Karen’s Quirky Style Is Mad for Mad Men

The award-winning popular drama Mad Men depicts the lives of advertising folk on Madison Avenue in New York in the swinging sixties. The show, which aired from 2007 to 2015, begins at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue. When a merger results in the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (later named Sterling Cooper & Partners), the partners moved their offices to the Time-Life Building at 1271 Sixth Avenue, the one-time home of storied magazines Time, Life, Sports Illustrated and In Style.

Note that Draper was now in the firm’s name. Sterling Cooper’s charismatic creative director Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) is widely regarded throughout the advertising world as a genius, and the show depicts that some of the most famous ad campaigns in history are shown to be his creations. (Think “I’d like to teach the world to sing... in perfect harmony.” What soda does it make you want to drink?)

According to author Hal Rubenstein in his latest book, Dressing the Part: Television’s Most Stylish Shows, our most popular and lasting fashion trends haven’t come from runways or magazines, but from what’s on TV. For decades, television has served as our personal stylist, showing us how others dress and defining what we should be wearing. Hal told us at a recent “FashionSpeak Fridays” talk at the National Arts Club that Don Draper’s gray sharkskin suits are a case in point! Today they are considered de rigueur formal business wear—the classiest and most flattering suit style that will completely elevate your office attire. Rubinstein attributes their popularity to the Dan Draper character.

But there are other fascinating characters on the show, including the pioneering Peggy Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss (she went on to star in The Handmaid’s Tale), who becomes one of the first female copywriters on Madison Avenue.

My personal favorite is Joan Holloway, the firm’s office manager, played by Christina Hendricks. I admire her personal power. She stands in herself, as solid as a pylon in the Hudson River (but measurably more attractive). She navigates her course through a shocking amount of sexist treatment, but rises above it to the position of partner, with many other twists and turns along the way that I won’t spoil for you.

I dressed the part of Joan to attend the Dressing the Part book talk, and I so enjoyed embodying her curvaceous confidence that I reprised the outfit for this month’s column.

Accordingly, I went with my crew to the Sixth Avenue location of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office location, the Time-Life Building across from Radio City Music Hall. It’s a stunning building, completed in 1959 as part of Rockefeller Center. It originally housed both the venerable magazines of the long gone Time Inc. empire as well as the advertising firm McCann-Erickson—a competitor of the fictional Sterling Cooper! The serpentine zig-zag pavement pattern of the exterior plaza is mirrored in the lobby’s distinctive floor tile design.

The lobby also features a striking Mondrian-esque mural in red, yellow, blue, and white by Swiss artist Fritz Glarner (Relational Painting #88), and another enormous geometric mural called “Two Portals” by Josef Albers. The City of New York designated the lobby a city landmark in 2002, but it is staffed by diligent security guards who will shoo you out if you linger too long!

Back outside on the plaza, there’s reputed to be a bench with a black statue of Don Draper. Let me know if you see it. And if you want to see the location of Sterling Cooper’s first fictional office, at 405 Madison Avenue, check out this video I made there eight years ago!

In case you missed the phenomenon the first time around, Mad Men is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time for its writing, acting, directing, visual style, and historical authenticity. It won 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes for its portrayal of the societal change that happened during the sixties. Ah, let’s bring back the three-martini lunch!

Style Notes

I was delighted to discover this gorgeous form-fitting skirt by Debra Moorefield on a sidewalk rack outside of a vintage clothing store in Hudson, New York. And then, even more delighted to discover it exactly matched this off-the-shoulder tee. I hope Joan Holloway won’t mind this homage!

Karen Rempel is a New York-based writer, model, and artist. Her Karen’s Quirky Style column illuminates quirky clothes and places in Manhattan. For past stories, see https://karenqs.nyc.