Vintage Mother-Daughter Ads

Hello! While going through some vintage magazines recently, I came across a couple of mother-daughter ads that I found amusing, so I'm sharing them here. 

From 1950:

Above, Mother and Daughter are look-alikes, from their matching hairstyles down to their ...well, no, their footwear isn't identical. Daughter wears Mary Janes with anklets while Mother wears - of course - strappy black high heels. 

Their facial expressions of delight are matching as well:

And as to why they're so delighted? Why, it's all due to Hero's "Measure Knit" knitting needles - "THE PERFECT KNITTING NEEDLES WITH THE RULER RIGHT ON THEM!" 

I'm not a knitter, so I don't know if there are knitting needles still made with "the ruler right on them". Seems like a good idea though. 

Not sure of the date for the next ad, but it could be from around the same time as the first one.

Similar matchy-matchy look, although the hairstyles are different - braids vs. a short do. But both are wearing short-sleeved yellow tops with black skirts. Footwear is similar to that shown in the first ad. 

I love the retro kitchen and the mother's modelesque pose

but the whole purpose of the photo is the modeling of the aprons. They were made from commercial patterns and were described as follows:

"JUNIOR PINAFORE, just like mother's apron, makes learning to cook lots more fun. White organdy shoulder ruffles, dainty embroidery trim in lazy-daisy flowers...Pattern with blue transfer, 25c"."

"MOTHER'S APRON, sweet as a little girl's pinafore. Party pretty in pastel percale, with flattering crispness of organdy at shoulders. Embroidery, one tone darker than apron color...Pattern, blue transfer, 35c." 

So let's see - first Mother and Daughter (that is, if Daughter is learning to sew as well learning to cook) were to sew their own aprons, including the ruffled organdy bit, then embroider them before setting foot into the kitchen. After all that work, I'm not sure I'd want to let my daughter wear something so fancy while cooking. Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to wear such an apron while cooking either! 

I did make an apron for our daughter when she took a cooking class as a youngster. It was a very easy pattern though - no ruffled organdy, no embroidery. Shame on me! 

(Note: I was curious about those 25c/35c prices, so using 1950 as the year, I plugged those sums into this calculator to see what the costs would be today. The results were $2.47 for the junior pinafore and $3.46 for the mother's apron. Those are good prices by today's standards, as sewing and craft patterns have gotten expensive.)