Our Best Mad Men Style

Saturday night we had plans to go to one of Tim's best friend's 50th birthday party. Since the birthday boy was born in 1962, the invite requested we all dress up in our finest 1960's party attire. Being big Mad Men fans, we jumped at the chance to take it more in the direction of "Don & Megan" vs. the hippie vibe.

We also kind of snickered at the idea we could actually go as a Don & Megan type pair, in keeping with the current Mad Men storyline. We snapped the shot above in our closet just before leaving the house — feels pretty 60's (minus the yoga mat, iPhone and plastic laundry hampers), no? Hey, we had fun with it.

Tim pulled off his look with a fedora, skinny tie, skinny belt and high trousers from the 60's while I went with a shift dress I had on hand from Banana Republic, vintage earrings, retro heels, black vintage purse, and stockings with the black line up the backs.

Oh, and I got my hair teased into a fantastically large Mad Men-esque creation. Since I have limited (as in none) hair skills, I thought this one would best be left to the professionals. Who am I kidding, I loved having an excuse to get my hair messed with and styled. It can feel like such a treat:

I took in a couple inspiration shots I'd pinned like this and this which turned out requiring lots of curling, teasing and pinning to achieve. Shout out to Mark at Perception Salon & Spa in Carytown — he was able to create this out of nothing in less than in hour:

It was so much getting my hair teased up, I'm starting to think a retro style could be fun to do for our upcoming wedding...

In any case, we headed out the door and tried to snap another photo before getting in the car. Does it take anyone else at least 2-3 tries before getting a phone photo right?

Take 1:

Take 2 — that's more like it:

When we got to the party, the entire house was decked out in amazing Mid-Century Modern rental furniture, retro lanterns were hanging from the trees out front and back, and there were so many other nostalgic details you could probably imagine any good 60's party would have. All of the food was served on toothpicks and was reminiscent of the decade:

Speaking of food, we had a "17 Apart moment" when engaging in conversation about Manwich. Tim was laughing and reminiscing about how Sloppy Joe's used to be made with homestyle ingredients before Manwich hit the scene when I butted in to say I thought classic Sloppy Joe's were basically invented by Manwich as a marketing ploy and that's what was always used. That's when I was called out by other partygoers for being too young to remember a time before Manwich — or what Manwhich really was for that matter. It was hilarious. I always thought Manwich was like some sort of saucy ground beef mixture in a can that could just be heated up and slopped on the buns. Evidently, it's just the sauce you mix into prepared ground beef, but before the canned sauce was invented, Sloppy Joe's were traditionally homemade with ground beef, ketchup and a host of other spices and ingredients.

Moments like these come up every so often, reminding us of our age difference, but we just laugh at each-other, shake our heads a little and love each-other more when it happens.

After all this talk about Sloppy Joe's, Tim is excited to add his homestyle version back into the recipe repertoire now that the weather is cooling down again.

Back to the party. What they had in the powder room was my hands down favorite. Piled on the vanity were a couple bottles of extra strength hairspray, a palette of eyeshadow, a tube of lash glue and a couple boxes of Goody's Extra Strength pain reliever — so funny! Oh, and all the light bulbs around the house were replaced with hues of blue, red and other groovy colors.

There was dancing outside by the pool to 60's and original tunes by Steve Bassett — and we all listened to some pretty incredible toasts and roasts for the 50th birthday. It's funny the new things you can learn about someone you think you know everything about after a few good toasts.

We enjoyed getting into character:

We only got a few shots of the other party-goers, but it was awesome to see how everyone else really did it up:

 

Funny note — there is a well known vintage shop here in Richmond within walking distance of our house called Halcyon. While at the party, a few other people mentioned how they went there to get outfit ideas (Tim snagged his fedora from there) and how by the end of the week, the shop owners started asking customers if they too were going to this now famous 50th birthday party.

At some point during the evening there was a swap of Tim's fedora for a pair of Elvis glasses, yep:

Every detail was so well thought out, right down to the parting goodie bags which included nostalgic candy like Round Up candy cigarettes and little mini packages of Alka Selzter:

The party was a blast and a great excuse to dress up — plus we now have the perfect duo costume in a pinch if we need one with Halloween right around the corner.

How about you — been to any great parties lately or had a great excuse to get a fancy hairdo? Made plans for Halloween costumes yet this year?