What We're Talking About This Week

Silicon Valley wunderkind Elon Musk has inspired a lot of people, while also being controversial at times - as most successful people are.  A new book about his life and career thus far was recently released, and here are some of the most memorable quotes from it.

 We are already loving the Cannes Film Festival's fashion, but we are most excited about the movies, of course.  Here's a list of the ones to watch out for.

This Sunday is the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco - a road race run consecutively every year since 1912.  If you love an excuse to dress up and show off your SF pride, be sure to be there!  If not, you can check out which streets to avoid here.

Dining and drinking al fresco are a year round enjoyment in SoCal, but it's still great to find an unexpected place to indulge... We are already fans of Malibu Wines, but we are looking forward to checking out these other unique suggestions in the LA area.

Mad Men is finally ending this Sunday.  We don't want it to go, but if it must, we hope it ends well... Creator Matthew Weiner and his cast have remained tight lipped, but we love the D.B. Cooper theory! 

Mad Men Finale Countdown

January Jones in Prabal Gurung at this week's final Mad Men premiere, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA

We are huge fans of Mad Men, making April 5th's premiere bittersweet.  We are sad to say good bye to Don, Betty, Peggy, Roger, Joan, and Pete, along with their families and colleagues.  Here's a round up of some of our favorite Mad Men links from this week's countdown.

Mad Men Conspiracy Theories

Career Lessons from Peggy

Character Cocktail Guide

Elevator Scenes

 Growing Up on Mad Men

Don't go, Don!

Images via Google

Can't Wait For: The Final Episodes of Mad Men

The second half of Mad Men's final season doesn't air until April 5th, but AMC has released several images to get us excited...  Megan is featured, which might be a surprise, and all of the cast members have definitely moved into a new era in fashion.  We love Betty's soft maxi dress, and Don looks dapper as always... Megan and Sally's ensembles, however, aren't our favorite looks from the time - the baby doll dress and aggressive crop top are best left in the past.  Pete, Peggy, Roger, and Joan are all looking sharp and stylish.  We can't wait to see how the rest of the characters have evolved, what other fashion costume designer Janie Bryant has come up with, and how creator Matthew Weiner will end the series.

Images via Google

Mad Men returns tonight!

Mad Men returns tonight for the first part of the seventh and final season. Creator Mathew Weiner has commented that 'he always set out to spin a Tale of Two Coasts, "to tell a story that started in 1960, where New York was the focus of not just the United States but the world, and to show the rise of California," which "certainly became, by the end of the '60s, the cultural center of the United States." We can't wait to see how they incorporate the new L.A. office into the storyline. We've been looking at photos of L.A. in 1969 in anticipation, here are some of our favorites:

Nicholson images from Life Magazine, other images from Google

Can't Wait For: Mad Men Season 7

One of our very favorite shows, Mad Men, returns to AMC on Sunday, April 13th, for the first part of its seventh and final season.  These photographs were just released to promote it, and it appears the fashion and sets are moving on from the mod looks of the mid-1960s to the more psychedelic styles of the late 1960s.  We can't wait to see more of the fashion and set design, but we are especially interested in the ways the characters develop in the last season, and how creator Matthew Weiner resolves (or doesn't resolve) things for Don Draper, his associates, and his family.   

See our previous Mad Men coverage here.

All images via Google

Fashion Inspiration: Megan Draper

Clockwise from top left: red dress, white dress, necklace, bag, black dress, trench, flats,
 black & white dress, stripe dress, sandals, swimsuit, sunglasses

Vintage Advertising

The 50s and 60s were an especially golden age of advertising. Agencies created the idea of the American Dream, and made it seem attainable to the average consumer. It's an ideal that is marketed to this day, but the customer has lost some of the optimism that helped make these ads so successful in the first place. The nature of advertising has changed as well, now that commercials can be fast-forwarded through, and so much of the consumer's time is spent online. Companies are able to track individual usage and really target their customer in ways vintage advertising was unable. However, many of these ads really hold up in terms of design. Here are some great examples:

 Travel

Interiors:

Cars:

 And of course, companies that have been featured on Mad Men: