Like the celebrities of today, Louise Brooks’ name and image was used in a number of advertisements and advertising campaigns. Beginning in 1926 with the “Louise Brooks Evening Gown” and running through the LUX soap campaign in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Brooks’ name, image and likeness was used to sell all manner of products and consumer goods — not only in the United States, but also elsewhere around the world. Here is one example, the first on record.
The first known example of an advertisement to include Louise Brooks was for a dress, the “Louise Brooks Evening Gown”. This particular piece of clothing was created by Sally Milgrim, a designer of couture and ready-to-wear fashions, as well as a store owner and businesswoman of the 1920s and 1930s. (Read her Wikipedia page here.) During Milgrim’s long career, she designed clothing for a number of well known entertainers and personalities such as Pearl White, Mary Pickford, Dorothy Knapp, Irene Bordoni, Billie Burke, Jeanette MacDonald, and others. (Notably, she also designed the dress Eleanor Roosevelt wore to her husband’s first inaugural ball in 1933, as well as the inaugural gowns worn by two other first ladies, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and Mrs. Warren G. Harding.) Milgrim also knew Florenz Ziegfeld, and worked with George Gershwin, Victor Herbert and other well known individuals. Additionally , between 1919 and 1928, Milgrim designed outfits for 14 Broadway productions, including Louie the 14th, the 1925 Ziegfeld musical production in which Louise Brooks had a role. I wonder if that was when Brooks, then a young, up-and-coming performer, first came to Milgrim’s attention.
As is stated in Joo-Young Shin’s informative graduate thesis, “America’s Foremost Fashion Creator: Sally Milgrim 1920-1935“, “Milgrim was also a pioneer of modern fashion marketing. She executed a profoundly original marketing strategy by featuring celebrities and socialites in her published advertisements. It was hardly possible not to encounter them wearing her clothes in contemporary fashion magazines. The intimate association with celebrities was established while pursuing her other career as a costume designer for the Broadway stage.” Among the early actresses who modeled fashions designed especially for them by Milgrim were Mae Murray, Mary Astor, Leonore Ulric, Marilyn Miller, Judith Anderson and Louise Brooks.
Full and quarter-page advertisements featuring Louise Brooks, like the one shown below, began showing up in March, 1926 in publications like Vogue, Town and Country, and House and Garden; it also showed up in programs distributed in various New York theaters. Notably, this is one of only a small number of products or designs named after the actress. See, as well, the “Louise” Arch Preserver Shoe and the “Louise Brooks Noveltie” pendant on the Deltah Pearls page
As is stated in this ad, Louise Brooks was “Now Appearing in the famous Players Photo Play A Social Celebrity.” That film was Brooks’ third, though only her second credited appearance. What’s also notable is that the snappy photograph of Louise Brooks was taken by M.I. Boris, the acclaimed portrait photography with a singular style. Boris, who had photographed Brooks earlier, was responsible for some of the finest images of the then up-and-coming actress. The “Louise Brooks Evening Gown” got a bit of attention in Brooks’ hometown newspaper. It ran this piece in March, 1925. The caption beneath the image reads: “Louise Brooks, Wichita dancer and screen star, in an exclusive creation by Sally Milgrim. It is called the ‘Louise Brooks Evening Gown,’ and has recently been put on sale at the Milgrim shops in New York and Chicago. The price? Well, it’s a plenty. Milgrim doesn’t do anything cheap, and when she names a creation for a stage or screen star, it may be said the star has actually arrived.”
What’s also noteworthy about this ad, besides the Boris image, is that is quickly repurposed by the Kimberley-Clark Company to promote the Rotogravure printing process. The ad shown below appeared in Editor & Publisher magazine in June 1926. The descriptive text on the right-hand page reads “This picture expresses the thrilling action of Louise Brooks’ performance. It has caught the shimmering, foamy bits of silk and lace and pearls and feathers that compose the dreamy frock, beautifully blending them into the swift-moring but dainty charm of this star. Posed by Louise Brooks. Frock by Milgrim, New York and Chicago.” Yes, one picture is worth 10,000 words – and in the case of Louise Brooks, likely more.
