Thursday, December 23, 2010

Book Shelf: Favorite Ads From The September, 1976 Issue Of Playboy Magazine, Part Two

For your consideration, three more denim leisure suits:


"Panatela" was Levi's' line of "contemporary" sportswear during the 70s. I've got a few representative pieces of Panatela monstrosities in my collection, and believe it or not, they're worse than this:


Another magnificent three-piece denim suit, "Seen in the best places," like the Hospitality Motor Inn in Atlanta:

13 comments:

Diane Griffin said...

Is they guy in the third ad Lawrence O'Donnell?

Angry Parakeet said...

I'm surprised by all the explaining.

Matthew Hubbard said...

What outfit doesn't work if you have both a scarf and a cane?

Frank said...

The horror.

Anyway, to get schmaltzy for a second, I just wanted to wish you a very happy holiday, Pete. Here's hoping Santa brings you lots of denim leisure suits, Condibot spare parts, and Michael Steele bon mots!

Major Mel Funkshun said...

Mom, is that you? You bought me the one on the left in the second photo. This is getting creepy, cause now I think my mom reads playboy. ugh...

Unknown said...

That second ad is great. I love the explanation of how it all works. It's like Geranimals for the sophisticated gentleman.

Nixie Bunny said...

I've noticed that our society has really gone downhill since people stopped wearing denim 3-piece suits.

Merry X-mas!

Karen Zipdrive said...

Denim is not suit material. Never was, never will be.

Lulu Maude said...

I liked denim blazers, though... I had a denim suit, when I was young and cute, now that I think of it... very comfortable.

Comrade PhysioProf said...

TRIANGLE!!!!!!!!

Greg.org said...

Haha, I remember watching a vintage documentary/case study on those Levi's suits/separates in my marketing class at business school. They were apparently for the 20% of the male population who were very fashion-conscious, but who didn't have their girlfriends buy their clothes. At least that's how the segment was described in the line's test market of San Francisco...

Peteykins said...

Greg, that's really interesting. It's not so different from what the Gap does: at any given time, anything in the store "goes" with anything else in the store, mainly achieved by limiting the palette to about six colors.

Not surprising that San Francisco was their test market, as it was basically the company's back yard.

samael7 said...

"You'll wear this handsome 3-piece sport suit everywhere this fall..."

Your Jedi-Levi mind tricks don't work on me, bub.