Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Coco Rocha as the Face of Banana Republic's latest and 3rd Installation of the "Mad Men" Collection

By Laura Medina


Great anticipation for the sixth season of "Mad Men" has been welling up and Banana Republic's latest and third installment of its "Mad Men" Collection with Janie Bryant is riding that wave, cresting up today with the official debut of the third, definitely mid-to-late sixties inspired "Mad Men" Collection.

More of a fashion historian than a designer and miles ahead of a stylist, "Mad Men" costume designer, Janie Bryant, has always make sure that a particular era's fit and style will translate extremely well into today's market to make it meaningful.  In other words, taking the cliche out of the costumey-vintage then making it fresh and contemporary for today's "Mad Men-and Mad Women" who are the current taste-makers.

Let's face it, the cut, the material, the colors, and the patterns give a sneak peek of what to expect of the approaching "Mad Men" Season 6th debut on April 7th at 9pm on AMC.

Being the keen fashion historian and observer she is, Jane hinted during numerous interviews, to look for the upcoming mid to late '60's yearning for bold colors, pop graphics prints, and prints which were sneaked into the show two years ago with Jane Sterling.

This is why this current "Mad Men" Banana Republic Collection's tag line is, "Mad For Mod," well...because the women characters (some of the male characters) are finally accepting and wearing Mod.


Megan Draper's style, from the previous season, may be the model for the spirit and the attitude for this current Banana Republic collection but the official face for the ad campaign is today's supermodel, Coco Rocha.  Why? Being "Mod", being set in the middle of the '60's is all about being fresh, energetic, open, and youthful.  Coco Rocha reflected all that during the official launch yesterday at The Grove in Los Angeles.


Knowing that there are hundreds of models out there and she definitely not born during that era, Coco consider this quite an honor to be the spoke person for both Banana Republic and "Mad Men."


 As for translating and transiting fashion from another era into today, Coco said you can always learn something from that era.  She's insightful, commenting on how fashion reflects what women of an certain era went through, the welling up of the Women's Right and Liberation Movement.  Appreciating the hard-won gains from the women from that mid-'60's era and liking the ease in fabric and simpler tailoring in this current collection, Coco said that today, you can still be professional and be womanly at that same time. Noting on the comfortable light-weight fabric and the sleeker construction, Coco said this was the first time fashion seriously took daywear-into-eveningwear for business women.

As for how she'll incorporate this Mod collection into her wardrobe today and her advice in making this "Mad For Mod" collection work for you now,  Coco suggested it is all about how you accessorize and how you wear it.

For her, she'll go full-on Mod.  She loves the makeup,.. the hair.  Understanding not everyone wants to go full-throttle Mod, Coco suggested letting the dress dominant as the foundation then don't do the period hair and makeup, keep the rest contemporary.  This is how she'll keep it fresh.

Back to Janie Byrant, for this current "Mad For Mod" collection, she kept that era's need for comfortable fabric and fit but replaced the suffocating polyster with silk, cotton, and rayon.  Simple shell tops and sleek shift and sheath dresses, some in the current color blocking, replaced the highly-engineered dresses and the more conservative, long-sleeved secretarial blouses from the previous "Mad Men" collections.

"Mad Men," just like fashion, is diving head first into the '60's and not looking back.


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