07 August, 2010

A 'Mad for Mad Men' Dinner Party - Part 1


As any vintage lover worth their salt would know, Mad Men is the best show on television, not just because of the great story (and the drop-dead-gorgeous Don Draper of course!), but because of the fabulous fashion. To celebrate this (and the fact that it shows people drinking hard liquor at 10 oclock in the morning!) I decided to celebrate the best TV series of all time by hosting a 'Mad for Mad Men' dinner party. I invited two friends who are both Mad Men fans also (no sense in inviting people who don't watch the show given that we were going to be talking about it all night!). It was a great night of eating decadent 1950's style food (potato gratin has a lot of cream!), Old Fashioneds and red wine.

                      

To add some atmosphere to proceedings, I printed out some great ads from the 1950’s and 60’s which featured Sterling Cooper clients, including Samsonite, Monarch Airlines, Lucky Strike and Clearasil, and put these up on the walls. I just did a google for 'vintage 1950's ad', 'vintage samsonite ad' etc and was able to print the ads out. I also printed out the 'Utz' logo and put that on a chip packet. You can actually buy Utz chips from the US but you have to buy a minimum of 6 in a box and its quite expensive to ship so I passed on that!
                                    

Unfortunately, I was too busy cooking to take an outfit photo of myself, but I wore a lovely black figure-hugging 50’s cocktail dress from Frocks and Slacks in St Kilda (I will try and do an outfit post on that later).  I would like to say that I looked very much like my fashion idol Joanie Holloway, but I don't think I have the measurements for that!

My hubby looked fantastic in a lovely 60's suit from Old Hat in Northcote, teamed with a skinny 60's tie from Frocks and Slacks, St Kilda. The suit is of unbelievable quality, it was actually made in Northcote and still has an old Northcote local number (3 digits) on the label inside. Pure class. My hubby uses one of my vintage napkins for his fold by the way, a little tip for you vintage gents out there. . .

                                                

My friends went to a lot of effort and wore vintage clothes which was great. As you can see, they looked very gorgeous. . .


In the next few days I will be doing a separate post on how I did my invitations, menu, place settings etc, so stay tuned for my 'A Mad for Mad Men Dinner Party-Part 2' blog post coming up soon . . .

3 comments:

  1. Looks like you had lots of fun! Looking forward to your posts!

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  2. Wow, this gave me an idea. My wife and I have never organized a Mad Men costume party before, and we need to come up with a theme for a party next week. Can I borrow this idea? We already have the aged wine, I have the tux, my wife has sepia wigs and gloves, and our friends have those old conservative cocktail dresses. Sounds like a party to me already!

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  3. Dear Earl, your Mad Men party sounds great, so glad I could give you some ideas. There is actually some great info online for Mad Men parties (including recipes etc). Just do a few google searches. I hope you have a great evening! Thanks for reading my little blog! Best, Maria

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