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

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

mid century detroit glam

My heart did a little flippity-flop when I saw this amazing 1956 fashion spread in Women's Home Companion, where the setting was the newly-opened General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.  The center was designed by Eero Saarinen, and is the perfect place to photograph gorgeous dresses, from designers like Claire McCardell, Elizabeth Arden, Christian Dior, and Oleg Cassini.

On the left is a dotted swiss gown from Claire McCardell; model was photographed near the lobby staircase of the Styling section.  On the right, model wears a pink organza dress by Elizabeth Arden, and is photographed on top of the experimental Firebird I.

Left, a print taffeta dress and matching organza coat by Elizabeth Arden, and a pink chiffon dress by Christian Dior, photographed against the Harry Bertoia-designed steel divider screen in the Center's main restaurant.  On the right, a white, green, and blue gown by Elizabeth Arden, photographed in the pipe room of the power plant.

A black silk dress by Hannah Troy on the floating staircase of the Research building.  And a Cluny lace dress by Larry Aldrich, photographed in the Styling section--against a fabulous array of Herman Miller bucket chairs in primary colors!

A stunning Pauline Trigère silk coat trimmed with chiffon, photographed by the turquoise glazed brick wall of the Process Development building.  Oleg Cassini dresses photogaphed on the Captain's Walk of the Research building.

The article also showcased "filmy" dresses you could make at home from patterns.

I particularly love this striped blue sundress photographed against the bright yellow glazed brick wall.

Coral cotton voile separates, photographed against the giant steel dome that is used as an auditorium or as a showroom for new car models.

Click here or here to see more information about and photos of the Tech Center.  I especially love the "teacup" desk for the receptionist in the Design building!

xo

K