The crinkly brown paper of sewing patterns. Frilly Easter dresses with white stockings to match. Hot summer nights on the porch listening to the rhythm of chirping cicadas.
For Emmy award winning costume designer and Cleveland, Tennessee-native Janie Bryant, these rich memories of her childhood in the South are as strong as the family ties that still bind her to her hometown-a place full of reminiscences that she often looks to for inspiration for the iconic 60s-inspired looks of Mad Men's star-studded cast, as well as her own personal style.
"I remember most going to the Cleveland Country Club on Sundays. We would see all of our friends there, and every Easter, they would have the chicks and the bunnies for all of the parents to be taunted by all the kids wanting to have a baby chick or a bunny rabbit," Janie says, laughing. "Easter was a big time for us. My mother would always dress my elder sister and I in the same exact outfit. We would always have the fanciest dresses on including little white lace gloves with little white lace tights and big, big, big ribbons in our hair. That was the best."
Janie's love of fashion and design found roots as a child when she and her mother or babysitter would sew together, a skill she learned early on at the age of eight. "Karen McKinley, now Karen Smith, was my childhood babysitter forever, and she loved to sew, too. We would go the pattern store-I think it was called Chandler's-and get our McCall's and Vogue patterns. Vogue was my favorite, of course," she says. "I always loved that first opening of the package and pulling out the brown paper."
Dorthia Chestnut Bryant, Janie's mother, took great care in handcrafting her daughters' clothing, a tradition handed down from her own mother.
"My grandmother made all of her dresses and all of my mother's dresses when she was growing up. She had the most beautiful taste and was such a lady-gorgeous inside and out. We would always sit together and play paper dolls, but it was always all about fashion and what they were wearing," she says. "My mother made all of the clothes for my older sister and I growing up. She would make her own outfits that would be complementary of mine and my sister's matching dresses. That is a very Southern custom which I've always loved. My cousin still has her boys in matching outfits, and it's still about the seersucker and monogramming, and all of the smocking. I love all of those details. I always think that is true Southern tradition."
Many Southern traditions and impressions from her family-as well as actual articles of clothing they wore-find their way onto the set and into her designs for AMC's Mad Men. For each of the two weddings featured in the show, the wedding gowns-one satin with a long, ruffled train and the other a high-necked satin and lace gown-belonged to Janie's mother and aunt. And many of her grandmother's handmade aprons have made it on female cast members throughout the show's six seasons.
"I can truly say that my grandparents are always inspirational for me on my work on Mad Men. Not in their personalities, but my grandfather started Niota Textile Mills and he was a businessman of the time. Very much like Don Draper in the fact that he was an amazing, beautiful dresser and he also did three martini lunches and cigarettes," she says. "That was definitely the custom in that era and that's what my grandfather was part of. My grandmother was an amazing hostess and really played that role of an executive housewife. I always draw inspiration from her for Betty Draper, especially in the early seasons of Mad Men."
In the fashion world, Mad Men-inspired styles boomed in a way so profound that it was almost a shot heard round the world, touching designers' work on the runway, retailer's collections (including Janie's Mad Men for Banana Republic partnership) and even influencing the workwear decisions of the average professional man or woman. The critically acclaimed show will return this month on April 13 to begin its highly anticipated final season, and we have to wonder what's next once the Mad Men-inspired trend with it's sheath dresses, pencil skirts and fitted suits has passed.
"It's been such a rewarding and amazing journey, it really has. I love it that people have been inspired to dress up again. I truly love menswear and I love that men have changed their ideas about what the new style of suit is-and just to even have an dressing up again," Janie says. "I think it had been sort of dormant in the men's world, and now men are starting to get really excited about dressing and proper dressing. For us women, it's different. We change all the time, and we're always into what's next, what's next and we want to buy the next pretty thing. But for men it takes a little bit longer. It's great that the work on the show has really extended into culture around the world. That's pretty rewarding."
Although the dedicated fan base for Mad Men will mourn the loss of the show, Janie is looking toward the future with her upcoming legwear line, Janie Bryant Leg Couture, along with a partnership with handbag line Koret New York to be their brand ambassador, a line of men's dress socks for menswear company Mac Weldon and even a potential fashion-centered reality show.
"I'm sure it's going to be bittersweet. New and amazing exciting things are happening for me when the show is completed, but I'm truly going to miss seeing everyone every day and I'll truly miss those characters," she says. "But part of being in the film business is that it's always on to the next. I'm excited about what's next. It's part of the creative journey."