Tag Archives: BLK MKT VINTAGE

BLACK BAGS, THE AMERICAN BLACKSTORY 2026

BLACK BAGS, Vol. 3 — BLK MKT VINTAGE | SUPPLEMENTAL

BLACK BAGS, Vol 3. — BLK MKT Vintage | SUPPLEMENTAL

I’ve got over 15 years of education and experience in Advertising.

That makes me Old Head and Baby Girl at the same damn time.

Still, enough that I should have known the name “Charles Dawson” WAY BEFORE this vintage Slick Black Hair Color broadside from BLK MKT Vintage arrived at my door.

During the Great Depression — nearly 40 years before “Black was Beautiful”— Black designer Charles Dawson created gorgeous packaging targeting Black and Latino consumers for Chicago’s Jewish-owned Valmor Products.

And not just a handful of niche hair pomades.

Valmor’s subsidiaries included Lucky Brown, Peachy Brown, Sweet Georgia Brown, Madam Jones, King Novelty, Famous Products Company, and many, many more.

Hundreds of face creams, hair products, perfumes & body oils, toothpastes, lotions, and home goods spanning global mail-order catalog, direct-to-consumer, and national drugstore distribution.

With people of color front and center on nearly every label.

Headquartered in one of the cities that put advertising on the map.

Charles Dawson was more than a graphic designer.

He was the Black beauty blueprint.

And I had to stumble across an 80-year-old+ rarity to even learn his name.

Yesterday, I dropped a term that might be unfamiliar: SANKOFA.

It’s a Ghanian word whose literal translation is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”

Put simply, “go back and get it.”

Since the day BLK MKT Vintage introduced me to Charles Dawson, I’ve collected several of his originals, each one highlighting his stunning illustrations, signature primary colors, and exceptional talent at balancing bold design and a staggering amount of copy.

An assortment of Charles Dawson’s illustrations and labels, courtesy of the Made In Chicago Museum.

Nobody ever taught me about Charles Dawson’s work. Let alone his successor Jay Johnson.

And if I had a dollar… I’d be a billionaire.

Because they’re just a couple among countless legends nearly erased by who gets to tell the story.

And among many reasons I’m thankful to BLK MKT Vintage for helping me go back and get them. 🖤

There’s so much more waiting at blkmktvintage.com, and more of Charles Dawson at Design Observer and the Made in Chicago Museum.

BLACK BAGS, THE AMERICAN BLACKSTORY 2026

BLACK BAGS, Vol. 3 — BLK MKT VINTAGE

BLK MKT Vintage has seen more of my paychecks than the other three BLACK BAGS shops combined.

Theirs is also the only one I’ve never actually set foot into, and just one reason I try to avoid the phrase “next time.”

I mean… I WAS IN BROOKLYN AND EVERYTHINGGGG!

And then NY street photographer Louis Mendez said he wanted to get a picture of me with Spike Lee. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I regret (almost) nothing.

It even felt like fate that when I went looking for Brooklyn’s Black history, it found me instead.

(TSA and my bank account were also fully on board with fate, tbh.)

Until… BLK MKT Vintage closed their gorgeous brick-and-mortar, home to “collectibles, cast-offs and curiosities, which represent the richness of Black history.”

My inner antiquer will NEVER recover.

Sure, there’s no shortage of antique piles to comb for treasures.

Those treasures, though, so rarely reflect ME.

Discarded drawers overflow with beautifully illustrated Victorian postcards, maybe five of which feature a dignified representation of Blackness.

Gibson Girls, Norman Rockwell families, and feathered blonde hair grin from vintage ads, as if Coca-Cola and Budweiser bottles were labeled “Whites Only” too.

But BLK MKT Vintage curates ephemera that specifically bears witness to the Black lived experience.

In my case, that’s an original Angela Davis FBI wanted poster and a 1930’s Slick Black hair product ad, two of my most prized BLK MKT Vintage finds.

But they also sell books, photographs, movie memorabilia, home decor and other meaningful cultural objects.

BLK MKT Vintage is the repository where there’s more to Black Americana than Bojangles, pickaninnies, and Aunt Jemima.

It’s a library of the Black diaspora from afros and Maya Angelou to Zambian art and Ziggy Marley.

Scattered throughout, general antiques like Kodak cameras, mid-century tins, even tourism bumper stickers, give BLK MKT Vintage’s inventory added depth that mirrors the Black American experience in itself — we stand at the intersection of American culture. So do they.

And nothing would please me more than helping discover something that fits you at blkmktvintage.com 🖤