what I'd buy at the Mad Men auction

Did you know that in about 5 more hours, an auction of thousands of Mad Men props begins?  I'm still not over the show being over, but I did spend a pleasant hour or so at Screen Bid looking at the items on offer.  I didn't see any women's clothing (just shoes and jewelry), but many of the men's suits are available.  I fantasized for a moment about bidding on a suit for Andy, but he's between Pete and Don in size.  He's closest in size to Roger, actually, but style-wise. . . he's a 1960s Pete or Don.  (They have Don's dirty white t-shirt and Levi's from the last episode's Bonneville Speedway scenes, too.  Rawr.)

I don't have the money to actually win a bid, but that didn't stop me from going through and picking out the items I would bid on if I did.  You can place bids on your own favorites (or just peruse the available items) over at the Screen Bid site.

clockwise, from upper left:

* This is an item I would actually use: Don's bar tools set.

* Don's journal from season 4.  I would love to see what was written in it!  I enjoyed seeing Don be so thoughtful and introspective at this point in the series; it was one of the rare times I felt real hope for him.

* This green thing is Don's pencil sharpener.  I never knew what it was until the auction enlightened me; it looks like a game show buzzer and I always thought of it as Don's panic button.

* SCDP mug.

* Who knew Meredith was a secret interior design superhero?  I loved Meredith, as annoying as she could be, and I loved the scene where she shows Don her ideas for his new apartment.

* Another item I'd get a lot of actual use from:  Don's record collection.  Some of the gems in here:  The Supremes at the Copa, Nat King Cole's "I Don't Want to Be Hurt Anymore," Elvis Sings How Great Thou Art, "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass,  "Some Blue-Eyed Soul" by The Righteous Bros., "Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis,  "Johnny Hodges, Billy Strayhorn and his Orchestra," "Ambassador at Jazz" by Max Kaminsky.

clockwise, from upper left:

* The note Don included with the flowers he sent Joan after their Jaguar test drive/cocktail date.  Another of my favorite series scenes, with Joan and Don musing about why they never hooked up.

* A typed set of directions to Pete's house for dinner and drinks, which he handed to Don.  This item is 100% pure Essence of Pete.

* Two cans of Old Style beer, which Don and Peggy shared while watching the moon landing in their hotel before the Burger Chef pitch.  A favorite scene between my two favorite characters.

* Sally's family tree, a prop in the scene in which Sally first learns about the existence of Anna, thanks to Betty (not one of Betty's finer parenting moments.  Not that there were many of those).

* The menu and bill from Quo Vadis restaurant, from the scene where Joan offers Peggy a partnership in her production company.  I admit, I had a real thrill of excitement thinking of these two powerhouses partnering up.

Bonus item:

* Pauline Francis' book and Seconal bottles!  That scene--where Pauline dopes up little Sally to calm her after Sally is terrified by the news coverage of the Richard Speck mass murder case--is both horrifying and hilarious.  Screen Bid takes pains to inform us that the Seconal bottles will arrive empty.

xo

K

Don Draper: "I keep going places and ending up somewhere I've already been."

Who is Don Draper?  "People tell you who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be."  What do we want Don to be?  Where do we want Don to end up?

In a cast of cynical characters set in cynical NYC in that most cynical of all businesses, advertising, Don is king: “I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent.”  "People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone."  “What you call love was invented by guys like me … to sell nylons.”  And yet, what are Don's biggest fears?  "That I never did anything, and that I don't have anyone."  

Don may not be a great believer in--or at all good at--romantic love.  But he is capable of love.  Some of his best moments are those with women with whom he is not having a romantic relationship.  Though his and Peggy's relationship has been tumultuous ("It's your job.  I give you money, you give me ideas"), it has also had moments of real friendship and support, admiration, and respect:  "Because there are people out there who buy things, people like you and me. And something happened. Something terrible. And the way that they saw themselves is gone. And nobody understands that. But you do. And that’s very valuable."  Don's relationship with Sally has been similarly stormy.  But he clearly loves her, and seems in the later episodes to be really trying to understand her and create a bond with her.  He gives her the best advice a father could give a daughter:  "You're a very beautiful girl.  It's up to you to be more than that." 

There has been so much speculation about where Don ends up as Mad Men comes to a close.  It's unlikely Matt Weiner will leave us with a definitive answer.  I don't expect or want Don to commit suicide, or to turn out to be some mysterious D.B. Cooper figure.  I like the idea of him driving off into the sunset, with the possibility of finding some actual, real, lasting happiness:   "We know where we’ve been, where we are, let’s assume that it’s good, but it’s going to get better, it’s supposed to get better."

 

* "I have to make sure I look like The Man." | 1960s fedora from CalloohCallay

* "I was an orphan.  I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a whorehouse." | vintage photograph collection from ThirdShift

* "Somebody very important to me died." | 1940s striped suitcase from 86home

* "This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards … it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels--around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.” | 1970s Kodak Carousel from msjeannieology

* "People were buying cigarettes before Freud was born." | Lucky Strike poster print from EntropyTradingCo

* "I've started over a lot, Lane.  This is the worst part." | Korean War era Army shirt from GoodWareCompany

* "I don’t know. It’s your life. You don’t know how long it’s gonna be but you know it’s got a bad ending. You have to move forward. As soon as you can figure out what that is." | 1960s black bakelite bar ashtray from OceansideCastle

* 1960s two piece suit | EndlessAlley

* "But what is happiness?  It's a moment before you need more happiness." | 1960s Hawaii travel ad from MinistryOfArtifacts

* "Why is this empty?" | set of 6 roly poly cocktail glasses from SkinnyandBernie

xo

K

Peggy Olson: "I look at you and I think, I want what he has."

Peggy is not the only one on Mad Men who wants what Don has.  However, creatively speaking, she is the only one to come close to getting it.  I think she's the only character to really understand Don.  And it's difficult to talk about Peggy without talking about Don.  She is, in many ways, a mirror image of him.

Peggy wants more than a husband and children.  Scenes with her mother and sister in Brooklyn are claustrophobic.  "Those people in Manhattan? They are better than us. Because they want things they haven’t seen."  Peggy wants something different, and she ends up able to have it because it turns out, she thinks just like a great ad man does.  Like Don, she is able to put into words and ideas what it is people desire.  "I don't think anyone wants to be one of a hundred colors in a box."  

And yet, despite her talent and hard work, Peggy must struggle against the entrenched sexism of the time.  Don may have been the one to promote her from secretary to copy writer, but he also is the brick wall she hits over and over again when she wants a raise or simple credit for her work.  "Well, aren't you lucky.  To have decisions," she tells Ted Chaough.  Peggy may have risen far in the industry, but she still doesn't have the same options and freedom as the men around her do.

Peggy's personal life is full of struggle, too.  "I don't know why I pick the wrong boys."  From drunken mess Duck to irritating Abe to married Ted Chaough, Peggy's love life is as disastrous as Don's.  You'd think things could only improve after getting knocked up by Pete.  After that happened, Don gave Peggy some advice clearly based on his own experiences.  He tells her to "get out of here and move forward.  This never happened.  It will shock you how much this never happened."  Well, we know how well that worked for Don.  As Peggy later says, "Well, one day you’re there and then all of a sudden there’s less of you. And you wonder where that part went, if it’s living somewhere outside of you, and you keep thinking maybe you’ll get it back. And then you realize, it’s just gone."  This sounds like it could be the lament of every woman, doesn't it?

I'm not sure how Peggy will end up.  But I tend to fell the same way Don does.  I don't worry about her.  

  

* 1961 Royal typewriter | CalloohCallay

* Peggy doesn't always behave well, and I like that about her character.  One of her most cringe-worthy moments: when she assumed that Shirley's Valentine's day roses were actually for her, from Ted. | fine art rose print from BJSGPhoto

* 1970s dot print dress | SmallEarthVintage

* That time Peggy stabbed Abe with a homemade spear because she thought he was an intruder. | antique eel spear from gazaboo

* "Here's your basket of kisses." | 1940s-1950s lipsticks from labelleboudoir

* I love Peggy and Stan, and I love how even when they were working at different agencies, they stayed connected via the phone . . . sometimes not even talking.  In the latest episode, after confessing to Stan about how she has a child out there somewhere, she asks Stan to stay on the phone with her while each are in their respective offices.  I don't care if they end up together romantically, or just as great friends:  these two will always be one of my favorite Mad Men pairings. | red push button phone from reconstitutions

* I loved the moment in season 6 when they're brainstorming the properties of margarine, and Peggy contributes the fact that margarine was invented for Napoleon's campaigns, since it never spoiled.  Peggy may not have gone to college--as the headhunter in last week's episode reminds her when speaking of her prospects--but she knows stuff.  The margarine comes back in the final season when Peggy dismisses Paris as "the place where margarine was invented." | 1961 Blue Bonnet Margarine ad from SnowFireCandleCo

* Speaking of Paris . . . gosh, I hope Peggy gets there one day!  Peggy saves an account by setting an ad in Paris, and when she complains about the account being given back to Ginsberg, Don's mean and dismissive response helps seal the deal on her leaving the agency.  And we see Paris come up again this last season, when Peggy laments that's she's never taken an actual vacation, and she and her date decide to take off for Paris.  But Peggy can't find her passport, because, of course, it's at the office. | 1950s An American in Paris album from 4EnvisioningVintage

* "I'm Peggy Olson and I want to smoke some marijuana." | Beatnik girls in NYC, 1959 print by Vivienne Strauss from vivstrauss

* 1960s plaid wool dress | BigCitySmallTownVTG

xo
K

Sally Draper: "I'm so many people."

I just love Sally.  Not only can she mix a mean cocktail, she simply does not have time for your adult bs.  "You say things and you don't mean them.  And you can't just do that," she says early on in the show.  Truth is pretty much what Mad Men is all about, and Sally acts frequently as the show's moral compass.  "Just tell the truth," she tells Don.  But adults don't value truth the way Sally does. About Betty's domineering parenting, Sally says, "She doesn't care what the truth is, as long as I do what she says."  An older Sally, with a more nuanced understanding of truth and adult relationships, tells her father, "It's more embarrassing for me to catch you in a lie than it is for you to be lying," 

Teenage Sally gives me heart, and shows signs of growing up into a person with a pretty good head on her shoulders.  Yes, she is suspended from school when she gets caught buying beer.  But she also kisses the geeky young astronomer, and not his douchey jock brother.  She sounds like she could be a budding feminist:  "Yeah, I know, because where would Mom be without her perfect nose?  She wouldn't find a man like you.  She'd be nothing."  (She is still very sassy.)  She is tired of being asked what she wants to do in the future, but she does know that she wants to be different from her parents.  We know from watching the show that Sally is not entirely different from either Don or Betty.  But maybe, probably, hopefully, she can be something better than they are.  And in a line of dialogue uncharacteristic of both Sally and the show, she tells her father, "Happy Valentine's Day.  I love you."  Sally is possibly the only character on the show to unironically and honestly tell someone she loves them.

* That time when Sally got her period at the Museum of Natural History, and she went home to Betty and they actually shared a tender moment! | 1950s B.F. Goodrich hot water bottle from WhimzyTime

* 1960s blue plaid girl's dress | BabyTweeds

* "I wanna get on a bus, get away from you and Mom, and hopefully be a different person than either of you." | 1960s mod floral suitcase from TheNewtonLabel

* One of my favorite moments in the series is when Don takes Sally and Bobby to see the house he (as Dick Whitman) lived in as a child. | 1970s Norman Rockwell "A Family Tree" collector's plate from agardenofdreams

* Sally has a close relationship with her grandfather, who gives her driving lessons. | 1963 Matchbox Ford Zephyr from RedRavenCollectibles

*  1960s plaid poncho | TimandKimShow

* That time when Sally makes Don French toast and mistakes the bottle of rum for Mrs. Butterworth's.  And he likes it. | 1960s Old Oak Rum bottle from NWAttic

* From "Are you and Daddy doing it?" to "This conversation is a little late.  And so am I." | 1920s birth control book from HappyFortuneVintage

* Sally cutting her own hair is just one of the many ways in which she rebels. | 1950s school scissors from HilltopTimes

* large 1970s mod daisy stickers | QueeniesCollectibles

* Some of my favorite Mad Men dialogue is the banter between Sally and Roger in the "At the Codfish Ball" episode.  Of course, that ended on a rather icky note.  But Sally wore her first grown-up dress and go-go boots! | 1960s white go-go boots from SplendoreBoutique

xo

K

Betty Francis, formerly Draper: "I am thankful that I have everything that I want and that no one else has anything better."

You'd think Mad Men is all about men.  It's the title of the show.  Don's the central character, and the ad business circa 1960s is most definitely a man's world.  But it doesn't take long to realize that what this show is really all about is the women, and it's the women who are most intriguing and well-drawn characters.

Betty is a prime example.  She's been raised and trained to be a perfect wife and mother ("As far as I'm concerned, as long as men look at me that way, I'm earning my keep.")  But "perfect" for Betty is always going to be unattainable.  Sally gets hit in the face?  "It was a perfect nose.  And I gave it to you!"  Bobby gives away Betty's sandwich?  "It was a perfect day and he ruined it."  Forget being a perfect mother.  Once her babies are out of infancy, she is over it.  ("I'm here alone with them all day.  Out-numbered!")

Is Betty sad?  "No.  It's just my people are Nordic."  Okay, Betty.  Betty is sad, clearly sad, and it's this that gives the viewer some compassion for her.  But that compassion can only go so far.  As though she's learned nothing at all, Betty is determined to raise Sally with the same backwards, repressive rules that she had to grow up under:  "You don't kiss boys.  Boys kiss you."  But Sally has clearly shown that she's not going to be a mere reproduction of her mother.  

Is there hope for Betty?   In this last season, it does seem as though she may at last be breaking out of the mold set for her.  "You're sorry you forgot to inform me what I'm supposed to think!  Guess what, I think all by myself."  Yes, the woman who formerly scorned therapy, is going back to school to get a masters in psychology.  Yay!  And also--yikes!  Frankly, I'd love to watch a Dr. Betty Francis spinoff.

* "I know it's beyond your experience, but people love to talk to me.  They seek me out to share their confidences." | Gossip, an original collage, by Catwalk

* 1950s turquoise heels | pastoria

* That time when Betty was eating her emotions. | 1950s ice cream soda fountain glasses from ThirdShift

* 1970s yellow chiffon formal dress | AnatomyVintage

* Birdy poster | FishermansPorch

* "It's an antique." | Victorian chaise lounge from MaisonDogLondon

* "I'm not stupid.  I speak Italian." | vintage Italian language guide from ShopHereVintage

* 1960s floral dress | dethrosevintage

* vintage riding boots | SaffronColoredPony

* "I hate this place.  I hate our friends.  I hate this town." | 1960s 9 karat gold charm bracelet | TreasureIncUK

xo

K

Roger Sterling: "It's a mistake to be conspicuously happy. Some people don't like it."

Roger Sterling.  So suave, so naughty, so old school, and yet . . . kind of modern.  Roger is a contradiction.  He can be stuck in the past (ask him about his Navy days), but he embraces the future, at least in the form of very modern office decor and acid tripping (both thanks to his second wife, Jane).  He's a hard drinker who seems to hate to work ("Well, I gotta go learn a bunch of people's names before I fire them") . . . but he's usually the force behind all the major deal-making that occurs in the office.  He is a serious womanizer ("When God closes a door, he opens a dress"), but seems to have real and deep love (respect, even) for all the important women in his life, including his daughter.  I imagine there are people who would likely disagree with me on this point, but I always think of an early scene he has with Peggy, where she asks him for her own office.  He is simultaneously patronizing and admiring of her, telling her both that she's "cute" and "has balls."  I feel like that's Roger in a nutshell.  (She gets the office.)

  Roger not only has the best office decor, he also gets all the best lines on the show ("Why don't you take a nap?  Your face looks like a bag of walnuts").  It makes sense: this is, after all, the author of Sterling's Gold.

* "And you always said I never take you anywhere!" | The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe from BEATBOOKBONANZA

* 1960s mod Viking Glass ashtray | retrosymphony

* When I see a jacket like this with an ascot in the pocket or at the neck, my brain automatically sticks Roger's head on it. | double breasted men's jacket from CompanyMan

* 1968 Madison Avenue Datebook | CollectionSelection

* op art print | DELTANOVA

* "I can't say I know my furs that well.  I know my mother had a chinchilla; I was always on the verge of a romantic relationship with it." | 1960s Barbie fur stole from CalloohCallay

* "Have a drink.  It'll make me look younger." | Guzzini acrylic ice bucket from PopBam

* "Have another.  It's 9:30 for God's sake!" | mid century cocktail glasses from AlegriaCollection

* "It's incredible what passes for heroism these days.  I'd like ticker tape for pulling out of my driveway and going around the block three times." | 1944 U.S. Naval Training Center graduation photo from ElsieSaysSo

* Roger doesn't cry when he finds out his mother has died, or at her funeral.  But he does break down when he finds out that the building's shoeshine guy, Giorgio, has died, and that Giorgio's family had asked that Roger have his shoeshine kit. | 1960s shoeshine kit from WhimzyTime

 * 1960s Galaxy lounge chair attributed to Alf Svensson and Yngvar Sandström | 20cModern

xo

K

 Updated to include photos of Roger!  I can't believe I forgot them.

xo

k

Joan Holloway: "You were crying in the break room, which I have specifically forbidden."

Ah, Joanie!  She's a sexy bombshell with a core of steel.  She's tough and no-nonsense, sometimes even to the point of being a bit frightening, but her advice is always correct ("You want to be taken seriously, stop dressing like a little girl.").  Joan can also be tender, though, and her talents aren't relegated to running the office: she plays the accordion!  

And though Joan generally seems to not take the casual misogyny of the men at Sterling Cooper too seriously, she still suffers from it--and gets angry about it ("You want to be a big shot.  Well, no matter how powerful we get around here, they can still just draw a cartoon.")  When her dream of becoming a wife and mother blows up, she does not just give up.  She focuses her attention on work, and gets herself a partnership in the business.  And in the end we learn that this tough dame is a true romantic at heart.  She won't marry Bob Benson ("Bob, put that away.").  She will only marry again--if she does--for love.

* 1950s silk floral print dress from Bonwit Tiller | missfarfalla

* accordion linocut print poster | thebigharumph

* Avon starburst brooch | Fabvintage1

* vintage ledger book | 86home

* Avon compact with mirror | CrissieGirl

* 1960s Sears manual typewriter | StoryTellersVintage

* 1930s San Francisco Examiner newsroom file cabinet | Nachokitty

* 1950s Naturalizer purse | reconstitutions

* 1950s wooden desk organizer | WhimzyTime

* 1950s high heel pumps | pastoria

xo

K

Pete Campbell: "why can't i get anything good all at once?"

So I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that Mad Men is ending, a fact which has become extra hard to accept after I spent the last several months re-watching the series from the beginning, and falling even deeper in love with these wonderfully written and beautifully portrayed characters.  

Perhaps making small tributes to my favorites on the show will help me through the grieving process.

Let's start with Pete--Peter Dyckman Campbell, that is.  This smarmy fellow has somehow found a place in my heart, and that's a real testament to Matthew Weiner's writing and Vincent Kartheiser's excellent acting.  Pete can be condescending and irritating; he lacks charm.  He can also be hilarous, even though we laugh at him more than with him.  And despite all that, you kind of have to feel for him.  He's insecure and doesn't really hide it.  He wants to be Don, but he just can't.  Ah, Pete, I like you despite myself.

* "Not great, Bob!" This along with "The clients want to live, too, Ted!" is probably my favorite Pete catchphrase. | letterpress card from ModelCitizenPress

* Remember when Pete and Trudy did the Charleston at Roger and Jane's wedding? | print of an Erte illustration from printsandpastimes

* Pete seems to be a magnet for travel-related tragedy.  His father dies in a plane crash and his mother disappears while on an ocean cruise with man servant Manolo. | 1960s airplane photo from SnapshotVintage

* 1960s Brooks Brothers sports coat from StyleStash

* Dartmouth is Pete's alma mater. | 1950s Dartmouth pennant from MoonstruckVintageAZ

* 1960s Hartmann Belting leather briefcase from HilltopTimes

* Pete once said, "If I'm going to die, I want to die in Manhattan."  However, California Pete seems pretty damn happy. | mid century orange juice pitcher from TheRustyScarecrow

* Preppy Pete has been seen in some excellent casual wear, from polo shirts with artfully draped sweaters, to plaid sportcoats and pants. | 1960s madras plaid pants from heartoftexasvintage

* "It's a chip 'n' dip!" | 1950s chip and dip bowl set from BeeJayKay

xo
K

sally draper

Sally Draper has been my favorite thing about Mad Men for the past couple seasons.  (Remember last season, how hilarious she is as Roger's "date" at that banquet?  If you've seen this season, that was some serious foreshadowing.)  Anyway, this post is about Sally's clothes this season, which I have been loving.  I must be having a 1960s Girl moment here, because she reminds me an awful lot of Suzy in Moonrise Kingdom in these screencaps.

xo

K

1964 in ads

Ads are so annoying, aren't they?  Yet, when done well, they can be works of art in their own right--entertaining, even!  And when I page through a vintage women's magazine, I actually usually find the ads more intriguing than the non-ad content.  Maybe it's the influence of Mad Men, but when I was looking through this May 1964 issue of McCall's (the "First Magazine for Women"), it was the ads that caught my eye.  There's a lot of color, a love of all things French (and Hawaiian!), and a focus on convenience--particularly when it comes to food and cooking.  (Click here for my previous post featuring fabric ads from this same issue)

I love everything about this, from her headpiece/hat to the shades of pink (I'd love that lipstick she's wearing) to the awesomely groovy typeface they used!

I'll try the Rose Geranium splash.

"Just wear a smile and a Jantzen" gals, and "you'll never ride alone"--!!!  The ad copy calls the blouse on the lefthand woman a "prissy print."

Tampax makes your ladytime so Untroubled that you can rock your all-white outfits, even in the great outdoors.

Hunt's uses not just any tomatoes for its catsup--it uses the big ones.

So this is insane.  Nothing showcases canned fruit better than a gelatinous shroud of lime Jell-O--even better when you can whip it up right in the can!  I'm really disturbed by the lettuce and what appears to be a dollop of Miracle Whip on the plate.

The National Steel Corporation wants you to believe that canned meat is the best thing ever.  I just want to know wtf that ham-like thing encased in pastry is, and how any part of it came out of a can.

Capture the romantic feeling of the French Riviera with a table full of elegant Lenox china, displayed on a table under a lovely damask tent.  Inside your house.

European women stay younger looking by using Palmolive soap.  But do the women of Vienna really dress like sheepherders for nights on the town?

I'm loving all the colors and color combining ideas in this Cannon ad.  My mom used to keep lidded apothecary jars of sea shells in our bathrooms, too (like the one on top of that stack of towels).

This Aileen ad looks so modern to me.  Maybe it's all the white space, or the strips of photos on the left side.  I love the blouse the model is wearing.  I'm slightly confused by the "smog" aspect of this ad, but I do like how it sort of accepts the smog and talks about it, rather than trying to present some smog-free paradise (in which we romp in all-white outfits during our ladytime.  Yes, I'm talking to you, Tampax.)

More Francophilia.  This Drexel bedroom set is inspired by Louis XIV and "the age of courtly elegance and romance."  It "whispers of court intrigue."  Or perhaps key parties and divorce.

"Shocking" looks just a little bit drunk.

Has Stouffer's changed its packaging at all?  I think it still looks pretty much just like this, which I kind of love.  (I do enjoy the very occasional Stouffer's French Bread pizza.  It's a nostalgia thing.)  I think I'm a little bit in love with the cheese award-toting Viking potato guy.

Love the artwork on this ad!  Apollo 11 won't happen for five more years, but the Soviet Union and the US had unmanned moon landings in 1959 and 1962.  Though this ad has more of an astrology/tarot card feeling than a space age NASA one.

Ladies use pink toilet paper.  Tell your friends.

No, don't thank me.  I do believe that's a vinyl floor.  Because I crawled around on one through my toddlerhood.

Back to the Hawaiian food in cans.  Canned ham, "magnificently" decorated with pineapples and cherries.

How flipping cute are these Ship 'n Shore girls' blouses--especially that whale print!

xo

K

dapper don

Just in time for Fathers Day gift shopping, I'm adding some men's stuff to the shop.  It's mostly 1960s stuff, and since we're in the midst of the new season of Mad Men, I naturally can't help myself thinking of Don.  (Though I want to think about Roger.  I really do.  I love him.  But--other than the great acid trip scene with him in the towel turban and bathrobe--we never see him in anything other than a suit.)  Speaking of which...

Here's a sharp dark brown sharkskin suit.  However the label...

Huh.  Truth in advertising?  No!  It really isn't shit...it's lovely sharkskin, in excellent condition.  I'd sure love to know the story behind this.

Remember that loud plaid suit jacket Don wore to Pete's dinner party?  This pewter gray plaid sharkskin number from Hart Schaffner & Marx is a bit more subdued.

1960s green and orange plaid shirt by Westbrook.

1950s McGregor plaid cotton pullover.

1960s Kamehameha Hawaiian shirt.

1950s paisley print shirt by Swim Mates.

xo

K