All Business

It's pilot season, which means that I am sampling all the new shows, nibbling at each one to see if it is a delectable treat or day-old cream puffs.

So far, I've checked out The New Normal (okay), Go On (okay) and The Mindy Project (okay). Each one is kind of like... a granola bar. Not exactly a guilty pleasure, not exactly nutritious, not exactly satisfying.

Where, I ask you, are the Mad Mens of yesteryear?

(The answer: not on the networks, dummy.)

It's enough to make one want to watch Season 5 of Mad Men all over again, except that a) we already rewatched it over the summer—basically as soon as it ended we started it again from the beginning—and b) October is Halloween season in our household, which means that we only watch shows about the supernatural. We have True Blood on deck, which I'm sure will make me miss the restraint and subtlety of Mad Men so much the more.

So it's appropriate, I think, that I pay another little tribute to Joan Harris née Holloway. I thought Phony Joanie was the only dress I had that captured something about her, but then I remembered All Business.

Solid, almost jewel-tone: check.

Tailored and fitted: check.

Scarf detailing: check.

And even though Joan doesn't really show a preference for them, I must add—pockets: check. (And now that I think about it, Phony Joanie used to have pockets as well, but I thought they added too much, um, volume in the sub-navel area, so I chopped them out. Probably a terrible idea, but I don't miss them.)

Janie Bryant: I will loan you anything you want. Call me before the show hits the Seventies and the only frock I have to offer is Electric Avenue.

(Digression: I actually dreamt last night about Mad Men going into the Seventies and beyond—Don Draper was a mobster in the Eighties and Agent Mulder in the Nineties. In my dream, Mulder and Scully started making out while a third wheel agent—played by Stephen Fry—watched. Now that's a show I would watch the heck out of. Networks, here is your million-dollar idea! (Although a million-dollar idea for a network is one that fails miserably.))

The truly remarkable thing about All Business, which I've not seen on any other dress ever, is the threadly detailing.

So cool, right? And judiciously placed.

All Business captures the Sixties style without being super-trendy. Rich color, textured material, exacting cut, subtle detailing—it is basically as close as I can get to wearing Mad Men on my back. In the meantime, I'm going to try 666 Park Avenue, the new show with Vanessa Williams and Terry O'Quinn about a ritzy, haunted apartment building. Wish me luck...


All photos by Claire Loeb!