Tipping a fedora to 'Mad Men' style

MANILA, Philippines - For Mad Men fans, the wait is interminable. Scheduled to return in early 2012 for its fifth season, the show has left fans kicking up their heels, settling for glimpses of a less-than-dapper yet naked (score!) Don Draper in Bridesmaids (although Jon Hamm, in true Draper form, is just as much of a pill to women in the comedy as he is on the AMC show) and January Jones (also naked!) peering provocatively from a Versace ad.

So fans will have to settle for Janie Bryant, the critically-acclaimed costume designer responsible for the looks that launched a thousand magazines homages. Though I doubt there will be any settling involved.

Bryant, who offered readers a peek at her closet in Elle magazine’s book on stylish women, is a vintage clotheshorse, squeezing in ’50s-era full-skirted prom dresses next to natty ‘40s suits and slinky ’60s numbers in an already over-stuffed wardrobe. In between jaunts to vintage clothes haunts, Bryant’s been producing garb of her own, like a Mod collection for QVC still steeped in the show’s ephemera. Her latest project, which debuted recently, tips its hat to the Matthew Weiner series.

Bryant’s collaboration with a retailer resulted in a 65-piece collection for Banana Republic. The clothing evokes the spirit of the production, embodying the classic Americana sportswear that Draper and co. model so effortlessly on the show. It’s a quality that has retained its luster despite its age.

“I think people love to romanticize the early 1960s,” Bryant tells Time magazine in a recent interview. “It’s the period of our American Camelot and our Kennedys. People think of that period as the most glamorous and elegant in time. Also, the silhouettes of those clothes have never really gone out of style. The early ‘60s, which I call ‘American Iconoclasts,’ are reinvented all the time. Pencil skirts, sweater sets and pearls — they never go out of style.”

According to the label, the men’s collection includes chunky-meets-streamlined knit sweaters, tailored suit separates and fitted trousers, as well as classic accessories with character, including a money clip, cotton pocket squares, silk ties, tie bars and fedora hats, while they’ll stock modern yet ladylike pieces including chic trench coats, tailored dresses, high-waisted skirts, silk tie-neck blouses and statement accessories, like print scarves and leopard print pump heels for women.

“Janie was instrumental in helping us achieve the series aesthetic and standard of authenticity with this capsule collection,” says Banana Republic creative director Simon Kneen, “offering sketches, her own inspirations and actual artifacts from the production set to help inspire the Mad Men within all of us.”