greyongray:

As some of you know, I manage the men’s department of a store in Chicago called Mark Shale.  Recently, our new VP came to find out we had a number of vintage ads that had been haphazardly scrap-booked over the years and they were just gathering dust in our warehouse.  The ads were actually printed when the company was named Al Baskin Clothing; who was Mark and Shale Baskin’s father.

From a number of different decades, the books included ads for men’s, boy’s and women’s merchandise.   We’re an 83 year old company and one of the great parts of our heritage is that Baskin family is still involved today.  Scott, Al’s grandson and Shale’s son, saw the books the other day and remembers when the company put them together. 

Needless to say, the ads are brilliant to look through.  All were sketched and 98% were in black and white.  Believe it or not there are hundreds of ads.  They appeared to be ran in the local paper every 3 days - for decades.

The ad that caught my eye the most is a reference to a familiarly contemporary line - Gant Rugger.  The retroactively throwback ad ran on June 9th in 1974 for the following father’s day promotion and includes a great feature ($12 for the rugger!) and even tells you to wear it with white pants.

If anyone gets the chance to stop by the store, we’ll be framing these prints in the coming months and hanging them up in the stores by fall.  Enjoy.