Design Ideas | August 4, 2008
I was glued to my TV last week, watching the entire first season of Mad Men. It’s a great show, and of course part of the fun is the fashion and the set design. My mother tells me they got everything down to a T – from the Kent cigarettes to the giant petticoats. I love the waste paper basket in Draper’s office (below).
¬†If you haven’t heard of the show, it takes place in New York during the early 1960′s, when Madison Avenue advertising was emerging as a glamorous and powerful business. Everyone had a bar in their office and smoked copiously, which is kind of bad, because after a couple of episodes I find myself thinking that (even though it’s 10 in the morning) a creme de menthe frapp?© and a Kent would taste pretty good. Come to think of it, I don’t think a creme de menthe frapp?© would ever taste good, but you get my point.
 Misterarthur (who works in advertising) reports that his agency used to have a bar on the lower floor. Apparently, the executives would go down there for lunch and never return.
¬†What you might find interesting is that few of the show’s characters have embraced the mid-century modern look for their own homes. Just as today, some people liked a classic look, others liked contemporary. The production designer really got it right. By the way, Mad Men is on AMC, Sunday nights at 10:00.
 On a final note, this season opened with some of the characters watching Jackie Kennedy give a tour of the White House. Jackie fever was in full swing. The Mad Men site has a link to the full tour and you can reach it here.
I do find it fascinating how there are such differences in individual fashions … you’re right. Some of the characters are classic (looking almost like 50′s housewives) while others are becoming quite mod.
I never realized the two styles coexisted, though it makes sense that they did, of course.
P.S. Please ask Mister Arthur to bring back the bar.