Mad Men costumes - discuss

Originally Posted by MrDaniels

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Must See:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Li...-guide/787241/

Outstanding.

The Mad Men sketch on SNL was a real disappointment but Don's guide to picking up women was great.

Regarding Don's shirts--

Some folks have mentioned that they are straight out of Brooks Brothers. If so, which model?

If I wanted to order some Draperesque shirts from Jantzen, what fabric should I be looking at? Are they straight up white cotton Oxford?

OK, so I am bumping this up. Season Three begins in August, Season Two now out on DVD, and I just finished re-watching Season One on demand. Any guesses out there for Season Three plots and the clothes to accompany them. My guess is that it kicks off at or just after the Kennedy assassination and the arrival in the US of the Beatles. The clothes will certainly change, but perhaps not the suits and office wear. Discuss.

I thought they wore sacks, thats a dart if i've ever seen one.

Maybe this has been covered already but the clothing depicted in Mad Men represents
one version of what was worn on Madison Ave in the early sixties. Frankly, to me it
is closer to the Show Biz "Oceans Eleven" style than my impression of Madison Ave
at the time, and I was a young adult and lived in New York then. The advertising trade
favored very Ivy League clothing from Brooks, Press, Chipp, Paul Stuart, Dunhill Tailors,
etc. Natural shoulder three piece suits with center vents were worn with button down,
tab collar and straight point shirts Ties were usually challis, repp stripes, foulards.
Fabrics tended to be low key worsteds, herring bone, subtle stripes This is not surprising
since advertising men were disproportionally recruited from the Ivy League and other elite
eastern colleges. The Mad Men look in fact coexisted with the Ivy and may have
been more common outside of New York, especially LA.

Originally Posted by comrade

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Maybe this has been covered already but the clothing depicted in Mad Men represents
one version of what was worn on Madison Ave in the early sixties. Frankly, to me it
is closer to the Show Biz "Oceans Eleven" style than my impression of Madison Ave
at the time, and I was a young adult and lived in New York then. The advertising trade
favored very Ivy League clothing from Brooks, Press, Chipp, Paul Stuart, Dunhill Tailors,
etc. Natural shoulder three piece suits with center vents were worn with button down,
tab collar and straight point shirts Ties were usually challis, repp stripes, foulards.
Fabrics tended to be low key worsteds, herring bone, subtle stripes This is not surprising
since advertising men were disproportionally recruited from the Ivy League and other elite
eastern colleges. The Mad Men look in fact coexisted with the Ivy and may have
been more common outside of New York, especially LA.

Do you think there's quite a lot of overlap between the two looks?

In the photo of Don above, we've got a centre vent sack in a muted worsted that could be Brooks (actually, given Don's wealth, I bet he would have them made). The collar looks like a straight cut; several other characters on the show sport tabs and button downs. The tie is repp, but in tones of grey (Don's character wears seems to primarily wear only grey at work). If the tie was a blue & gold repp I think he would have the Ivy look nailed.

Originally Posted by UserNameToronto

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Do you think there's quite a lot of overlap between the two looks?

In the photo of Don above, we've got a centre vent sack in a muted worsted that could be Brooks (actually, given Don's wealth, I bet he would have them made). The collar looks like a straight cut; several other characters on the show sport tabs and button downs. The tie is repp, but in tones of grey (Don's character wears seems to primarily wear only grey at work). If the tie was a blue & gold repp I think he would have the Ivy look nailed.

This is an interesting observation that I had not thought of. I won't give away too much for anyone still getting caught up on seasons one and two (and if you are not - shame on you), but Don is not an Ivy League guy. He comes from as modest a beginning as anyone, and as far as I know never even attended collage. His look is likely an attempt to blend in rather than stand out - as opposed to say Pete Campbell who is Ivy League through and through (and not necessarily in a good way).

Don hardly has the "Ivy " look nailed. His suit is definitely not
natural shoulder. It is also darted. His shirt collar points seem a bit
short. The tie also seems a bit narrow, although I am not too sure
on this point. His overall "gestalt" seems to slick for the true
"Ivy" look.

Originally Posted by comrade

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Don hardly has the "Ivy " look nailed. His suit is definitely not
natural shoulder. It is also darted. His shirt collar points seem a bit
short. The tie also seems a bit narrow, although I am not too sure
on this point. His overall "gestalt" seems to slick for the true
"Ivy" look.

I think it's pretty bloody close save for the color of the tie. Most of his jackets are not darted. I'm not going to fault slightly narrow ties/collars, the show takes place in the early 60s.

Shades of grey.

Other characters on the show (Ken notably) are 100% Ivy.

Originally Posted by porcelain monkey

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OK, so I am bumping this up. Season Three begins in August, Season Two now out on DVD, and I just finished re-watching Season One on demand. Any guesses out there for Season Three plots and the clothes to accompany them. My guess is that it kicks off at or just after the Kennedy assassination and the arrival in the US of the Beatles. The clothes will certainly change, but perhaps not the suits and office wear. Discuss.

They've decided they are not going to deal directly with the Kennedy assasination. My guess is it picks up after that event, on some holiday as usual. Has anyone noticed that Pete's ideas, which are dismissed out of hand, are actualy ones adopted in hip, new ad campaigns later in the 60s?

Originally Posted by UserNameToronto

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Regarding Don's shirts--

Some folks have mentioned that they are straight out of Brooks Brothers. If so, which model?

If I wanted to order some Draperesque shirts from Jantzen, what fabric should I be looking at? Are they straight up white cotton Oxford?

Here's what I ordered (arrived yesterday). My collar is a little bit larger than Don's, but my suit lapels are generally less narrow so I wanted some level of consistency. I got a blue oxford fabric instead of white (I already have enough white shirts). Otherwise it's a reasonable likeness.

Shirt Length:
Chest:
Waist/Belly:
Hip:
Shoulder: , Regular Shoulder
Sleeve Length:
Neck:
Height:
Weight:
Wrist Size:
Special for Thicker Watch : Please select one
Shade of Cut (Fitting): Form (4" - 6" allowence)
Body: Normal Shade
Collar Style: Collar Style # 16A, (Big Spread with Higher Under Band)
Collar Stay: Removable Collar Stay
Interlining: Soft
Tie Space: 1/4" (Standard)
Height on Collar back: 1 7/8" (High)
Stitching on collar and cuffs: 1/4" (Our Standard)
Collar point: 3 1/4" (Long)
Color of button hole and thread: Self Color
Cuff Style: French Cuff Style #3D (Square)
Contrast Collar and Cuff: Self Collar & Cuff
Cuff Height: 3" (Long)
Pocket Style: Please select one
Number of pocket: No Pocket
Front Placket: French Front with Stitching
Width of Placket: 1 1/2" (Standard)
Sleeve: Long Sleeve
Sleeves **** Extra Button: With Sleeves Extra Button
Shirt Tail: Regular Tail
Shoulder Pleat: No Pleat
Select one: With Split Yoke
Gusset Triangle Color: Jantzen *J* initial white triangular piece.
Button Seclections:: Thick Nature Mother of Pearl Button (3.00 mm) Thickness
Monogram Style: No Monogram
Monogram Placing: Please select one
Initial:
Monogram Color: Please select one
Submit: Submit


Mailing Address
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Billing Address

Fabric Choice
Looking for medium weight, very light solid blue color. #3756 - Light Blue Fine French Oxford is my first choice (kindly email with an alternative if not available)

Remarks

Remark of Shirts
Slightly changing style--regular 16A collar, quarter inch stitching. Please adjust sleeve cuff length to be proportionate with the 16A collar, without reducing overall sleeve+cuff length. The wrist circumfrence is OK.

Originally Posted by modern_leifeng

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I mean, its kind of entertaining, but the writing is not that good, everything is so obvious and hit you over the head with "this was how it was back then". I've yet to watch Season 2 (though bought it on iTunes), but it seems like it gets even worse and more off the wall.

That about sums it up. The first episode was so ridiculous that I never bothered to watch the rest.

Did you all see this?

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2008/...style.php#more

No discussion on Season 3's looks?

The year is now 1964...