Hands up who’s heard of JANE TRAHEY?


Fashion advertising isn’t like regular advertising.
Attitude is as important as the ‘idea’.
The photographer can more important than the writer.
What you say is less important than how you say it.
The font is often more important than the argument.
And the gut is definitely more important than the head.
It’s a odd world.
Paul Smith is rumoured to have been on the lookout for an agency for decades.
Organising endless chemistry meetings every couple of years, but never appointing an agency, because he can never find one that ‘gets it’.
Jane Trahey got fashion.
She started writing ads in 1947, for Neiman-Marcus in Dallas.
In 1956 she moves to New York to found 425 Advertising Associates for Julius Kayser Inc, as their in-house agency.
Only a couple of years later she leaves to open Jane Trahey Associates.
1958.
In 1950s New York, openly lesbian women didn’t start ad agencies, Vikings probably started more than lesbians in those years.
Their work was simple, stylish with a kind of sassy, New York attitude.

HOFFRITZ.
Jane Trahey - Hoffritz 'Throwing Knives'*Screen Shot 2017-06-28 at 16.37.16.png

WRAGGE.
Jane Trahey - Wragge 'Architects'-01 Jane Trahey - Wragge ' Monet'-01

D’ORSAY.Jane Trahey - D'Orsay 'Blechman'*Jane Trahey, D'Orsay 3 BlechmanJane Trahey, D'Orsay 2 Blechman

FRANKLIN SIMON.Jane Trahey Franklin Simon 'Please'-01

ELIZABETH ARDEN.Jane Trahey, Elizabeth Arden ;Race Track'-01Jane Trahey , Elizabeth Arden 'Sand''V19690115-ElizabethArden.jpgV19680401-EA.jpgV196905-EA.jpg

BILL BLASS.Jane Trahey - Bill Blass 'Feel Free'-01Jane Trahey - Bill Blass 'Things go better'-01

SWANSON’S ON THE PLAZA.Jane Trahey, Swansons 'Bill Blass'*.jpgJane Trahey, Oscar DeLaRenta 'Plane'

PALIZZIO SHOES.Jane Trahey, Polozzio 'Cab'

ECHO SCARVES.Jane Trahey, Echo Scarves 'Be Careful''

ROB ROY.
Jane Trahey - Rob Roy 'Wise Guys'c84a9143d44ceaa1c951b584c1963679.jpg

I. M. MILLER.Jane Trahey, I. Miller 'La Giaconda'.jpgJane Trahey, I. Miller 'Grrrr'Jane Trahey, I. Miller, 'Heels'Jane Trahey, I. Miller 'Builds'She picks a young, local illustrator for some I.M Miller ads, (and an invite), his name is Andy Warhola.Jane Trahey Goes To The Mission - Andy Warhol-01Jane Trahey, I. Miller 2, Andy Warhol-01Jane Trahey - I.Miller, Andy WarholJane Trahey, Flemming Joffe, Andy WarholJane Trahey, I. Miller 1, Andy Warhol-01.jpg

In 1959 she brings a partner to help manage the business, now growing fast. Jane Trahey, 'Trahey Cadwell Brochure'Although Jane was a writer, really she wrote slogans.
She would conjure up a handful of words for a brand to give it attitude.
Those words would stay there for years, sometimes ten, in one case forty.
These words would rarely be product based.
More often than not they had a kind of ‘fuck you’ flavour.

DYNEL.
A great example of that flavour is Dynel work for a synthetic fur-like fabric.
Most rational people would position it as an inexpensive alternative to real fur.
That was far too mealy-mouthed and apologetic for Trahey Cadwell, they said ‘It’s not fake anything, it’s real Dynel’. (You may as well put ‘schmuck!’ at the end of that sentence.)Jane Trahey, Dynel  'Red'.jpgJane Trahey, Dynel 'Taxi'DynelAd.jpgJane Trahey , Dynet 'Beret'.jpg

DYNEL FAKE HAIR.QRPDUMtecq0k2a13ke296c9Zo1_400.jpgmas5380Union Carbide 'This Is Babette' Trahey.jpg

DANSKINS.
Positioning the brand as kit you can wear when not exercising.
Straight to the point and with attitude.Jane Trahey, Danskins, 'Spotlight'Jane Trahey, Danskins, 'Ski'Jane Trahey, Danskins, 'Mirror.jpgJane Trahey, Danskins, 'Legs'mas4959.jpgJane Trahey, Danskins, 'Outdoor'.JPGDanskins 'Little Girl' Trahey.jpgDanskins 'Woolen' .jpg

Considering she was a writer, it’s amazing to see consistently strong the art direction is over a thirty year period.SOC-PEO-look-back-10-1trahy.jpg

TRIGERE.
Jane Trahey, 'Trigere Cult 'Street. Melvyn Soklansky-02 V19670915-TrigereCult $(KGrHqJHJCwFBp!dR02zBQfKH2WFTQ--60_57

CHARLES OF THE RITZ.
Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 14.41.22
1988688902_5c7615ace3_o'Basic Pink' Jane Trahey-01.jpgJane Trahey, Charles Of The Ritz 'Off Shore'.JPGJane Trahey, Charles Of The Ritz - Y.JPGSKMBT_C20310072310441Jane Trahey - Charles Of The Ritz 'Faces'*Jane Trahey - Charles Of The Ritz 'Ice'*

GASHINS MUSHI.Jane Trahey - '$350.00'*

MA GRIFFE.Jane Trahey - 'Hand'*

PARAPHERNALIA.Jane Trahey - Paraphenalia 'Field'-0121409_or.jpg

 

In the late sixties, former Haprer’s Bazaar Art Director Henry Wolf was bought in as a partner.

OLIVETTI.
Wolf shot and art directed these ads.Jane Trahey, Olivetti 'Twiggy'Jane Trahey, Olivetti 'Suzy'Jane Trahey, Olivetti 'Pearl'Jane Trahey, Olivetti 'Duke'

Through the seventies, Trahey continued to battle anyone still against equal rights.Jane Trahey, Women & POwer articleJane Trahey Article, %22angry article'Jane Trahey article.pngJane Trahey, Article, Life-01
In ’72 she gets involved in he National Organisation of Women.
Soon after she get’s her pen out.Jane Trahey, Womanpower 'Legs'*-01 Jane Trahey, Womanpoer 'Degree'-01 Jane Trahey, Womanpower 'Boardroom'*-01 Jane Trahey, Womanpower 'Born'-01Jane Trahey , 'Vital Statistics'

BLACKGLAMA.
One of her last, but most famous campaigns was for the Great Lakes Mink Association. Realising that the name was too much of a mouthful, she rechristened them; ‘Blackglama’.
She then figured that because the lustre of black mink didn’t show up in photographs, she needed stars to give Blackgama lustre.
First she went out and got some stars, a
nd when I say stars, I mean STARS!, then she got Richard Avedon to shoot them.Blackgamma ad,1968, bette davisBlackgamma ad - 1968, barbra streisandBlackgamma ad - 1969 joan crawfordBlackgamma ad - 1968 lauren bacallBlackgamma ad - 1969 marlene dietrichBlackgamma ad - 1970 bridget bardotBlackgamma ad - 1970 barbara stanwyckBlackgamma ad - 1970 maria callasBlackgamma ad - 1972 carol burnettBlackgamma ad - 1973 diana rossBlackgamma ad - 1973 liza minnelliBlackgamma ad - 1975 raquel welchBlackgamma ad - 1977 diana vreelandBlackgamma ad - 1976 Martha graham, Rudolf nureyev, Margot fonteynBlackgamma ad - 1977 shirley maclaineBlackgamma ad - 1977 liv ullmannBlackgamma ad - 1979 lillian gishBlackgamma ad - 1980 maggie smithBlackgamma ad - 1981 gloria swansonBlackgamma ad - 1981 luciano pavarottiBlackgamma ad - .Ray Charles

Towards the end of her life, Jane wrote and edited books and films.Jane Trahey, Where Angels Go', Script.jpgJane Trahey, The Magic Yarn, Book'.jpgJane Trahey , Life With Mother Superior,.jpgJane Trahey 'Harpers Bazaar 100 Years' Book-0181iisXFcmBL.jpgtrouble_with_angels.jpg

 

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.