A continuing theme presented in Mad Men is how people deal with the various roles society and happenstance have cast them in. Dick Whitman didn’t like his lot in life. So, when the opportunity presented itself, he shed that identity and put on the Don Draper persona. While other characters haven’t reacted so drastically, they are often equally conflicted by their assigned roles. This idea is often manifested by what they wear.
For instance, Season 2’s “Maidenform,” involved a storyline where the Sterling-Cooper creative team established two distinct types of bra customers which they categorized as : “Jackie Kennedy” (black bra) and “Marilyn Monroe” (white bra).
This motif is even more apparent in Season 3 and demonstrated by the repeated use of uniforms and costumes throughout many of the episodes as I’ve outlined below.
3.01 – “Out of town”
Don has an encounter with Shelly, a stewardess who wears a blue uniform. Shelly even points out that her employer has strict rules outlining acceptable conduct stewardesses must adhere to WHILE IN UNIFORM.
On the other hand, the bell hop who comes on to Sal isn’t similarly constrained by his red uniform.
3.02 – “Love Among the Ruins”
Roger makes a remark about a suit of armor in Lane Pryce’s office. In a way, Sterling-Cooper has been conquered.
Miss Farrell does her spring dance with a while wearing a decidedly ethereal outfit.
3.03 – “My Old Kentucky Home”
Who can forget Roger in black-face performing a minstrel show. All the characters in Mad Men wear masks of some sort, don’t they?
Betty and Henry’s flirtatious encounter at the same party is interrupted when giggling girls wearing bridesmaid dresses (certainly another type of costume) run past.
3.04 – “The Arrangements”
To help make a man out of Bobby, Gene finds the helmet of a Prussian soldier he shot during World War I and puts it on his grandson’s head.
A uniformed policeman arrives at the Draper home to inform them that Gene has died.
After hearing of her grandfather’s death, an inconsolable Sally retreats to another room while wearing a ballerina costume.
3.05 – “The Fog”
During Betty’s scenes at the hospital, we see doctors and nurses in their traditional garb. Of course, that’s to be expected.
More pointedly though, while waiting for Betty to deliver, Don has an encounter with another husband in the waiting room. He is a prison guard at Sing Sing and his uniform would seem to reinforce for Don the confining nature of marriage and family.
Roger makes a remark about a suit of armor in Lane Pryce’s office (I may have this episode wrong). In a way, Sterling-Cooper has been conquerred.
Duck wears a grey turtle neck while trying to recruit Peggy and Pete to join him at Grey advertising. I imagine Duck wants to seem “hip” by shedding his traditional uniform — a tie and starched shirt. Later, in “Shut the Door. Have a Seat,” we will see Betty also wearing a grey turtleneck as she gets ready to “fly the coup” “fly the coop” in a different way.
Pete quizzes a Hollis, the building’s black elevator operator (and also in uniform), about his television viewing habits. Hollis is a reluctant participant in the conversation. Hollis is all too conscious of his place in society and doesn’t want to buck the system. Not for Pete anyway.
3.08 – “Souvenir”
Betty’s outfit for her assumed persona in Rome is both literally and figuratively a costume she puts on.
At first, after Trudy leaves him alone for the weekend, Pete seems childlike in his pajamas while eating breakfast and watching kid shows on television. Pete then happens upon Gudrun who is stuffing a dress (another costume?) down a garbage chute. Later, thinking himself quite the ladies man, Pete is shown eating dinner while wearing “grown up” clothes.
This may be a bit of a stretch, but it’s also worth noting that Pete and Trudy live in Apartment 14G. Likewise, in “Out of Town,” Don and the stewardess were also on the fourteenth floor. Most buildings label the thirteenth floor “fourteen.” So, in a sense, these characters are playing out their “dramas” in a fictional setting (one floor “pretending” to be another).
3.10 -” The Color Blue”
There’s a closeup Don pulling a fresh, starched shirt out of an office desk drawer. We often see Don putting on the accoutrements of his job: suit, white shirt, tie. As mentioned above, since leaving Sterling-Cooper, Duck has stopped wearing this “uniform.”
Betty’s ornate dress worn to the dinner celebrating “Don Draper” is itself the costume of a proud spouse.
3.11 – “The Gypsy and the Hobo”
During the dog food focus group, Peggy is asked why the man conducting the interviews with the test subjects isn’t wearing a lab coat. She states that dogs “don’t like uniforms.” It turns out that dog owners project their own feelings through their pets. So, in effect, Peggy is really saying that “people don’t like uniforms.”
Also, the episode is ostensibly named for Sally and Bobby’s Halloween costumes. Don and Betty later accompany their children trick-or-treating while masquerading as a happily married couple.
3.12 – “The Grown-ups”
Like the bridesmaids in “My Old Kentucky Home,” I’d submit that Margret’s wedding gown qualifies as a costume. I could even classify it as a uniform, if one accepts that she has been “conscripted” to go through with her wedding after Roger’s financial threats.
3.13 – “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”
This may go a bit beyond the idea of a ”costume,” but, as others have pointed out, when Betty and Don inform the children of their separation, Don is wearing an outfit similar to the one Lee Harvey Oswald wore when he was gunned down by Jack Ruby. Even though it’s not what he wants, for the sake of the children, Don takes equal blame for the divorce as does Betty. In this context, Don could be playing the role of a ”patsy.”
19 Responses to “Uniformity”
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What a great write up Matt ! Really makes you think. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Maryann
Well done. The gray turtleneck is a great catch.
I'd add that MOKH is full of uniforms; the Derby Day party has a fairly specific style of dress code. And Betty's maternity wear is also a kind of costume (ask your wife on this one — maternity wear = performance for the public).
Fantastic post Matt! Janie Bryant would love the thought you've put into the symbolism of the uniformity of costume in this series! Also, with practically everything in MM having a symbolic meeting, I think your comparison of Don's divorce talk suit to LHO is brilliant! I can't wait to see what 'uniforms' (or lack thereof) there will be in S4! Thanks for the great post!
GREAT post, Matt. Very thoughtful. It actually made me remember those images so vividly that I think I'll watch Season 3 again.
Really well done. That other Matt would be very impressed!!
Roger's (hilarious) comment about Lane's suit of armor was in Love Among the Ruins, not The Fog.
Wow, interesting stuff. You really made me think about the visuals in this show a lot more.
Re: the dog food tests — I don't know how often 1960s pets went to the vet, but modern-day dogs might associate white lab coats with a trip to the vet and behave anxiously instead of normally. That could affect their appetite and the test results. Humans are conditioned to defer to experts wearing white lab coats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_coat
@Deb #2 – I agree with you re: Betty's maternity wear. I think I missed it because I was all blued out by my last post
@5 Meowser #5 – thanks for the clarification. It's been fixed.
@Peggy Joan # 6 – re: the dogs and lab coats, regardless of the scientific accuracy of Peggy's statement, I still believe it was really aimed at the pet owners. There's a line of dialog between Don and one of the other S-C observers where it's made clear that when people talk about their pets, they're really (projecting) describing traits they see in themselves.
Thank you for the insightful and thorough analysis of this season-long motif. Mad Men is one of the few TV shows whose episodes I bother to watch more than once, and it's precisely because of details like these.
I also noticed the turtlenecks and would add that Pete is wearing a black one in The Grown Ups. This is after he has decided not to attend Margaret Sterling's wedding (i.e., to reject two different masquerades). In this scene, Trudy suggests (and he agrees) that he should further reject the status quo by gathering his clients and seeking employment outside Sterling Cooper.
In a way then, the turtleneck is emblematic of rejecting old costumes, old uniforms, and old roles. However, its recurrence makes it a strong signifier in its own right.
So I noticed this. Meanwhile, you noticed everything else
Excellent post.
@DLR #8… Since you commented on the turtlenecks of S3 (as did Deb), it's worth mentioning that Steve McQueen's donning of one as a cop in "Bullitt" was somewhat anti-establishment for 1968.
Of course McQueen looked much cooler than Duck.
I'm reminded of the Project Rungay post on Jane Sterling. They said that her post-marriage clothes were trying too hard to impress, and she wears the uniform of how she thinks a wealthy young trophy wife should look.
The bubble hat and harlequin dress definitely seem over the top, and the red suit with leopard trim demand attention. Her season three clothes are a world away from her secretary "uniform", both in price and attitude.
Wow, cool post. I never caught that Lee Harvey Oswald outfit.
Steve McQueen = essence of cool.
Matt,
Great observation: "All the characters in Mad Men wear masks of some sort, don’t they?"
Ooorah.
Matt,
Wonderful post. As always.
I never considered the connection between Shelley's stewardess uniform and her conduct. I realize now that what went on in that hotel room could have been a reflection of two people's discomfort with uniforms — or at least their attachments to what the act of wearing them meant.
I love that photo of Betty and Don at the dinner. They look so differently uncomfortable.
That observer was Smitty! We have to give him his due. (I like him)
Kurt and Smitty dress very differently from the other guys in the office. That is partly due to Janie Bryant's brilliance, of course, but also I think meant to show those characters's intentional separateness from the rest of the men. They don't really want to be part of the corporate culture — they are part of it, of course, when they're working there, but they don't really fit into the conventional ideal or want to. I've noticed that even when formal dress-up is required, Smitty's outfits are always a little less traditional than the other men's. (A jacket but no tie during PPL's visit in "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency, and a very colorful suit during the Hilton presentation in "The Wee Small Hours.")
I think it's partly their youth and their desire to assert that their generation is different than those that came before. They don't want to conform to tradition….if they can help it.
I think you meant "fly the coop" (as in chicken coop.) "Coup" is French and pronounced "coo", with many meanings (but none of them chicken house.)
I think this also goes back to season 1, note the drawer full of paper-wrapped white shirts for Don, and Joan's attempt to influence Peggy's work uniform. "Men love scarves."
@Mad Chick #14 — yes indeed, that was Smitty at the dog food focus group. You are indeed correct about Kurt and Smitty's unique style. But, in a way, aren't they wearing their own sort of "uniforms"…?
@Ronica #15 — UGH. I've fixed the "coop" line. I sometimes wonder if my hands and brain actually talk to each other when I type. At one point "Jack Ruby" was written as "Jake Ruby" — And the really sad/funny part of the "coup" gaff is that I had actually considered calling my original write-up for the finale after it first aired: "Flying the Coop" — a horrid pun on Archie's fight with the co-op, the Draper divorce, and the new ad agency (insert groans here).
Matt — yes you're right, they are! That's why I included them in the discussion.
I think their outfits are definitely a "statement" and could be extended to be a different kind of a uniform.
@MadChick …I think their outfits are definitely a “statement” and could be extended to be a different kind of a uniform.
I love the irony of Kurt and Smitty expressing their nonconformity by adopting their own uniforms. Which is what I think you're getting at, but thought I'd second anyway.
Re: Kurt & Smitty. One of the more interesting phenomena of the 1960s that I hope MM will explore is this conflict between "doing your own thing" versus fitting into a social order. Andy Warhol, probably the most important visual artist of the decade, noted this was a problem faced by Paraphernalia, an extremely successful upscale boutique store. All of their clothes were handmade, "one of the kind" creatins. As they got more popular, they faced a problem: how do you create "one of a kinds" for a mass market? And because they never could resolve that dilemma (one of a kind isn't very cost effective), they went out of business before the end of the decade.
Very interesting catch about LHO's clothes and Don's echoing of them in the "talk to the children" scene. I found that very thought provoking.
You could do a similar article about the use of mirrors/windows/shiny & reflective surfaces–partly as an homage to the work of Douglas Sirk, and partly as a way they comment on characters/situations in a similar way as the costuming.