Hell’s Bells, you guys. Alison Brie gets a “Dress Like Your Television” two-parter—and a special place in everyone’s fashion heart—for playing not just one, but TWO of the best characters on television. Last week we gave you easy tips on how to dress like her Annie Edison from Community, and this week we’re heading back to the 1960s to bring you a special how-to about her character Trudy Campbell on AMC‘s Mad Men (which will be returning to your television sets in exactly 67 days. Mark your calenders!)
Trudy’s fashion choices are often overlooked relative to the Mad Men ladies with more screen time—Betty, Peggy, Joan, and even newish-on-the-scene Megan—but this is a crying shame, because everything about Trudy’s wardrobe is over-the-top wonderful (save for the hideous pink marshmallow nighty she wore while massively pregnant. Oh, honey, no.).
Trudy usually gets pigeonholed alongside Betty, as they are both housewives of means, and their shirtdress-filled wardrobes are a sharp contract to any of the women who work at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce, all decked-out in pencil skirts and tailored pieces. But while Betty’s dresses still seem very 1950s-era in their subdued fabrics and solid colors, Trudy truly is a woman of the 60s who is much more fashion-forward, and only seems to be held back a bit by her stay-at-home wife-turned-mom role. Betty stays the conservative course style-wise for the most part, but Trudy experiments with different fabrics and patterns—florals, geometrics, paisleys, and plaids—slowly dipping her toes into the late ’60s mod movement.
And she sure can dance the hell out of the Charleston:
The keys to Trudy’s wardrobe are simple:
1. Day dresses in patterned fabrics. No solids and certainly nothing plain around here. Lots of brown, oxblood, green.
2. The girl knows how to throw a party and be the life of one. Trudy’s dressier wardrobe is filled with full-skirted pastels and floral dresses. They are often accessorized with giant hats, big jewelry, and modern hair up-dos and flips. Trudy may have moved to the suburbs to raise her daughter Tammy, but she certainly doesn’t dress like mom.
3. It’s all in the details with Trudy. Cluster pearls, beading, brooches, belts.
Dressing like 1960s Trudy Campbell in the year 2013 is not as complicated or difficult as you might think. It’s simple, really. The key is to wear dresses, dresses, and more dresses. Be sure that your dresses are patterned and colorful and have Trudy’s signature full skirt, but that you look for slightly more modern silhouettes and designs, with details like lace and belts and ties.
1. Turquoise Bubble Necklace, $19, Etsy
2. Your Lucky Daisy Dress, $344.99, ModCloth
3. Gimlet Shoe, $44, Coast
4. I Lily Like You Dress, $84.99, Modcloth
5. Pave Post Earrings, $24, Anthropologie
6. Backyard Feast Dress in Birds, $264.99, Modcloth
Want more ways to Dress Like Your Television? Check out how to dress like Jess from New Girl, Zoey from Hart of Dixie, Mindy from The Mindy Project, and Emily from Revenge.
About Ali Martell
