Mad Men: 10 Hidden Details About Megan’s Costume You Didn’t Notice

Megan Draper (née Calvet), played by Jessica Paré, is one of the more polarizing characters in Mad Men. Introduced halfway through the show’s run, the actress from Montreal becomes a central figure in Don Draper’s story as his second wife. Unfortunately, she does so at the expense of the other women in Don’s life. His ex-wife, Betty, is sidelined for much of the latter half of the show; he abruptly breaks up with his girlfriend, Faye, over the phone, and the hard work of his colleagues, Joan and Peggy, was once again overshadowed by their boss’s sudden marriage.

Megan also represented a changing of the guard, a modernization of the world as the show entered the late 1960s. Nowhere is this more evident than in her clothes, the many hidden details of which may surprise you.

10 She first appears in unremarkable officewear

Megan was barely distinguishable from her colleagues in the secretarial pool when she was first introduced. She mostly wore colorful shift dresses that were office-appropriate and relatively unremarkable, allowing her to blend into the background in many scenes. She even appeared at her desk when Don and Dr. Faye were having a private conversation, her presence between them foreshadowing how the relationship would play out.

The plainness of Megan’s first costumes made her later transformation all the more exciting. When Don proposed to her on vacation, she got a significant life upgrade financially — and it shows.

9 Her clothes were young and trendy, unlike Don’s

With their significant age difference, Don and Megan are your typical May-December couple, with costumes that show a sartorial generation gap. Don’s stodgy grey suit was his armor and the cornerstone of his wardrobe for all of Mad Men; as part of an older generation set in their ways, he rarely deviated from this traditional outfit.

Megan, other the other hand, was a fashion chameleon who jumped at the chance to wear the latest trends, whether it was a miniskirt, bell-bottoms, unusual print, or anything else new on the scene. It’s safe to say that the checkered sportscoats Don wore in later seasons was most likely Megan’s influence.

8 Her black dress had flowing sleeves for dramatic effect

At the beginning of Season 5, Megan throws a surprise birthday party for her new husband, complete with a provocative rendition of “Zou Bisou Bisou” in a now-famous scene. Also famous is the little black dress she wore, which had a rhinestone collar and pleated bell sleeves that moved gracefully with each step. It was a silhouette that hadn’t been seen before on the show.

The sleeves gave the vintage dress some drama while Megan performed, and it also established Megan as the most fashion-forward character on the show. She was much younger than the familiar faces at Sterling Cooper, and her presence in Betty’s absence was ushering in a new era of the show.

7 She wore the first minidress on the show

The little black dress for “Zou Bisou Bisou” was also the first mini dress on the show. Megan would wear many more of these dresses during the show’s run, and the shorter hemlines soon started appearing on other characters, like Sally Draper and the secretaries at Sterling Cooper.

Megan wore her minidresses with colored tights or fishnets, and she preferred a complementary block heel over go-go boots.  As the show’s most ambitious dresser, it’s no wonder that she would also be a trendsetter for the women.

6 Her style changed dramatically from East to West Coast

In New York, Megan’s style is closer to the classic French of her Montreal upbringing, with lots of monochromatic outfits and tailored coats. During her brief stint as a copywriter for Sterling Cooper, her office wardrobe is as enviable as Joan’s or Peggy’s once she left the colorful shift dresses behind.

After moving to Los Angeles, Megan’s style changes again, becoming much lusher and avant-garde. She wears wilder designs and more vibrant colors and pushes the envelope sartorially. If classic French fashion were a strong influence on her New York wardrobe, the equivalent for her Los Angeles wardrobe would be sunny, laid-back California.

5 Her style contrasted with Betty’s

Janie Bryant, the lead costume designer for Mad Men, had clear favorites when it came to which characters she enjoyed dressing. Betty and Megan exceeded the other characters in the number and variety of their costumes by far. Bryant loved both their wardrobes for different reasons: Betty’s for being beautiful, feminine, and romantic, and Megan’s because it was new, fashion-forward, and French.

The difference in the two women’s style is intentional and well-exemplified in “The Runaways,” when both Megan and Betty hosted parties. Megan’s was an unconventional (for the time) affair with dancing and drug paraphernalia. Betty’s was much more traditional and buttoned-up, suitable for a conservative politician’s wife. The two women also have different outlooks on life — unlike Betty, Megan expects self-actualization.

4 The Butler Shoes commercial represented a turning point in her wardrobe

The turning point in Megan’s character arc is her desire to leave advertising and pursue her dream of acting. Similarly, the key moment in her sartorial evolution is the Butler Shoes commercial. The television ad was Megan’s first acting opportunity, which she obtained through Don, and sees her in costume as Snow White.

After landing the commercial, Megan begins to transition from East to West Coast style, a shift that was also about separating herself from her former Sterling Cooper colleagues. After all, she belongs to the artistic community now and not the corporate world.

3 She was a fan of Pucci

Emilio Pucci was an Italian fashion designer and politician known for bold geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colors. His designs were especially popular in the 1960s and 1970s — and who better to wear them than Megan, who donned one of his purple micro mini dresses for an epic party.

Megan’s wardrobe contained pieces that no one else on the show could pull off. Too youthful and bohemian for Betty, Peggy, or Joan, the Pucci dress was indicative of Megan’s fashion-forward sensibility and West Coast ethos.

2 Her red star t-shirt inspired a popular fan theory

In Season 7, Megan moves to Los Angeles and settles into an isolated cabin in the mountains. Some fans theorized that Megan would meet the same fate as Sharon Tate, who was notoriously stabbed to death during a home invasion in the summer of 1969.

Some thought that Megan was a proxy for Tate, with references to the Mansons and spilled red wine hinting at her grisly demise. The source of all this speculation was a costume: Megan’s white t-shirt adorned with a red star that was identical to the one Tate wore for a racy magazine photoshoot.

1 Her changing wardrobe hinted at her superficiality

Megan’s wardrobe changes the most out of all the characters on Mad Men. Among the women, she is the only one who doesn’t have a costume template, like jewel-toned sheath dresses for Joan, mustard and plaid for Peggy, and a Grace Kelly or Jacqueline Kennedy-inspired ensemble for Betty.

In contrast, Megan had such dramatic transformations with every storyline. This might touch upon the reason many fans were conflicted about her character: she was willing to change so much about herself to get what she wanted, all to avoid the struggle and toil the other characters experience.

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