Ad Campaign – Tammy Andrews, 1967

Click to enlarge

I’m Tammy Andrews, one of four sisters.  But I have a mind of my own.

In spite of the ad copy and the photographic evidence, there was no Tammy Andrews, and no other sisters.  The “sisters” were actually the divisions of the Stacy Ames Company.   Tammy Andrews was the juniors division, Stacy Ames was for young misses, Nan Leslie was for sophisticated misses, and Kelly Arden was for junior petites.  Stacy Ames was the first label, and dates from 1958.  The other three all came out within the next five years.

I chose this ad today because there is a story about it that shows just how valuable period fashion magazines are in helping us learn more about companies and labels.  A while back Mod Betty emailed me about a 1960s dress of hers.  The label was “Kelly Arden – One of the Four Sisters.”  The label looked almost like a small private label, and my first thought was that maybe it was a “house” label for a dress shop.  I put the name of the label on my list of things to search  as a google search had produced nothing.

A few days later, while looking for something else, I came across the ad above.  The “four sisters” fairly jumped off the page, and a quick scan of the ad copy proved that I’d found the answer to Mod Betty’s question.  From there the search became a bit easier because of the additional search terms.

Mod Betty then found a reference that somehow connected Stacy Ames with the Bobbie Brooks company.  Sure enough, Maurice Saltzman, the owner of Bobbie Brooks, bought Stacy Ames and Kelly Arden in 1962.  At some point the other two labels were acquired and placed in the Stacy Ames company which operated separately from Bobbie Brooks.

And here is Mod Betty, showing why she has that name, with her mod Kelly Arden dresses.

Isn’t that flower detail great?

My thanks to Mod Betty for sharing her photos and for inspiring this post.  Photos courtesy and copyright of Beth Lennon.