I fell down a rabbit hole.
It was a google search into early 20th Century advertising catalogues celebrating Halloween.
A niche element of history that blew my vintage black and white striped socks off.
So I tossed my to-do list to the floor and spent a sock-less week making costumes for a 7 inch/18 cm doll called Lottie.
costume 1/ vaudeville clown
costume 2/ witch
costume 3/ jack o’ lantern
costume 4/ candlestick
halloween + print advertising in the early 1900s
20th Century newspapers, magazines, trade and mail order catalogues fascinate me. For the first time in history, advertising invited consumers to identify with lifestyle rather than just product, shaping culture itself, turning ordinary goods into symbols of festivity, progress, and modernity.
Print advertising focused not only on what to buy but more importantly, taught consumers how to live in a modern, industrial world.
Dennison’s Halloween Booklets1 illustrate how early 20th Century print advertising didn’t just reflect culture- it created it.
Originally a paper goods company, each catalogue was an immersion of; DIY templates for party decorations, illustrations showing how to decorate the home and arrange table settings, step by step suggestions for games, menus and theme based costumes.
Dennison’s booklets established many of the visual tropes still associated with Halloween today; orange and black colour schemes, pumpkin and black cat motifs, paper masks and crepe paper costumes, themed decorations and party favours.
By packaging imagination into purchasable form, these catalogues transformed Halloween into a visual, social and commercial phenomenon, bridging art, industry and everyday life, defining seasonal marketing to this day.
I think they tapped into something so fundamentally significant because they honoured the space of a consumer who puts a great deal of their personal and financial resources into creating unforgettable moments for their family. A person who finds value in the art of inclusive and creative play.
*note about the doll
I found this little doll at a thrift store. She looked a little special. I researched her when I got home and it turned out she was.
Lottie was created in 2012 by Ian Harkin and Lucie Follett. The idea emerged from a joint parental desire to design a doll that ‘reflected the innocence, imagination and diversity of actual children’2.
She was also conceptualised with the collaboration of child psyche professionals, academics, parents and most importantly, children. Little Lottie has a natural inclination to STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects/industries. She is a little doll with a deep sense of curiosity.
So of course she became the first doll to go to space!
With the artistic collaboration of a six year old girl named Abigail and accompanied by British astronaut Tim Peake, ‘Stargazer Lottie’ spent 250 days in space (2015).
Yea.
A bit awesome.
raincoats for penguins 
You must be logged in to post a comment.