Frost Bros. was
the place to shop in San Antonio, Texas. It was a very exclusive and old world store for people with old world money. Frost Bros. carried only the best of the best and made the prices at Neiman's look like Woolworth's. With those prices, though, you got personalized service and you could purchase fashion from Paris and Italy, as well as the best of American designers.
In a full 1 1/2 page spread in a San Antonio newspaper in 1956, Frost Bros. advertised the latest fashion from the best of American designers. Titled "American Haute Couture," the ad featured a pinstriped suit by Irene Lentz. Of course, the high end garments by American designers that Frost's offered were not haute couture in its literal sense, meaning they were not made by hand for one specific customer. In using the term, though, Frost's is attempting to elevate American fashion to the heights it deserved for its clientele, essentially saying, "You don't have to go to Paris to be in fashion."
Today, I want to share with you the copy from this ad, as the writing is superb and communicates the romance and allure of high end fashion. Bravo to the unsung writer who penned this copy, beginning with a quote from Irene Lentz.
"To each generation is given a few high-antenna creative people. They live in the rarified reaches where beauty begins. A choice few of these find fashion as their medium. In the olden days, these great artists of fashion were believed to be only in Paris. Today, a rich vein of them is found in America. They constitute one of the land's richest natural resources, bringing beauty to our clothes, our behavior, our manners. They contribute sharp drama as well as gentleness to our way of life, and their works comprise a sector of our contemporary culture." We apply these words spoken by a fashion philosopher of California, designer Irene, whose highly American design you see in two dimensions [above] and in three dimensions on our Third Floor, to all great American designers. Making our bow to the tradition of Paris, we honor the designers of young America with the French term, "Haute Couture", so as to offer them, in old world grandeur, the ribbon of honor, the star, the crown and the triple plume of sovereignty and achievement! With pride, we invite you to see American Haute Couture at Frost's alone in San Antonio.Doesn't that make you want to shop at Frost Bros?
