Style crush - Joan Holloway from Mad Men

Joan Holloway from Mad Men, played fabulously by Christina Hendricks is one of my ultimate style crushes.  She’s totally sexy, totally voluptuous, red-headed, fantastically dressed in the most stylish outfits that the 1960s can offer, always perfectly accessorised, styled and made up and always dressed appropriately for whatever the situation. 

If you’ve never seen Mad Men, I suggest you buy the DVDs immediately and occupy the sofa until you’ve viewed them all.  You’ll be in for a treat – even if you don’t appreciate the plot twists and turns of the ad men of Madison Avenue, their wives and secretaries, for the look of the show alone, this is easily the most stylish programme ever made.  The sets, the outfits, the hair, the makeup, the cars are all fantastically detailed.

 

One of the things I love about Joan's style is that it's almost timeless.  Not quite, but probably 80% of the items she wears could easily be translated to today.  It's a shame that they don't make clothes like this very often now.   Here are some of her outfits - I think the green and rust ones are my favourite:

Images from Google Images

Check out her amazing make-up here:

I don’t want to focus on the comments made last week by the MP Lynne Featherstone, who claimed that Christina Hendricks was a good role model for young girls, the polar opposite to waif-like models.  Whilst I do agree that whilst seeing someone as stunning as Christina, dressed to the nines in figure hugging clothes and attracting the attention of every male in the wider vicinity is very refreshing, she also has an idealised figure, the perfect Marilyn-esque hour glass.  My opinion is that women should be happy whatever their body shape and shouldn’t feel pressurised either way.  However, as a curvy girl myself, it’s very interesting seeing how Joan dresses to flatter, reveal and also modestly cover her body.

I was going to post this yesterday, but in my hunt for pictures I found this amazing blog by Tom and Lorenzo.  In a series of posts, they analyse all Joan’s outfits in great detail.  It’s amazing – learning about her use of scarves, accessories, colour and pattern is fascinating.  I ended up reading all of their Joan blog posts and before I knew it, it was really late.  For any Joan Holloway or Mad Men fans, I urge you to read their posts.  They also look at other characters – I’m starting to read their posts about Betty Draper’s style.

Joan Holloway – you are really a fashion icon and my No. 1 style crush.

Thanks for reading!  xx