Elite Styles

This is a point-of-purchase advertising card for 'Elite Styles' summer dresses featuring an illustration of a woman in a long-sleeved floral dress with cinched-in waist, standing daintily on an upside down tea cup. The copy by Lesley Collins Kemp calls for buyers to 'Create a small stir, a little storm in a teacup. Wear the rose-patterned Tricel dress by Elite Styles. Remember Elite? They made a gown that won a 1961 Wool Award. They also make summer-time dresses that are more beautiful than summertime herself. Ask to see them at least.' The advertisment is printed in three colours (black, pink and olive green), and has a cardboard stand at the back. 'Elite Styles' is hand-lettered.

Significance

This advertisement was designed and illustrated by Kate Coolahan while in the employment of Carlton Carruthers du Chateau, a Wellington advertising agency. Coolahan worked for the company from 1954 to 1957, and again from 1960 and 1962.

The advertisement is for a new range of Tricel fabric dresses manufactured by Elite Styles. Courtaulds Fibres Ltd, a British company, launched the Tricel brand in 1961. While advertising a new synthetic, the copy also refers to the sucess of Elite at the 1961 New Zealand Wool Board Awards. From 1960 to 1965, the Wool Board Awards were the most significant fashion awards in the country.

Lesley Collins Kemp was an advertising copywriter who also worked at Carlton Carruthers du Chateau. She moved to London in 1962 to further her career and worked on a number of prestigious accounts, including Woolmark, Schweppes, Gordon's Gin, London Underground and Scandinavian Airlines, winning industry awards. She returned to Wellington in 1963, married in 1964, then returned to London in 1965 where she worked at Pemberton's, a sister agency to Carlton Carruthers.