  Making our bow to the tradition of Paris, we honor the designers of young America with the French term, "Haute Couture", so as to offer them, in old world grandeur, the ribbon of honor, the star, the crown and the triple plume of sovereignty and achievement!   With pride, we invite you to see American Haute Couture at Frost's alone in San Antonio.

Doesn't that make you want to shop at Frost Bros?

Designer Clothing in Modess Ads

One of my biggest frustrations as a vintage lover are the "Modess....because" ads by Johnson & Johnson.  They feature the most gorgeous clothes, but no mention or attribution is given to the designers of the over-the-top ballgowns and evening wear used in the ads.  

Young & Rubicam was the advertising agency responsible for the ads.  They contracted with well-known designers and couturiers of the time - Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Balenciaga, Hattie Carnegie, Falkenstein, etc, etc. The clothes used in the ads were designed exclusively for Johnson & Johnson to be used in the Modess ads and were not offered for sale to the general public.

The ads were featured in all major women's magazines of the time and were always full page.

This ad from 1955 is one of my favorites.  Instead of a ball gown, we have beaded cigarette pants with attached drapes at the back.  I WANT to know who designed this ensemble, don't you?

Vintage Designer Gowns in the Fine Print

When flipping through vintage magazines, you often see the most spectacular evening gowns in ads for other products. If you stop and take a moment to look beyond the product being offered, you'll see some incredible pieces, and the designer's name is often featured in the tiny print at the bottom or along the sides of the ad. Here are some examples from November of 1958.

This ad for Revlon Touch and Glow foundation shows a gown by Ceil Chapman.

This ad for Revlon "Fifth Avenue Red" lipstick and nail polish was a two page spread and featured this gown by Arnold Scaasi.

Cadillac worked with high-end fashion designers in the 1950s to produce expensive and exclusive garments to feature in their car ads. This one says, "Mother daugher ensemble designed expressly for Cadillac by Ines da Roma."

This ad for Intimate perfume shows a romantic image of a gown by Philip Hulitar.

Another Philip Hulitar garment, this voluminous blue satin evening coat was featured in an ad for Trifari jewelry.


The ads that frustrate me, though, are those for Modess feminine products. They featured a new and amazing evening gown every month, but the ads did not give attribution to the designers. Don't you wonder who was the genius that made this gold brocade gown with mink fur cuffs?