MonkeyMan business #3: HartMarx & Hickey Freeman

Hello part-time monkeys!

MonkeyMan goes haute couture!

For the past 2 months I have been working at the high end men's suit company Hickey Freeman doing an archive project.

We received boxes and boxes of old photographs, advertisements, clothes, awards and paintings all belonging to Hickey Freeman and its partner brands Hart Shaffner & Marx and Bobby Jones.
I knew absolutely nothing about these brands as I started out, but now I am all an expert.

So, we started out unpacking everything and categorizing things by brand and by date.
After much sifting and labeling we set all the Hickey Freeman stuff (mostly paper ads) on one floor and all the Hart Shaffner & Marx (mostly paintings and suits) on another floor.

The whole point of this project was to digitalize as much relevant things as possible so that thing are not lost forever due to decay and so the creative department can use them for inspiration.

I mean some of these ads are amazing! They date from the 1880s to present...pretty crazy!

Here is what the archiving process consists of:

Step 1: Unpack

Step 2: Throw away junk

Step 3: Organize by brand into...

objects

(HSM swatch book 1920s)

paintings

(Tom Hall ads for HSM 1950s)

advertisements

(Hickey Freeman 1910s)

Step 4: Display nicely

Bobby Jones room

Step 5: Digitalize

photograph & scan

Step 6: Repackage and store

Big thanks to MonkeyWoman Lisa Wells who made this project possible!