Gypsy Creams

Woman’s Realm Archive

Gay Nylons

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

Well, indeed. I think I’m most amused by the drag queen aesthetic here, although it probably wasn’t intended at the time, but it strikes me that I don’t see as many adverts nowadays expressing this level of joy. Perhaps I’m just a jaded modern gal.

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Kleinerts

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

These appear to be ‘Pull-up’ pants for teenage girls, so I’m not all that surprised that they didn’t become popular. I suspect part of the failure might be the ‘fleecenap’ that’s meant to absorb menses, although I can’t say for sure how it measured up against other sanitary alternatives of the time. Another attempt was made a few years later in the shape of Nikini, but the failure of this product suggests that, amazingly, not all women are made to the same shape and size, and so they’re better off deciding for themselves exactly where their sanitary protection should sit. A secondary reason why this kind of product isn’t likely to be making a comeback is the loss of social stigma around tampons, and even the reputation of menstrual cups is changing from being too ‘hippy’, due to some canny advertising praising their ecologically-friendly credentials.

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Be a better mother: drink milk!

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

It’s interesting that you see an advert for a non-branded foodstuff such as milk in this era without seeing a Marketing Board endorsing it, but I suspect the Milk Marketing Board was responsible for this piece of emotional blackmail.

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Sweet-Eatin’ Kelloggs

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

Nope, not an April Fool, but a reminder of how times have changed!

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Double Prom

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

A lovely example of a double-page spread advert, which crop up occasionally in my collection, presumably because they must have been considerably more expensive than a one-page advert. This looks like a new product launch for the home perming application Prom, and we’ve seen later adverts on this site promoting the ‘Pink Rose’ and ‘White Rose’ variants. At least they pretend they like their customers in this one…

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Tango

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

I can’t say that this copy scans particularly well, but then I was lucky enough to live through the Tango adverts of the 1990s, so I’m spoilt.

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From No-one to a Someone

Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961

The ‘Woman of many parts’ letter on here nearly broke my heart. What sort of messages must this woman have got from society to believe that she was a ‘no-one’ when she was a unmarried only child?

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Good old widthways expansion!

Woman's Realm / 31st March 1967

Judging from this ad, contemporary Tampax must have formed channels that menses could leak out of. If anyone can confirm, I’d be grateful! Lil-Lets still talk about width-ways expansion, and they’ve been a lot more explicit about comparing the Lil-Let to Tampax products for, ooh, at least the last 25 years, as I remember this ‘dip test’ from my adolesence. I could go on, but I’m aware that some of my audience are already feeling a bit queasy. Incidentally, boys, menses is NOT blue.

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Ewbank aren’t daft!

Woman's Realm / 18th March 1967

The humble carpet sweeper! I think my nan had one of these, but I’m not sure if it was a precursor to her vacuum cleaner, or in addition to it. Carpet sweepers pre-date vacuum cleaners, but there’s always been a small market for them, especially in the catering and hospitality industries, due to their ease of use and the fact that they’re a lot quieter than vacuum cleaners. You’ll be no doubt pleased to know that Ewbank are still going, and have been revitalised in recent years, diversifying into steam cleaners and cleaners to deal with allergies to such things as dust mites. There’s also an environmental argument in favour of them, given that the simpler models don’t use electricity. If I had carpets downstairs, I’d be tempted…

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The real thing…

Woman's Realm / 31st March 1967

I don’t know what grass these copywriters were used to, but I’m pretty sure the grass I see around my way isn’t that particular shade of green. Perhaps this is an early clubbing wear prototype. *puts on her old Altern-8 tape*

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