Sep 022009
Both Janie Bryant and Jane Sterling; take a bow ladies, that is absolutely the best outfit in three years of Mad Men.
No, it’s fine. We totally don’t see any resemblance to a woman who went from a working class type to high society, throwing elegant parties. Totally not.
The hat is really better from the side:
43 Responses to “My Fair Janie”
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I LOVED the hat!! It gave me early Barbra Streisand vibes…and Trudy's hat last week was SOO Audrey Hepburn!
Pretty sure the hat is Dior or at least inspired by.
http://www.condenast.co.uk/imagelib/320×421/s_v/V…
#2 brenda
Wow, the model on that cover is Jeanne Shrimpton.
I was a teenager in 1963, and I studied photos of Jeanne Shrimpton for hour upon hour, trying to get that look. I even ironed my hair on the ironing board.
What a nice memory.
Looks like a beehive, for reals.
#3 Patti, that's so funny — I have curly hair and always wanted straight hair!
Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, Charlotte Rampling, they all had that mod look. We're just on the cusp of it in 1963….
You know, DB, it does.
But it don't make her queen bee in that hive.
Love the hat. Hated the dress (it didn't fit her somehow). Best accessory to the outfit was Joan's death stare.
The fashion statement that stood out for me (and I'm pretty clueless) was Betty's party look. Someone else pointed out elsewhere that she had departed from the red lips and ditched the hat. Here's where I saw her look heading. I thought she was striking.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5niJrpQGi8w/SovW_BSmV9I…
Have to give it up to Jane Sterling's office-visit look. That was a killer … and thematically correct.
The early-season look that really stood out for me is Mona's ex-wife look from "Love Among the Ruins". She looked chic, cool and supremely composed, with nary a hint of seethe.
Perfect!
#7 Bestbets,
That dress was too big for her still–I don't doubt that she's on some uppers from the stress of her sudden shift in station. She's a catty thing, but I won't call her a liar.
Also, if we are attributing the black and white colour scheme to Audrey Hepburn-tributism, it's fitting that at the Ascot party where Eliza's depicted outfit is worn she humiliates herself in two ways: by displaying that while she's changed her tone, she's not saying anything new, ("Them has pinched it, and them has pinched it done her in" versus "I knew the two of you would get back together") and her inability to control herself in excited states (horses versus liqour).
Mari,
My gay cousin would kiss your hand for presenting us with that reference.
i couldn't stop laughing when i saw the hat. lampshade anyone? i know it fit the time and all, but the entire outfit just seemed ridiculous on jane. i think the dress seemed to be ill-fitted on purpose. she's not as comfortable in "rich skin" as she would have liked/expected to be. she looked like a little girl dressing up in mom's clothes, trying to pass off as sophisticated but failing.
Anne B,
I came to terms with the fact that I was a gay man in a woman's body a LOOOONG time ago. And there's maybe only two movies in the world I love more than My Fair Lady–even then, it's neck and neck. (The Adventures of Robin Hood and Breakfast at Tiffany's are usually the front runners).
I would really like it if Eliza Doolittle served Jane as her muse; while I will always take Joan's side in an argument, I like Jane. She's a youngster like me. Except with better hats.
I like the outfit, but Jane does look a bit too thin.
I have to assume they made the dress too big on Jane for a reason. It's not like Janie Bryant doesn't know how to make a tight-fitting one! (cf Joan)
I was more of a Patty Boyd fan myself (George Harrison's girlfriend and future wife). My entire goal in life was to have her hairstyle that I was always trying to imitate.
#15 baroquediva, did you read Pattie Boyd's autobiography, "Wonderful Today"? It's very well written and the photos are to die for.
#12 Marl, well, Cecil Beaton was the art director for My Fair Lady and he was definitely a gay man in a gay man's body
I don't know how much attention was paid to eating disorders in the early 60's, but the initially patronizing, "I keep losing weight," took on a markedly different tone for me when paired with "I should have eaten something," at the party.
And I actually thought Jane's, "Don't you just love looking at her?" was a really endearing moment in her outburst. It was so sincere — and, unfortunate state notwithstanding, a refreshing moment of pure female admiration in an environment where the women are ruthlessly competitive with one another.
Pattie Boyd: http://www.retrosellers.com/features153.htm
Did anyone else find it odd that apparently it wasn't until the end of the evening that Jane realized Betty was pregnant? Simple self-absorption? Something else?
Gypsy, I think Jane probably was too busy playing hostess to take much note of anything around her (like her husband making a fool of himself in blackface). Once the evening was winding down and she was blotto, she could blurt out whatever as on her mind.
christina, I was thinking more Japanese lantern than lampshade.
Yes, there's a lot about Jane that's the dark side of Eliza Dolittle.
I'm probably about to upend an open can of worms on myself, but I've never, ever been able to see what anybody found remotely appealing about Audrey Hepburn.
brenda, I guess ol' Roger doesn't bring his work home with him! (not that he seems to give a whit about anything that has to do with SC except the money rolling in) So I guess he never mentioned to Jane at home anytime in the last 6 months "Hey honey, didja hear the Drapers are having another baby?"
I just thought it was kind of funny. Uhhh… yeah Jane, perceptive of you to NOTICE the beachball under my dress.
That hat was killer, and could still be rocked today at the right event.
the most significant part of her dress to me was its Harlequin pattern, my thinking goes: Harlequin –> jester –> Shakespeare —> MND
I think the writers are foreshadowing something darker with Jane's weight loss. The rings not fitting, dress too large, feeling faint at the buffet suggest that she is not acclimating to her change in status. Roger could become a widower this season. This would tie in with ep.2 dark theme, where cracks start to appear in the world of Don and S-C: the repercussions around Roger's marriage, Betty's dad's senility, losing the MSG account.
The lights are dimming in the Mad Men world this season, the mood will incorporate The Hollow Men world ending sensation, with a little of The Second Coming thrown in: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; "
tht's my guess.
But Eliza Doolittle was a genuine, sweet natured lady under all of that grime who only wanted to run her own flower shop.
Jane would have taken the rented jewels and had them appraised. Then she would have slept with Henry Higgins.
Actually, I *did* think of Audrey Hepburn when I saw Jane in this dress and hat. But my first thought was to Charade, not My Fair Lady. I don't think Hepburn wore a combo like Jane's in the movie but that was my first impression anyway. The style must be close enough.
riverdaughter, Charade is one of the finest movies of 1963, and Audrey Hepburn wore very au courant styles, just as Jane does.
"Pretty sure the hat is Dior or at least inspired by."
Roger did drop Dior when talking about Jane taking his daughter there, I was thinking he was talking about Dior in Paris. I'm not sure if Christian was still alive in 63' but he used to design couture wedding dresses for NY society women in the 50's.
Dior died in 1957.
Trudy's definitely losing weight, which the loose dress emphasizes, but not all fashions of this period were fitted:
http://low.highindustrial.com/post/171998709/unit…
(Check out the hairdos, you'll find a couple similar to Betty's for Derby Day.)
"Dior died in 1957."
Jeez…that wasn't a long life. Poor guy…
Speaking of Jane's loosing weight and Dior…Christian Dior at age 52 from a heart attack. I heard that he had an eating disorder and his big weight fluctuations contributed to his early demise. After his death, the House of Dior was headed by 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent (and MM thinks Kennedy is young) before he got drafted into the French army in 1960.
Givenchy dressed Miss Hepburn in many films and the styles definitely reflected the year, very much like we're seeing play out on the show.
Charade http://www.krazycrow.com/Audrey/images/charade%20…
Sabrina http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Hepburn,%20Au…
Breakfast at tiffany’s http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Hepburn,%20Au…
Funny Face
%20Hepburn,%20Audrey%20(Funny%20Face)_09.jpg
How to Steal a Million http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Hepburn,%20Au…
trex, a whole bunch of links like that is never going to pass the spam filters. Either break it into multiple comments, or wait until we come around to approve it; no need to post twice.
I realize people who don't blog have no idea how the back room works; just being informative.
Riverdaughter, I had the same thoughts about how Jane and Eliza differed. I don't think Jane's looking for no steenkin' flower shop to run. If I remember it correctly, in the film Eliza comments that she doesn't expect Freddie to work as he wasn't brought up for it. Jane, Jane, are you still there or did you run for the hills yet? And Freddie's sort of entitlement (not to push the point because I don't really have one) is more like what Pete grew up with, although he does have to get a job. But at least in the first season, I sure felt as if he didn't really think he should have to do a heck of a lot more than use his name and schmooze clients.
eeek! sorry about that. will be mindful. thanks!
Riverdaughter, I had the same thoughts about how Jane and Eliza differed. I don’t think Jane’s looking for no steenkin’ flower shop to run. If I remember it correctly, in the film Eliza comments that she doesn’t expect Freddie to work as he wasn’t brought up for it. Jane, Jane, are you still there or did you run for the hills yet?
What an idiot! And I mean Eliza Doolittle.
I think the writers are foreshadowing something darker with Jane’s weight loss. The rings not fitting, dress too large, feeling faint at the buffet suggest that she is not acclimating to her change in status.
First of all … love hearing a man's point of view on this.
Second, what I hear Jane Sterling (nee Siegel) say is that she "keeps losing weight". But what I see is exactly the same as what I saw last season. She was thin then; she's thin now, and not appreciably more so.
Yes, Jane's harlequin dress was cut big. But that is one of the oldest tricks in a girl's book. The dress she wore to the "thoiree" (thanks, Sally Draper!) fit her just fine.
Perhaps what Jane is having a difficult time acclimating to is her own idea of what she should look like. That look off into the distance after her scene at the buffet; that comment, "I should have eaten something," as if food were an interesting concept from a parallel universe she doesn't often visit; and Roger's call for a glass of milk: all of these were not good signs.
Signs of a shifting world: almost certainly. But I think they are equally signs of a young person so consumed with others' perception that she may have forgotten what her perfect teeth are for.
But I think they are equally signs of a young person so consumed with others’ perception that she may have forgotten what her perfect teeth are for.
Or perhaps she is suffering from her own insecurity through an eating disorder.
You have sympathy for a woman with an eating disorder but not for a rape victim? Or do you only have sympathy for characters for which most people do not have sympathy for, and conversely have contempt for characters for which most of us find sympathy?
I think it's that second one.
I hope I am not repeating, but the startling black and white harlequin contrast is also reminiscent of the Maidenform episode—the Jackie/Marilyn dichotomy.
This vintage Bazaar issue from 1963 reminded me of this…
http://cgi.ebay.com/Magazine-Harpers-Bazaar-Septe…
Very much so.