Period-piece suit

One of the most influential fashion designers working today doesn't show in Milan or New York or Paris. She doesn't even have her own label. Yet Janie Bryant, the costumer on the Emmy-and Golden Globe Award-winning AMC series Mad Men, is the woman who's launched a thousand slim-tailored suits and hourglasses poured into body-conscious, flattering sheaths.
Meanwhile, Bryant has worked with retailer Banana Republic to create a line of Mad Men-inspired clothing.
"I've been obsessed with old movies from the time that I was a very, very little girl," Bryant explains when I reach her between fittings on her cellphone in Los Angeles, where production on Season 5 has begun. (Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner runs a notoriously tight-lipped set and no, dear readers, I could not wrestle even one tantalizing tidbit of next-season information, fashion or otherwise, from Bryant.) "I didn't care about who the actors were, it was only about the costumes!"
Since its debut in 2007, the show has earned a fanatical following for both its storylines and production design. Its costume designer has likewise been the object of devotion. Her work inspired Michael Kors's Fall 2008 collection, and almost needless to say, vintage clothing dealers everywhere have cause to rejoice.
Thanks to Bryant's just-so revival of grown-up, dressed-up style and soignée feminine fashion for the characters, she's one of the breakout stars of the show. Last year, she published The Fashion File, a truly musthave style advice book, and recently launched an extensive eponymous website that highlights everything from labels she loves (the skyscraper heels of her good friend, Québécois shoe designer Jerome C. Rousseau, for example) to what's in her makeup bag, and her current fashion icons and inspirations (Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra and Guys and Dolls).
On set, Bryant leads a staff of nine, who work from an assemblage of old catalogues, vintage magazines, TV shows and the Internet to dress Mad Men's ensemble in a mix of vintage with custom pieces she's created from scratch (Bryant is a trained fashion designer). To create the extensive Mad Men collection that launches at Banana Republic on Thursday, Bryant and the retailer's creative director Simon Kneen used her mood boards, sketches, fabric swatches and actual garments from the show for inspiration.
In the series, the goal is to look period-accurate - costume that's seamlessly believable and realistic. But it's still costume. With erainspired clothes in a store, however, you don't want to be too literal, and there are other considerations, such as fit. "The collection for Banana Republic is amazingly modern and chic and contemporary, in terms of cuts and fabric," Bryant says.
Some of the modernizations include a more relaxed waist for both men and women, and a bustline that reflects the silhouette of present-day foundation garments (i.e. no longline brassiere or girdle required). "The all-around fit for the contemporary customer is not a vintage cut or fit, but it's inspired by genuine vintage pieces and pieces I've designed for the show."
To create outfits for every scene, Bryant starts with what's in the script to get a sense of dialogue, season, silhouette and colour palette. With Banana Republic, there's no storyline to follow, so she approached each item in the 65-piece collection a little differently. "Each look definitely has a character in mind," Bryant says, "from Joan, Betty, Peggy - even the Midge skirt, which is kind of fun." Playing on the fact that each character has a distinct visual signature, a tweedy grey skirt suit is ambitious secretarial chic; a textured houndstooth fabric dress "is a little bit Peggy, and then the sheath is definitely Joan," she says.
Apologies to Archie's Riverdale, but the question is no longer whether you are a Betty or a Veronica, but whether you are a Betty or a Joan. "Or a Peggy or a Trudy or a Sophia or an Audrey," Bryant chimes in, "or whoever! It's also about feeling a mood - that's really what it's about, what is the mood that you want to be that day?"
For the menswear, it was "all about combining the Don Draper with the Roger Sterling and the Pete Campbell." On a streamlined shawlcollar cardigan with pockets: "I would see more of a Pete in that sweater," whereas, "the sweater-vest is definitely a Don Draper." There are bygone haberdashery accessories such as money clips, tie bars and pocket squares; much of the suiting, like a grey pinstripe, two-button with ultra narrow lapel, is also Don.
Bryant also did Emmywinning work on the HBO series Deadwood, but it isn't the three-piece suits worn by Ian McShane that her fans are clamouring for, it's those of a certain suave and debonair ad agency creative creative director - stingy-brim fedora, skinny tie and all.
So why does Mad Men's mid-century period resonate so much today?
"I think it's a few things, especially the early 1960s," she opines. "It was American Camelot - it truly was, before the fall of innocence and I think that people look back on that time and totally romanticize the time. And also I think it's because the clothing of that period is still so accessible, and we still have those silhouettes in fashion today. They're true, true classics."
Sixties style is one of the last visually identifiable eras - the Rat Pack tailoring, polished strands of pearls and ladylike gloves - that, when worn 50 years later, still looks modern and not anachronistic. The decade's influence is still keenly felt in contemporary fashion, Bryant says. "You can still wear sheaths today - Dolce & Gabbana, every season, there's still a sheath. It's that sexy, beautiful hourglass."
The Mad Men collection at Banana Republic ($13-$475) launches in stores and online at bannarepublic.ca on Aug. 11. Fans, take note: includes a casting call competition, wherein customers can win a walk-on role in a Season 5 episode.
natkinson@nationalpost.com
National Post