Betty and Joan - two t.v. characters who have become fashion icons faster than most.
Joan's necklace pen? Functional, fashionable, brilliant!
For reasons unclear, I have begun, in earnest, watching AMC's much lauded "Mad Men". In the beginning the showings up here in "Canuk-istan" - to employ a Jian Ghomeshi-ism - were a touch sporadic and so, even though I really enjoyed the show, I gave up on trying to watch it regularly. So, in these lazy, hazy, dog days of summer, I have started from the beginning. Yes, Don is handsome, Peggy intriguing and Joan beguiling, but my addiction to the show (and I know I am not alone here) is anchored in the costumes, the style and the fashion. I sit mesmerized, pausing and rewinding to get a better look at an accessory (Brooches- I am newly obsessed by these jewelry pieces of which I own a cool zero!) or a hairdo (Betty Draper's slightly rumpled, voluminous blond bob just after waking).
Watching Mad Men makes me feel nostalgic for a time in fashion which I will never be a part of... When the 40's had a brief resurgence in fashion in the mid-90's (anyone remember?), I felt strongly that I had been born in the wrong time, fashionably speaking. The 40's and 50's (less the Mad Men's early 60's) specifically speak to me and have had many influences over my personal style over the years and is one of the reasons I am OBSESSED with the new Fall offerings from Dries Van Noten and Louis Vuitton (see below). Their collections are filled with gorgeously tailored dresses, luminous accessories and handbags (in the truest sense of the word). But most of all, the collections just scream "lady". Though in this case, it's actually probably less of a scream and more of a murmur.
Louis Vuitton Fall 2010
Dries Van Noten Fall 2010
photo credit: My Pretty Mommy
As silly as this may sound, I am known amongst my friends for being a lady; I believe in equality and the women's movement too, but I am enchanted by the idea of a time when men didn't leave the house without a hat and ladies never went anywhere without a pair of gloves. So, if you had to choose an era that you'd like to live in, fashion-wise, when would it be? The headbands and sequins of the 20's? Mod minis and bright colors of the 60's? Or crimson lips and silk stockings of the 40's, like me?
Love, P
4 comments:
hmmmn I'd go for the twenties or forties. Having lived through the sixties it has no appeal for me.
It was a time when women ( unless you lived in CA) were really repressed. And yes Ms. P I do agree--you are a lovely lady!!
How is it that I have still never seen a single episode of this show? I feel like I have failed as a human being. Seriously. :P
Oh, P, you say it so well! I have always (my whole life, really) felt I was born in the wrong time period. I have, since I was a very little girl, been all about the late 40s, 50s and the early 60s. Last year, I actually wept at a Richard Avedon photography retrospective focussed on his years in Paris in the late 40s and early 50s; the clothes were so beautiful and so beautifully crafted that I just burst into tears at the thought of how all that art and pride in workmanship, all the skill of the craftspeople who made the clothes is just lost and gone forever. Never mind the glamourous, ladylike styles of a time when clothes were cut to be flattering on every woman, not only those whose body-type conforms to the current fad.
I would love a time machine, as I often say, so that I could dress like a lady and feel as good all the time in my clothes as I do when I wear my treasured 1950s pieces...
Counting down to the next episode of Mad Men,
YYZ
I always like to say the 70s are my spirit decade. I love the prints and voluminous silhouettes from that time (and the music).
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