I was paging through the 1948 December edition of Mademoiselle’s Living (“The magazine for  smart young homemakers”) as one is wont to do.

Vintage advertisements are a trip. Sometimes the products are enticing (“Why don’t they make that anymore?”), sometimes baffling (“Why did they ever make that?”). Often they are reeeeeeeeeally racist or sexist.  In my perusal of this smart young homemaker magazine, I found a pretty spectacular example of what I like to call the “You know your husband hates you, right?” school of houseware adverts.

First off, this is an ad for a product I clearly need. It’s a folding rack to dry your stockings on. So handy. It just looks like a decorative plastic seashell (so tasteful) when it’s folded up, and then folds down into a stocking rack. Introducing the “SafTdri Stocking Shell!”

The basic pitch is that it’s a small space solution–quit cluttering up your bathroom with your drying delicates. But the best thing is, it will make your husband stop hating you. Continue reading “Day 11: A Vintage Product I Clearly Need” →