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Chattanooga: Pickett's fashion ads become wallpaper art

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Ann Mahoney

By Ben Doak, Staff Writer

For more than 50 years, Ann Mahoney drew advertisements for Pickett’s women’s clothing store. The ads featured women dressed in the latest fashions — and with a bit of attitude, she adds. They appeared printed in black and white for newspapers.

Looking back on her work, Mrs. Mahoney came to realize that these simple advertisements were pieces of art that people could still appreciate. So about five years ago, she sought out ads she had stored in the cabinets, drawers and closets of her North Chattanooga home and put them up for sale at Chattanooga Market.

They were received with an interest that astonished her, she said. In one afternoon, she sold 52 unframed pieces and 40 framed ones.

“Strangers came in off the street to buy vegetables, but then they got in line (at my stand),” said Mrs. Mahoney.

Knitting Mill Antiques owner Lynn Short then contacted her, asking if she could carry her prints.

When officials with Puttin’ on the Ritz, a resale shop on Highway 58, asked if they could use her art as the graphics for a wallpaper border that would line their store walls, she realized that her work was not yet finished. Mrs. Mahoney transformed her sketches into a wallpaper design and sent it to 4walls, a wallpaper manufacturer in Solon, Ohio, for production.

Groups of four to seven figures set off close-ups of items ranging from purses to hats. The figures are not arranged by decade but are grouped according to their look. Even so, they chronicle the developments in the fashion industry over the past 50 years.

“Really the whole point of my doing this is that it’s fun,” said Mrs. Mahoney. “I’m having a really good time doing it, you know. It’s most unusual that people can look back at a hard copy of their work, of their labor. So I’m getting a lot of pleasure out of it. I’m not trying to make it a huge financial success or anything like that. I priced it at a very reasonable level ($35 to $70) so anyone can buy it and enjoy it. Hot dog, I love that.”

Mrs. Mahoney was an art student at the University of Chattanooga in the 1950s when she was asked to draw an advertisement for Loveman’s department store.

Then officials with Pickett’s, a high-end fashion boutique, saw her work and asked the same of her. She began drawing advertisements on a freelance basis and would continue on this path for the next half-century.

“Fate just came down and picked me up and put me in an advertising department,” she said. “It just fell into my lap. I didn’t go out seeking this career; it happened.”

As Pickett’s was long responsible for bringing the latest fashions in women’s clothing to Chattanooga, the clothing reflected a constant evolution and reach for couture.

“I like really nice things and really good designs,” said Mrs. Mahoney “It was a really fun thing to be involved in as a career, because that’s what you dealt with.”

The wallpaper is printed on a border that is 11 inches wide and 29 feet, 7 inches long. It is printed on two adjoined sheets, which give it more versatility for rooms of different sizes, she said.

The prints can be purchased from Knitting Mill Antiques or directly from Mrs. Mahoney.

“This is not fine art, you know,” said Mrs. Mahoney. “The fun for me is having someone enjoy it.”

E-mail Ben Doak at bdoak@timesfreepress.com

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