ENTERTAINING PARTY ideas + decor

Celebrating the Mad Men way

Posted on January 24, 2009

I started to watch Mad Men lately. The storyline is great. The series also grabbed my attention for the set designs and the fashion.

I have a thing for the glamour behind the world of advertising although I do not watch TV ads. And it is fun to watch the customs of the 60s. It reminds us how our customs have evolved for the better of everyone one in our society.

mad men entertaining style

AMC describes the series in those words:

From Matthew Weiner, the Emmy award-winning executive producer and writer of “The Sopranos,” “MAD MEN” is the ground-breaking, daring series about the glamorous and ego-driven “Golden Age” of advertising, where everyone is selling something and nothing is ever what it seems.

I laughed when I saw Betty Draper, the wife of Don, preparing stuffed celery sticks for a party. Thank God that we are so beyond that now. Examine the typical details of office parties from the show. We see that drinking in Mason jars is nothing new. The prints on the paper cups look cool today.

betty draper :: peggy olson from Mad Men

The series also explores the first step of women taking their place in the workforce with the sweet Peggy Olsen moving from secretary to junior copywriter.

If you never catch the show on AMC, season 1 is available on DVD. You have to wait until summer 2009 for Season 2 on DVD.

Modern Office, version 1964

steelcase ad from 1966

Lastly, I spot this cool 1964 dream office advertisement by Steelcase on a cool blog called The Mid-Century Modernist.

I had a few office chairs like the secretary chairs on the ad. I gave or sold them, except one, at the end of last year. I was said to let them go but we lacked the space. I think they are cool.

SOURCING:
+ Mad Men – Season One $23.99 USD
+ Mad Men – Season 1 Blu-Ray edition $24.99 USD
+ Mad Men – Music from the Series, Vol. 1 $13.99 USD
+ Images from the Mad Men official site on AMC

An ex-lifestyle and entertaining expert and UX designer who became a STEAM educator. At Bidouilleurs, I helped kids aged 5-12 become inventors and makers. An innovative mom who cares about gender equality and to get more girls and boys interested in STEM/STEAM.

  • dwellings and decor
    January 25, 2009 at 13:55

    Mad Men is my favorite show! My mom heard that season three will be on starting July 2009. So far away. Cant wait. I love that last picture of the old office design. They did a great job with the set. Nice post!

  • Sabina
    January 26, 2009 at 11:33

    These montages are just beautiful!!

    I will look for this show!!

    I am always captivated by the details of decor and fashion from that time and when it’s done well — I’m in heaven!!

  • thedre
    August 27, 2009 at 15:17

    WhIle watching the first season of Mad Men I noticed the character of Roger Sterling has a small desk lamp that is designed in a harp shape…brass with a metal and cloth covered florescent tube light supported by a harp-like wing down to an oval brass base. This is a real eye catching light, with it’s decorative harp vertical metal lines coming up from the base. I own this very same lamp…actually I have this one and another in brass and black. What’s interesting, is that the lamp is changed for the second season and winds up on the big guy’s desk…Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse). Are they playing with us to see if we notice these things? These kind of lights have a transformer halfway down the cord…
    My favorite desk lamp in any movie is Jack Nicholson’s in The Two Jake’s. I’ve never found anything quite like it…it’s a pre deco design…probably some spanish influence…god, I’d kill for that thing. Incredibly gorgeous.