This advertisement shows a cheerfully smiling couple dressed in clothing that was fashionable and elegant at the time. She is clad in a dress with a low waist, and he is wearing a three-piece suit with chalk stripes along with a bow tie and a pocket handkerchief. The two are surrounded by textile department stores that show the status of C&A’s European expansion up to 1924. Among them is a picture of the second store in Sneek. It was in this small town in the Dutch province of Friesland that Clemens (1818–1902) and August (1819–1892) Brenninkmeijer founded their company in 1841. After a first branch was opened in Leeuwarden, not far from Sneek, the company moved to the big city of Amsterdam. Other Dutch cities such as Groningen, Rotterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Enschede, and Utrecht soon followed. In 1911, C&A entered the German market in Berlin, followed by the establishment of further stores in Hamburg, Cologne, and Essen. The British division began trading in London in 1922; and the Liverpool site was added in April 1924. The company headquarters on Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam (known as “Hoofdkantoor”) is at the top of the commercial buildings depicted. Some of the stores are labeled as menswear stores. 
However, the separation of the department stores by gender was abandoned toward the mid-1920s and the relevant departments were brought together under one roof. The Nationale Confectie Industrie, which was taken over by C&A in 1918, was also the first company-owned clothing factory to join the ranks of the C&A holdings.