Vintage JoAnn » TV

Mad Men’s Peggy Olson dresses for success

Rick — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:15:58 +0000

When we first meet Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) in Season 1 she’s just another “girl”** in the office secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper, a fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency set in the early 60′s. After Don Draper (Jon Hamm) fires yet another secretary, Office Manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) moves Peggy into the seat outside Don’s door. Don tells Peggy how he wants her to the job after Peggy’s rocky start.

By the end of season 1 Peggy has been promoted to copywriter. Instead of having an office like the other writers her desk is right beside the new fangled Xerox machine where she has to endure a parade of people all day long. Of course all of them feel like they need to talk to her.

Peggy is not part of the boy’s club the rest of the writers & account managers enjoy. After she repeatedly finds them having impromptu meetings about projects she’s supposed to be a part of, as well as after hours “meetings” with clients (most often at the local gentleman’s club) she gets a little, well, ballsy. She finds out about the evening’s plans for an out of town client & surprises everyone by showing up looking like none of the boys had seen her before and has a good time.

And here we are nearly at the end of season 2 and Peggy, with a more mature dress and a new hairstyle, talks to Senior Partner Roger Sterling (John Slattery) about the office vacated months ago by fired writer Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray). After commenting that none of the other writers had the guts to ask for the office after all this time he gives it to Peggy. It will be intersting to watch how this affects Peggy’s self esteem and confidence moving forward.

For those of you interested in more of the fashion aspect of the show, you can read the Mad Men’s fashion blog. Beware though. The comments here can be biting as a lot of the readers are convinced the writer, Faren Krentcil of fashionista.com fame, doesn’t even watch the show.

<<** Try calling your secretary a “girl” today. For that matter I wouldn’t even call her a secretary but would opt for “Admin” or “Admin Assistant”. Now think about doing it with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. JoAnn’s right – we were born in the wrong generation.>>

How to Look Good Naked – with scars

Rick — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:38:07 +0000

I’m supposed to be painting the front porch right now but it’s a bit nippy out and we just watched an episode of Carson Kressley’s “How to Look Good Naked” show that JoAnn had tivo’d and I feel inspired to write about it. You might remember Carson from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. He was the fashion guru.

The episode we just watched was about Heather who was born with congenital heart disease. She’s a gorgeous woman who has issues with the scars left from numerous operations and, up until Carson, had trouble feeling good about herself.

Carson helped her realize that while people may see her scars, they are really not focused on them as she is. I think it’s fairly common for people with scars to believe that other people must look at them and think how ugly while most people are really wondering what did this person survive or go through. And actually that’s after they finally see the scar. It is not the first thing they see as the person with the scar might imagine. (Another clip rom the show)

I know what you might be thinking. “Uh, so Rick, you actually watch this show? Why?” Hey I watch a lot of typical guy stuff too. Carson really seems to help these people understand that their biggest problem is really a perception issue.

This particular episode hit me because of two beautiful and wonderful people in my life; my wife, JoAnn, and my daughter-in-law, Aggie. They have both been through a lot more than their fair share of medical crap in their lives and they both have the battle scars to prove it. They also both love shoes & clothes and aren’t afraid to wear something other than jeans, sweatshirts and sneakers (which seems to be the standard uniform du jour for lots of ladies today). And yes, you can see scars on both of them and they don’t care.

At the end of the show Heather and other adult survivors of congenital heart disease do a benefit fashion show for the Adult Congenital Heart Association. All in all it was pretty touching.

Mad Men – What do you think?

Rick — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:26:41 +0000

JoAnn went upstairs with a headache so I get to play Vintage JoAnn for awhile.

Have you seen the AMC original show – MadMen? If not click here for the schedule.

According to the AMC MadMen website the premise of the show is “The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values.”

Why mention this show here? It tries to very accurately depict not only roles and values of the era but also the fashion. Having grown up in that era and being immersed in it here at the shop it seems very realistic to me. JoAnn has trouble watching it because of the way the women are treated.

What do you think of the show? Either the fashion specifically or any other aspect. Feel free to comment below.

Here are some pictures from the show.