Where to find 'Mad Men' fashion and home decor on Long Island
Sayville's Paper Doll Vintage Boutique owner Dominique Maciejka models fashion items from her store: a splatter dress with empire waist ($119) made of bark cloth; a print umbrella ($37), and an orange travel case ($30). Credit: Johnny Milano
Time to pour the Scotch. "Mad Men," the AMC show depicting work and life -- friendship, romance, betrayal -- in a Manhattan advertising agency in the 1960s, will showcase the last year of the decade as it returns for the first half of its final season (April 13 at 10 p.m.). And what a year it was.
In 1969, men landed on the moon, hippies invaded Woodstock, the "Miracle Mets" won the World Series, President Richard Nixon took office, and young people took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War.
It also was the year of polyester clothes and plastic furniture.
Here on Long Island, there are places to authenticate the look and feel of that era:
THE CLOTHES
The Paper Doll Vintage Boutique in Sayville is a good place to replicate the cool fashions of Betty Francis or the sultry young look of Megan Draper. In fact, the store specializes in fashions of the late '60s through early '70s, says owner Dominique Maciejka, 30.
"It's one of my personal favorite time periods," she says.
"There was rock and roll and Andy Warhol and The Factory ... people were looser with their hair. It was a more laid-back silhouette."
The emergence of polyester also changed fashion. It allowed for large, bold color patterns and was a cheaper way to manufacture clothing, she says. Travel was more mainstream, and more women were working outside their homes, she adds. Hemlines moved up, go-go boots went on.
Prints were in. Colors were in broken shades, Maciejka says. Think lime green with forest green with pea soup green and a splash of black.
Most of the boutique's dresses are priced from $35 to $55, although some rare collectibles can go much higher. One of Maciejka's prized dresses is an Emilio Pucci green number for $389.
INFO 23 N. Main St., 631-319- 1919, shoppaperdollvintage.com
THE FURNITURE
"Plastics," that famous line from the 1967 movie "The Graduate," says a lot about what was happening in home decor.
Consignment Galore in Riverhead has a strong collection of the late '60s-early '70s furniture. Among its prized offerings is a red-and-white Raymond Loewy DF 2000 plastic furniture set (bed headboard, valet and dresser) that looks like it could be on the "Mad Men" set. It's $15,000, negotiable.
The same Raymond Loewy valet, manufactured in France in 1969, is part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The shop has other more modest pieces representing the era, including a chrome-and- glass coffee table for $225.
INFO 54 E. Main St., Riverhead, 631-591-1967, consignmentgalore.com
THE HISTORY
In July 1969, American families gathered around their TV sets to watch the landing of the lunar excursion module. Fuzzy videos captured Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon.
That module, code-named Eagle, was built in Bethpage by Grumman Aircraft Engineering, at the time one of Long Island's biggest employers. A lunar module built around the same time -- and that was supposed to go to the moon -- is now housed in the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City.
"There's also a simulator that the astronauts trained on," says museum curator Josh Stoff. "It's the actual one from Cape Kennedy."
That simulator, also built at Grumman and used by the astronauts from 1968 to 1972 to train for the lunar landing, is part of the museum's permanent collection.
INFO $14 admission
($12 ages 2-12), 516-572-4111, cradleofaviation.org
