If you remember shopping at Henry’s department store, you’ll probably enjoy an exhibit and sale running through Feb. 7 at The Workroom.
The show features drawings by Della Riley, who was a fashion illustrator for Henry’s, Shepler’s and other Wichita clothing stores during the 1960s and 70s.
In December, Autumn Fortune, who has a booth at Paramount Marketplace and The Workroom’s Ballroom collective, was shopping at the Wichita Flea Market when she bought six boxes of materials from a seller there. They turned out to be the personal archives of Riley, including original drawings used as advertising proofs, prints and copies of newspaper advertisements.
The fashion illustrations of Della Riley are being offered for sale at The Workroom.
“Reviving Wichita History: The Advertising Art of Della Riley” is the title of the show. Fortune called Riley’s style “quintessential mid-century modern.”
Fortune hasn’t been able to find out much about Riley, who died in 2008, but the show’s Jan. 10 opening attracted several people who knew her.
“We had a quite a few people who had worked Della or worked with her son at Shepler’s,” Fortune said. “I even had the niece of Harry Shelper come and buy some of her art.”
“And I had quite a few people talk about Henry’s and how it was so influential. That was the first place they rode an elevator, and that stuck with them. And how it was just the pinnacle of class and customer service.”
According to a short obituary in the Eagle, Riley was 88 when she died and had been active in the Wichita Doberman Club, according to online comments on her obituary. One person wrote that a “sweeter kinder person would be hard to find,” while another remembered seeing Riley work upstairs at Shepler’s, then seeing her ads in the newspaper.
The pieces in the show are for sale from $30 to $100. The Workroom is located at 523 W. Douglas, on the first floor of the Eaton apartments building.
