Thank you, James St. James over at WOW for sharing this amazing piece. I couldn't have said it better myself.
On Sunday night’s episode of Mad Men, Megan Draper wore what seemed like a weirdly anachronistic T-shirt with
a red star on it. Not her usual style, and more ’80s than ’60s. But
apparently the red star T-shirt was identical to one that Sharon Tate
wore in an infamous 1967 Esquire photograph taken by William Helburn (pictured left). Helburn’s daughter tweeted Mad Men’s
head costume designer, Janie Bryant, asking, “Dying to know if this pic
of Sharon Tate inspired Megan’s look? My dad shot it for @esquiremag in
‘67. ” Bryant confirmed: “No coincidence! So nice to tweet meet you.” Since the exchange, an entire Reddit thread
has formed, speculating about the symbolism of the shirt and any
foreshadowing it could have for Jessica Paré’s character. According to Vanity Fair:
“Like fictional Megan, Sharon Tate was an up-and-coming television
actress in the 1960s. While married to Roman Polanski and
eight-and-a-half-months pregnant with his child, Tate was murdered in
her home by Charles Manson followers. Earlier this season, Megan
admitted that she had suffered a miscarriage. While wearing the T-shirt
in last Sunday’s episode, Megan is standing on the balcony outside her
and Don’s Manhattan apartment while ambulance sirens ring out below — a
nod to the city’s increased crime rates, which are acknowledged many
times throughout the episode.” All of which could spell DOOM for poor
Megan. Jezebel‘s Tracy Egan Morrissey has another theory, though: “While costume design on Mad Men
has been as deliberate and layered as the writing on the show, the red
star could also be a red herring. After all, Tate wasn’t murdered until
1969, but something else happened to her 1968 — she got pregnant just as
her acting career was taking off.”
