Miss America’s New Fashion Collection, 1961

For those of you too young to remember Toni, it was a hair care line with the premier product being the Toni Home Permanent.  For years the company had an ad campaign in which identical twins tried to fool you as you guessed, “Which twin had the Toni?”

This 1961 booklet from Toni doesn’t feature twins, but it does have the reining Miss America, Nancy Anne Fleming.  In the early 1960s, the Miss America contest was a very big deal, so it must have been an advertising coup for Toni to have her represent their products.  But it’s not just Toni.  As you can see, McCall’s Patterns and Everglaze Fabrics teamed up for this interesting campaign.

The pattern and sewing machine companies must have been really excited about Fleming being chosen Miss America.  In one of the most original talent presentations ever, Fleming took a rack of clothes she had sewn herself onto the stage, and did a little fashion presentation.   It was like a commercial for home sewing.

And the promotion of sewing by Fleming didn’t stop after she won the coveted crown.  In this booklet, she not only talks about sewing, but also models a collection of eight designs that McCall’s called the Miss America Collection.  Each design was made of Everglaze fabrics, and a new hairdo was designed for each outfit, complete with roller setting instructions.

Some of the outfits and the hair styles are too old for a nineteen-year-old, but others, like the two above show just how youthful early 60s fashion could be.

Do they still refer to Miss America as a “queen” or has that fallen by the wayside?

It’s possible that this booklet was included in specially marked packages of Toni.  In the back there is a coupon for a free pattern from the collection, along with a reminder that “Everglaze fabrics are among America’s favorite cottons.”

After her reign was over and she crowned the 1962 Miss America, Maria Fletcher of Asheville, Fleming used her scholarship to attend Michigan State, where she graduated in 1965.  She was married, had two kids and a career in broadcasting.  She was on an episode of the Love Boat in the 1980s, and married for a second time to Jim Lange, the longtime host of The Dating Game.  Today she lives in California.  I wonder if she still sews.

Ad Campaign – Yardley, 1968

Jean Shrimpton might have been the face of 1967, but 1968 belonged to Olivia Hussey.   It was the year she co-starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.  His timing was perfect, as the world was still enamoured with all things British.  Olivia was the perfect Juliet with her long dark hair and expressive eyes.

The Yardley people knew a cosmetics star when they saw one, and in 1968 their ads were all about Olivia/Juliet.  They even had a line of lipfrosts they called the Poetry Collection:

Yardley’s new Poetry Collection: Nine tender lipfrosts designed to make a Juliet of you.  And a Romeo of him.

Interesting, but this ad for lipstick showed a young woman whose makeup was all about the eyes.  That was the late 1960s for you!

For all of 1968, it seemed that Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who played Romeo, were everywhere.  They were featured in magazines like Seventeen, and of course in the fan magazines like 16 and Tiger Beat.  And they must have sold a million of the poster that showed the pair touching palms.

It was right in step with the direction that fashion was heading.  After the straight silhouette and graphic feel of the Mod look, girls were ready for a softer, more romantic style.   What better than Romeo and Juliet to put us in the proper mood?

Ad Campaign – Yardley, 1967

Click to see enlarged view

In today’s ad, we see the influence of the “British Invasion”.  I think people generally apply that term to music, but fashion, movies, and even cosmetics looked to Britain after the smashing success of the Beatles’ 1964 US appearances.

Yardley of London is considered to be the oldest cosmetics company in the world, having been established in 1770.  In the 1950s Yardley ran ads in American magazines that featured a slightly creepy (my opinion; creepy is in the eye of the beholder) Madame Alexander doll, holding a bottle of lavender fragrance.  It was a very old fashioned image.

Sometime in the mid 1960s some very smart persons at Yardley decided to cash in on the British craze.  The result was a line of products marketed to teens that were centered around a London Look theme.  The packaging was colorful, the colors the latest in fashion, and the advertising fun.  There were even TV ads that were placed on shows like The Monkees that had a teen audience.

They managed to get one of the most recognisable faces of the London Look, Jean Shrimpton, to model the print ads.  Yardley went from being the brand of grannies to the brand that gave a bit of London cool to girls everywhere.

After all the talk about Ringo in yesterday’s post, I could not help but notice that this lipstick was named the SlickeRINGO.

Ad Campaign: Coty, Paris, 1944

I imagine that these two are sisters, visiting Paris, or more likely dreaming of the day when they could visit Paris after the end of WWII.  The ad is for Coty’s Paris fragrance.

Lately I’ve noticed that there is a bit of criticism of bloggers in regards to how much of their lives are shared on-line.  I’m not talking about too much sharing, but rather, not enough.  There are critics who says that most blogs are not “authentic” because  bloggers edit out the negative aspects of their lives.  I really don’t agree with this.  I know I do not give the whole picture of my life, but this blog is not about me; it is about the fashion that I encounter and what I can learn from it.  It would be nice if my life were nothing but a constant round of antiques shopping and such.

Earlier this week I stated that I was dealing with some pressing matters.  I don’t like cryptic messages, so I’m going to share another side of my life.

This week, The Vintage Traveler lost one of its earliest readers and most dedicated followers.  This follower was my sister, who lost a year-long battle with cancer.  She loved this blog, frequently commenting, but more often calling me to tell me how she loved an entry or an item I’d posted about.  She was also a fine traveling companion, and was always up for a museum or an antique mall or two.  To say that I’ll miss her is the understatement of the century.

Ad Campaign – Parfums Corday, 1941

It seems like a gift of fragrance has always been a popular option.  This charming ad from 1941 has the perfumes of Corday dominating a winter landscape.

Probably the best known of the Corday perfumes was Toujours Moi.  It was the first fragrance released by Corday, in 1924.   The scent remained popular into the 1940s.  Today Dana Perfumes owns the rights to Toujours Moi, and they still produce a perfume by that name.

Ad Campaign – Avon for the Red Cross, 1943

Click to enlarge

The year was 1943, and the need for nurses was great.  You’d not even know this was an ad for cosmetics if not for the little line of products across the top of the page and the big Avon logo and the foot of it.

I love looking at magazines from the WWII era, because so many of the ads and the editorial content is about the war effort.  Companies that were not able to continue full production of their product lines advertised anyway, with an emphasis on winning the war.

But what I love most of all is how it seems like there was just such a united front, that all Americans were working for the winning of the war.  Yes, I know there were political differences even during WWII, but how much pleasanter and how much more fulfilling it would be for all Americans to again work toward the common good.

Ad Campaign – Elizabeth Arden, 1945

No wonder the ancients thought the sun was the giver of life… for now we know it holds precious gifts we all need… Today more than ever with the tension of wartime living, the fatigue of wartime work.  Make the most of every opportunity to back in the sun…

In 1945, back in the good old days before photoshop  and other photo chicanery made one question every ad in the big glossy fashion magazine, they had illustrators who weren’t concerned with the literal portraying of a product.    Just give us a pretty and slender young woman out there where the blue begins!

Here’s another Elizabeth Arden ad, this one from 1956: