It’s a mod, mod world — at least on the forthcoming seventh season of “Mad Men.”
The first half of the final season of AMC’s most fashionable series airs April 13 (the second part is slated for spring 2015), and though the show is notoriously tight-lipped regarding plot lines, the series’ new promo art reveals an exciting sartorial direction — one that says goodbye to the nipped-waist Stepford-wife chic of seasons past.
“The ’60s is a great period [for fashion] because people were feeling the absolute fracture from the post-war boom of the ’50s,” says Patricia Mears, deputy director at the Museum at FIT, who considers John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination the symbolic turning point that precipitated fashion’s evolution later in the decade.
The final season of “Mad Men” takes place in 1969 — the year of Woodstock, Apollo 11 and the first withdrawals from Vietnam. By then, cookie-cutter ideals had been shattered and social mores shifted; consequently, skirts got shorter.
“We know that the hippies are coming, and this interim period is where high fashion especially is on this tipping point,” Mears says.
“Couture was on its way out. Balenciaga was getting ready to retire. Fashion editors like Diana Vreeland sensed that. If you look at Vogue magazine, where she was editor-in-chief in the late ’60s, it became incredibly vibrant.
“What we see is the influx of youth culture, psychedelic art and the pop-art movement,” she adds.
Such influences are clear in the vivid shift dresses donned by Betty (January Jones) and Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) — a departure from the sweater sets and voluminous skirts favored by the mother-daughter duo in earlier seasons.
Such sleek, linear shapes best represent the evolution of late-’60s style.
“This tubular silhouette becomes a template for dynamic modern art,” Mears says. “It’s a very funny mixture — it’s old-world couture, new art influences and youth culture all colliding at the same time.”
Peggy
In the early days of “Mad Men” — set in the early ’60s (left photo) — Pete, Joan, Roger, Peggy and Don dressed more conservatively. That meant monochrome styles, wide ties and lots less leg.
But to get Sterling Cooper’s most valuable asset into the new groove, “Mad Men” costume designer Janie Bryant, who has a line of legwear coming out in the fall, looked to the bright colors and minidresses of the era.
(“Peggy is really coming into the knowledge of her value. It’s really exciting,” Bryant has said.)
The buttoned-up skirt suits, neckerchiefs and gingham once favored by Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) are so 1960. Later in the decade, “the proportions took on a dynamic look,” says Patricia Mears, the Museum at FIT’s deputy director.
Jolly Roger
Roger Sterling (John Slattery) snazzes up his suit with a bit of texture and a lighter shade of blue.
Color riot: Betty and Sally
The short colorful shifts of Betty (January Jones, left) and Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) are in sharp contrast to Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley).
“In the ’60s, there was a fusion: the bright colors and the fact that the clothes are becoming more body-revealing, but also childlike,” says Mears.
Joan and Don adjust to a new era
Slinky shifts seem tailor-made for Sally Draper, but what happens when you’re not, well, Twiggy?
The bodacious Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) stays true to her sexy form in a more traditional monochromatic dress better suited to her hourglass shape.
(“I’m curious to see what they’ll do with Hendricks,” says the Museum of FIT’s Patricia Mears, of the fashion challenges her character faces.)
Likewise, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) seems to be sliding into middle age with the same old dark suits from previous seasons.
Megan can hack it in the late ’60s
Megan Draper (Jessica Paré) gets the ’60s treatment with dramatic eyes, glossy lips and a longer mane — as well as a psychedelic Emilio Pucci-esque dress. Dubbed the “Prince of Prints,” the Italian-born designer kept the ’60s swinging with kaleidoscopic swirls of color.
By the end of the decade, the label was synonymous with the glittering lifestyle of international jet-set icons like Sophia Loren.
Turn on, tune in: The guys in creative
Harry Crane (Rich Sommer, far left) brightens up with an ascot and check jacket; Stan Rizzo (Jay R. Ferguson, second from left) shows shades of hippie with a fringe suede jacket; while Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldman, far right) goes western with a bolo tie and mustache. Account executive Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton, third from left) however, remains buttoned-up.