Past or future, Peggy's present is an all-time fashion must-have ...

On last night's ep of Mad Men, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) enters her office to find that a gift has been delivered -- she unwraps the package, and ... a telltale orange box?!? The melding of fashion and pop culture on TV's hottest show is complete as Hermes makes its foray into the one watercooler program that is just as much about style as it is the well-structured, scintillating scripts.

Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) soon enters the scene, but forget about the childish, we-love-each-other/hate-each-other banter that ensues -- instead get rapturous over that which Peggy soon unfurls from the signature orange box: a Brides de Gala scarf, the most popular silk-twill creation ever crafted by Hermes. We show it here in red, while Peggy's was accented in pale blue. Following are all the stats to start you on the path to becoming a Brides aficionado:

Origin: The house's silk-twill scarves, or carre's, were first envisioned in 1937 by Robert Dumas, grandfather of current design director Pierre-Alexis Dumas. Eager to find some way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the house, Robert Dumas (founder Thierry Hermes's great-grandson by marriage) was fascinated by the notion of printing on silk, and so created a 90-centimeter-square carre titled Jeu des Omnibus et Dames blanches, which illustrated the debut of the Paris omnibus line from Madeleine to Bastille. Each carre continues to be hand-silkscreened in much the same way since 1937, while edges likewise continue to be hand-rolled, all from a factory in Lyon, France's home to the silk trade.

1957: Dumas by now is calling on acclaimed artists for his carre designs, and in this year enlists Hugo Grygkar to sketch the famed Brides de Gala, or "gala bridles," a tribute to the house's origins as a bridle, harness and saddle maker. In July 1963, the moment in which this episode is set, a Brides de Gala would be instantly recognized as a gift equal parts chic, luxe and timeless.

Grygkar would go on to become Hermes's most prolific scarf designer, while Brides de Gala continues to rank handily as the pinnacle of most-popular designs, indeed highly sought-after as a bona fide cult item for collectors. It's been reinterpreted in more than 70 colorways over 52 years, with embroidery and sequins also finding their way onto special-edition Brides de Gala designs. If there's only one Hermes scarf on which you can invest, this is it, no question; not unlike the expression on Peggy's face as she brushed the silk against her cheek, the allure of such an icon is, quite simply, unforgettable.

(scarf photo courtesy of David Hamsley)