What a difference half a century makes. Brooks Brothers, essentially the creators of what came to be known as the Ivy League Look, used to scoff at the term. To wit, this passage from the 1959 novel “Try For Elegance” by former Brooks Brothers employee David Loovis: He [the floor manager] detested to the point …
It’s market week here in New York, and yesterday I stopped by the small menswear trade show at the Park Lane Hotel, where Crittenden Rawlings was showing. I previously wrote about him in January; Rawlings is a menswear veteran who’s worked for Norman Hilton and Ralph Lauren, and who has brought out a new Ivy-styled …
Considering that the necktie is supposed to be dying a slow death, there sure are an awful lot of start-up neckwear companies lately. Most push their made-in-USA credentials, and I think all of us — from nouveau-prep twentysomething to the oldest of old-school traditionalists — who are interested in tailored clothing can laud any new …
One year ago today I hit a golf ball for the first time. Since then I’ve hit 20,000 more. Every day for the past 365 days I’ve played golf, practiced it, watched it, read about it, or thought about it. When I haven’t been outdoors hitting balls, I’ve been rolling them across the purple putting …
For those who like your Ivy kosher and don’t mind the smell of moth balls, check out vintage dealer HabuchiHuckaby on eBay. According to his seller profile: I am very fortunate to have an in with some of the Midwest’s best dressed, and sadly fleeting, old-timers. These were the guys who used to grace the …
When you go to an Ivy League school, or so I’ve heard, there’s a certain hierarchy of coolness in your attitude towards it. Coolest of all, of course, is having dropped out to do better things, like Mark Zuckerberg. Basically you’re so smart you don’t even need an Ivy League degree. Dropping out because you …
Back in 2012 Richard Press volunteered to take reader questions, resulting in some interesting insight on the Ivy heyday. Ask him nicely and he might take some new questions. * * * Richard Press, Ivy Style’s “Golden Years” columnist, former president of J. Press, and grandson of Jacobi, will herein host a virtual question-and-answer session …
When madras season officially opened on Memorial Day, we ran a post showing George HW Bush clad in a madras sportcoat in company that wasn’t exactly wearing the same (can you imagine Obama or Romney doing that in 2012?) Now that July 4th marks our deeper descent into madras, this time we show the fabric …
Update, 3 July, 10:04 AM: Last night Ivy Style crossed the 10,000-comment threshold with these infamous words that will echo across America this summer as families pile up the station wagon and head out on the road: Are we there yet? The comment was left by none other than regular reader Henry, who will finally …