Mad Men Costume Designer Janie Bryant on the End of an Era

What could I possibly ask Janie Bryant that she hasn’t been asked before?

The Emmy-winning costume designer, whose work on Mad Men is arguably as significant to the show as the characters she dressed, has been the subject of numerous profiles and features over the past eight years. The media’s obsession with Bryant—and the way she used that obsession to help established herself as a name brand—has been nothing but good for the world of costume designing.

But when we meet less than a week before the Mad Men series finale at an outdoor cafe in Beverly Hills, I worry that there is nothing else left to say. We know that Bryant doesn’t have a favorite character to dress—how could one choose between Peggy and Joan?—that she’s constantly working on numerous projects outside of the show, and that she has her sights set on launching a Janie Bryant labeled fashion line in the future.

“Well, no one has ever asked me if I’ve hurt an actor,” she says between bites of paté. I assume that the answer is yes; that through all that hemming and pinning there must’ve been a pin prick or two. “I can’t say that I have, unless you count making them wear uncomfortable corsets and hot itchy wool in the middle of summer.”

So that’s settled. Thankfully, there’s more! So much more.

“It was actually never my intention for Mad Men to be about fashion,” Bryant says, wearing a cobalt-blue-and-floral wiggle dress from her collaboration with Black Halo, which hits department stores this summer. “It’s about creating a certain period and being transported in time while telling the story of these characters in a real way.”

A look from Bryant’s collection for Black Halo.

Unintentionally or not, Mad Men and the fashion world have been intrinsically linked from the beginning, inspiring runway collections—most notably, Michael Kors’ Fall 2008 effort—and partnerships with Brooks Brothers (in 2009) and Banana Republic (in 2011, 2012 and 2013). “That one Brooks Brothers suit sold out in an instant,” Bryant says. “And I think all three of the Banana Republic collections sold out within two weeks.”

It was clear from the first episode of Mad Men that the clothes would be part of the next-day conversation about the show. Early on, fashion websites began recapping the costumes the way TV critics recapped the plotline. And Bryant,along with writing her own recaps for InStyle and GQ, took an interest in those interpretations of her work, happily chatting with journalists about Betty’s “sad clown” dress from Season 2’s “A Night to Remember,” or Peggy’s roller skates from this season’s “Lost Horizon,” which she found at a vintage store in Burbank.

Peggy Olsen roller skating through the office in this season’s “Lost Horizon” episode. Photo: AMC

“It was basically the smallest, grungiest little vintage store that I’ve ever been to,” says Bryant, recalling her hunt for that hard-to-find prop. “The guy brings out a bunch of sneaker roller skates from the mid ‘70s that didn’t work. Then, there was this one pair in the back under all of these clothes, shining like a beam of light. They were [actress Elisabeth Moss’] size, and from the exact time period, late ‘60s. I think I got them for $15. She tried them on and they fit perfectly.”

And who could forget Megan’s Sharon Tate moment from Season 6’s “The Better Half“? “One of the craziest moments I ever had on the show was when Megan’s t-shirt went viral,” Bryant says. (To refresh your memory: In the episode, Megan Draper, Don’s third wife, wears a star t-shirt that looks like the one Manson Family-victim Sharon Tate wore in her 1967 Esquire shoot. Which led the internet to believe that Megan, too, would be murdered.) “After all of the thousands and thousands of costumes that have been seen on this show, this is what people go crazy over?”

Megan Draper’s star shirt. Photo: AMC

Bryant’s willingness to engage with both conspiracy theorists and more realistic fans is one of the reasons her star now shines so brightly. As seasoned designer who won an Emmy for her work on Deadwood, she has been able to graciously parlay the attention received around Mad Men into multiple personal projects, including a collection with QVC, a book, and more recently a line with Shoes of Prey and a gig designing the uniforms for the soon-to-be-reopened Watergate Hotel. An odd job, maybe, but one she’s thoroughly excited about. The looks include double-breasted and three-piece suits for the men and mod dresses for the women. “I love the idea of designing uniforms because if they’re not fit properly, they can look very sloppy,” says the decorum-obsessed designer. “These are all perfectly tailored.”

There are dozens more projects I could mention: Mack Weldon socks, Maidenform underpinnings, brand ambassadorships for Sony and Hearts on Fire. But Bryant’s partnerships have done more than boost her own name. They have brought increased attention to the career of costume designing. Without Bryant’s open-door policy, who knows if her colleagues would have been so willing to share play-by-plays on looks from shows like Scandal and movies like American Hustle, or if we would have been so interested. (Sex and the City’s Patricia Field deserves a nod here, too, but her stardom came before the immediacy of the Internet.)

One thing does get to Bryant, though: “My biggest, biggest pet peeve is when people call me a stylist. I don’t understand it,” says the former debutante, who was born and raised in Tennessee. “I am a costume designer, I’m part of the Costume Designers Guild, I’ve been nominated for seven Emmys. It’s such a different job. Both jobs are great, and it’s not about taking away from one job or the next. That’s one thing that I don’t stand for. It’s a different craft, art, and understanding of creative elements.”

Now, Bryant is eager to use those skills to build a namesake lifestyle brand that can stand on its own: no collaborator necessary. “I’m working on it everyday,” she hints. “I love design, whether it be women’s men’s, home. It’s all about that experience. For me, it’s about all of those different elements in one swipe. They can all just be under Janie Bryant. That’s my vision.”

But don’t expect Bryant to abandon more traditional costume design roles altogether. What surprised me most about our discussion was how sad she seemed about the end of Mad Men. When I asked her if she was ready to move on, she said: “I don’t know. With each episode my heart breaks a little bit more. I’m excited about seeing the finale, but at the same time I’m dreading it because it’s going to be the end.” As for whether we’ll find her name on the credits of another series any time soon? “If a show came along that I was really inspired by, that I could feel passionate about? Sure. But I’ve been really busy working on my own projects. It’s nice to have a mix.”

That mix is what has propelled Bryant into what’s arguably the best sort of stardom. When I arrive at our meeting, a nearby table of women is smiling and whispering, too proud to say hello but too excited not to acknowledge that they’re in the presence of a famous person. When they leave, I ask Bryan if it’s strange to get that sort of attention. “No, I love it!” she freely admits. “Once I was in Silver Lake and this girl walked past and asked if I was Janie Bryant. She said I was fabulous, and I got so excited like a little kid.” I have a feeling Silver Lake is only the beginning.