Mad Men
full stop showMad Men’scostume design is illustrious for its exact portrayal of1960s and 1970sfashions . Thanks to the knifelike heart of its trail designer , Janie Bryant , the show was able to capture both the countercultural bm as see on Megan Draper , the more bourgeois trendsa laBetty Francis , and an agency - appropriate clothes code for Peggy and Joan .
While Peggy ’s plaid suit were all business , Joan ’s used her muliebrity to make a great splash in a staid spot environs while still looking professional . Her costumes were a bridge between the concern and domesticated macrocosm , showing us that you do n’t need to be one of the boys to be powerful . Below are ten hidden details about Joan ’s costume you probably did n’t comment .
Jewel tones showed her inner strength
Joan is one ofMad Men ’s strongest character . Between her scurrilous husband , raising a son as a single mother , and her road to partnership at Sterling Cooper , she has had experiencesfew other characterson the show can claim to get it on . Throughout it all , she sass and strategizes her means to the top in a male - overshadow industry during a decade when such success was rarefied for women . Joan ’s costumes channeled her internal strength through jewel tones , such as ruby , emerald , and sapphire , that represented her boldness in the facial expression of adversity .
Her trademark was the sheath dress
The tally sheath clothes was quite stylish in the 1950s , and it showed off every one of Joan ’s curves . Janie Bryant take great care to design costume for Joan with a twitch shank to emphasize Christina Hendricks ' feminine physique . Many spectator discover Joan to be inspirational , as she evidence that a adult female did n’t have to be rail - thin to slip a scene .
She was a fan of early 1960s accessories, like pins
… and scarves ! As Joan advised Peggy in their earliest days at Sterling Cooper , " human race honey scarves . "
From the very first episode ofMad Men , Joan was strutting along the corridor of Sterling Cooper wear her signature flair : a suit sheath dress in a gem smell with a gold pin or colorful scarf to append some flare . She also swept her ruby-red fuzz into her earmark beehive . This mode was in the main a hangover from the 1950s , but after several seasons of stasis in her costuming , Joan began to update her wardrobe with prints and patterns and more New silhouettes .
Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren were her inspirations
In the Season 2 episode " Maidenform , " Sterling Cooper executives compared the woman in the office to renown . In true manlike flag-waving fashion , they make a dichotomy : every woman was a Jackie Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe . It did n’t take too foresighted for one of them to comment that Marilyn is more of a Joan than the other way around .
Janie Bryant look to women who " exuded eroticism " likeMarilyn Monroe and Sophia Lorenfor Joan ’s costume . To her , Joan was a character who asserted herself in a very womanly path and interpret how to use her plus . Thus , her costumes were all about accentuating her hourglass figure , which Monroe and Loren shared .
She modernized her style with bold prints and patterns
In the second half of the sixties , Joan begin to update her wardrobe with bold print and patterns . Her costumes to begin with in the show ’s run were , for the most part , self-colored colors with only minor contingent to break up the color . As the serial approached the seventies , she began to add intricate details , like Peter Pan arrest and flowered prints , that drew attention to her success and her moves up the vocation ravel . Throughout this evolution , Joan still keep the cardinal elements of her stylemark flavour , such as a check bodice accessorized with a small-scale pin or printed scarf .
She eventually started wearing A-line and miniskirts
After maintaining the same dash for almost a decade , Joan blow up her wardrobe to admit A - line skirt with a higher hemline instead of her go pencil bird . The late sixties were an experimental time for Joan in full term of mode . With a run out marriage and several traumatic events behind her , she had nothing to mislay with a petty extravagance that her partnership allowed . She mixed matter up with ruffled blouses and vest and wench combinations that deviated from the silhouette that made her famed .
The Christmas dress inspired a line of dialogue
Matthew Weiner occasionally had a costume in thinker for a character when writing his scripts . Other time , it was the costume that inspired a job of negotiation . One example of the latter is Joan’sbright ruddy Christmas dress , which she wore to Sterling Cooper ’s holiday party in Season 4 , where she led a conga strain . Matthew Weiner loved the attire so much after seeing sketches that he added a air of dialogue where Roger Sterling asks Joan to bear " the ruby-red dress , the one with the bow on the back that makes you look like a present . "
Her clothes had layers of meaning
Joan ’s costumes speculate her mood and story arc . One example is the hot pink dress with jeweled cuffs that she wore when visiting Sterling Cooper ’s offices with her newborn son . Not only did it make Joan the focussing of the setting , but thebright , glad colorwas a cover for the turmoil in her home plate life . Only the fatal flowers printed on the dress hinted at how terrible she was feeling . On the surface , she was enjoying her maternity depart immensely , block by the government agency on the way to brunch or a shopping trip good manners of her married man .
Her pen necklace represented her ambition
Joan ’s preferent piece of jewelry is doubtlessly her penitentiary necklace , which viewers have interpret in different way . Some attest that the necklace represents her humble roots and her time in the secretarial consortium . Others consider that it represents her ambition , her desire to be financially independent and devoid to make conclusion about her aliveness . Janie Bryant believed that it typify herfending off all the human being in her officewith her womanly touch . Whatever the principle , the penitentiary necklace is doubtlessly another one of Joan ’s trademarks and an essential part of any Joan Holloway costume .
Her clothes showed off her wealth
As Joan moved up the ranks at Sterling Cooper , she bought new pieces of clothing that scaled with her income . Like Peggy , Joan was a working woman who would have realistically re - worn wardrobe staple and step by step added new pieces over time . As her stature of the advertizing way increased , so did the caliber of her clothes . We see her celebrating her success at the beginning of Season 7 in an gilded black-market frock with elaborated feathering detail and , later on , in a dress made from Chinese brocade with a plunging neckline . After everything she ’s been through , Joan deserves to enjoy the fruits of her labor .
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