I’ve always been fascinated by vintage ads.
I particularly love the kitschest adverts published in Italian magazines during the 60s as I find their clashing colours and graphics (and often extremely silly slogans…) absolutely amazing.
My main interest remains the connection between fashion and car adverts, but, throughout the years, I managed to put together an interesting collection of different ads about synthetic fabric and textiles, lingerie, menswear and household appliances.
In the last few weeks I also tried to do a little side research into drink adverts, like the Cinzano ad from 1960 I’m posting here.
This ad is definitely listed among my favourite ones for its loungy atmosphere, colours and fashion connections (check out the yellow dress with prints of blue roses the woman drinking Cinzano is wearing…).
Many Italian magazines from the 60s, especially women’s magazines, featured tips about cocktails to make sure people would entertain their guests during parties offering them the most popular and fashionable drinks.
One example of this sort of obsession with cocktails is a long feature about this topic published in the 11th December 1960 issue of Italian weekly Epoca.
The feature included a brief investigation on the origins of the word cocktail, explored how tastes changed from the 30s, listed the latest cocktail equipment available in the shops and provided the readers with over 40 cocktail recipes prepared by Angelo Zola, the most famous Italian barman at the time photographed here while serving (at the bar of the Milan-based Principe di Savoia Hotel where he used to work), an elegant man in a dark suit and a stylish woman in a black and green dress inspired by the Chinese qipao.
The feature - and that's the most interesting thing about it - was accompanied by a lot of images of cocktails, printed in a full page, in double spreads and even in unfoldable four-sheet size pages, as if they were part of a fashion photo shoot.
The cocktails were neatly arranged in 60s glasses, their colours ranging from solid Egg Nogg yellow and Chateau d’Issogne amber to Bloody Mary red, Grasshopper green and Black and White onyx, creating a rather nice effect on the page.
I think it would be interesting to digitalise such vintage cocktail images and see the effect they would give once printed on fabrics and used for Spring/Summer designs.
Sceptic about the artistic value such print may retain?
Well, Fortunato Depero designed in 1928 the Campari Soda bottle and some of the most artistic, original and colourfully experimental advertising campaigns for a wide range of products - drinks included - were actually created by the Futuristi.
So, who knows, maybe this would be the right time to rediscover vintage cocktail colours in a fashionable way.
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