Advertisement for Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothes 1900

This advertisement for Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothes was created by Edward Penfield, likely at the turn of the 20th century, with watercolor and gouache on paper. The washes of color create a soft, stylish effect, very much in keeping with the image of leisure that Penfield was selling. The artist’s marks are clearly visible here, and that’s no accident. This was a period when advertisers increasingly emulated the techniques of fine art. The idea was that an association with “high” culture would give commercial products a greater cachet. Think about the social implications: this was an era when ready-to-wear clothing was increasingly available, thanks to innovations in mass production. Yet, the rising middle class still aspired to the bespoke tailoring of an earlier era. Advertisements like these offered a fantasy of effortless elegance, achievable through consumerism. The image disguises the labor involved in producing these clothes, promoting instead an elevated vision of lifestyle.