In addition to meticulously researched vintage reproductions, plus the regular dispatching of photographers and reporters to capture American collegiate style in its native habitat, the Japanese have long used illustration as a way of expressing their fervent admiration of Ivy style. From stark line drawings to realistic paintings and silly cartoons, the Japanese continue to honor the art of fashion illustration decades after the American media abandoned it. — CC
These are amazing… Especially the cut out Ivy Friends!
Many more to come, and I just found an amazing finale for the collection.
What I’ve always found interesting about these Japanese type images is that you don’t see as many 3/2 rolls…more out and out three buttons.
These are great! I have another Popeye that addresses Ivy style that I picked up in a used bookstore in Japan. It was a lot of fun to read; those Popeye writers sure had some interesting ideas about the Ivy look (like a shaggy dog sweater under a seersucker jacket!)
I still think that Ivy clothing and Japanese men are visually incompatible, but these illustrations are certainly better than anything I’ve ever seen produced by Caucasians.
I feel the same way whenever I see white guys doing karate.
@Christian
or white women wearing kimonos, for that matter
I was joking, though. And Kim Cattrall looks adorable wearing a cheongsam in “Big Trouble in Little China.”
Is it strange that I find the illustrations incredibly cute? Loving the Cadet Ivy Leaguer and Ivy Friends.
For the Wodehousians among us, please note the yellow mackintosh — the signature garment of Stanley F. Ukridge.
I’m a Japanese grown up by sbscribing The Mens Club, a fashion magazine monthly dipicting the Ivy/Trad fashion, when I was an undergraduate student in Tokyo. The image created by the magazine made me believe that the students at the Ivy League schools wear those Ivy/Trad gears everyday. I was surprised to know that they do not wear those when I came to Cornell as a graduate student in 1990 and as a visiting scholar in 2011 respectively. Why do not you take Ivy?
In the cover with that says VAN for the young and young-at-heart with the black suit, what is that thing called that the clothes are hung on? I’ve always had one in my room because its been passed down for generations, but I’ve never known what it’s called. I obviously don’t use it properly, and I only know one other buddy that has one (his is new).
Interesting that a number of the backgrounds seem to feature European locales; particularly the image of the gentleman in the yellow mac standing amidst a quintessential Italian milieu featuring an early ’50s Belluno-registered Fiat 500C.
Johnny Reb,
That is called a valet, I believe.
My valet was crafted by a notable maker in the 1910’s or 20’s. I don’t remember the name, but it was by the same person who made the dining set that’s in my mothers house. Can anyone help me out? I do recall it was mentioned in Fitzgerald’s ” The Beautiful and the Damned.” Something about “she was weeping all over the [name] furniture”…
@Christian,
You may have thought you were joking, but Caucasian women wearing
kimonos don’t have the right bodies and simply look like they’re
mocking Japanese culture. Caucasian men doing karate should grow up.
Japanese men painstakingly imitating every minute detail of Ivy
clothing are the male equivalent of Japanese women having eyelid
operations to look like Westerners.
@Tabor Kid
The word “furniture” occurs 9 times in “The Beautiful and the Damned”, with no mention of the manufacturer. Could you be thinking of a different novel?
88: the impersonality of furniture, but every one who came into his
1524: a style in architecture or furniture. It’s acquired a picturesque dignity to
4096: his books were to be but furniture and his friends only people who lived
5543: the unfamiliar, impersonal furniture and the half-oppressive ceiling that
8244: for which he had bought his furniture and hangings — it was the closest to a
9687: Get up and move the furniture back. DICK: Wait till I finish my
9720: breaking of lamps. When the furniture has been stacked in ugly masses at the
10259: to display Anthony’s best furniture, they were clean, new, and, in a blonde
10774: and a great amount of furniture. This was in storage, for he had spent
“I still think that Ivy clothing and Japanese men are visually incompatible, but these illustrations are certainly better than anything I’ve ever seen produced by Caucasians.”
I think that’s because much of the clothing is not produced in the right colors for most Asian people’s coloration! The Japanese penchant for exact reproductions does not help here, either.
Bibliophile:
Thanks for the insight. I was paraphrasing, so maybe the word furniture wasn’t actually used. This is killing my curiosity, but I’ll just look at the dining room set the next time I’m home.
Kimonos are designed to look best on a roughly tubular body, so curvy women need padding and strapping to get things more or less in line. And yes, Western women just look off in them.
In contrast, a cheongsam is supposed to be tight-fitting, so will flatter a curvy woman. Still, like the Vietnamese ao dai, it is probably best left to Asian women.
Nearly any man can look good in a jacket and tie, but yes, the colors that flatter most Caucasians do not flatter most Asians, so slavish imitation will seldom make Asian men look their best. I think that’s part of why navy suits and white shirts are so popular in (parts of) Asia.
I fail to see any connection between martial arts and “growing up,” however. Are you saying that Westerners should stick to boxing, fencing, and shooting, or are you saying that grown men should not be able to defend themselves and their families?
@Henry:
I can assure you that Caucasian men look better in navy suits and white shirts than they do in the nursery school colors favored by those who prefer “preppy” to Trad.
You’ll get no argument from me, Curmudgeon.
I absolutely love that penultimate image. Everything about it and there’s much to say. Shame that it isn’t available in high resolution and that I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else, after much searching. Sigh…
Best appreciated after a couple of hundred micrograms of LSD, one imagines…
@ Johnny Reb: that’s called a wooden valet. I also have one passed down to me. They really are quite convenient for laying out your clothing to rest after the day’s wearing, and to air out, or prior to the day’s dressing (late the night before), unless you live in an old house with a moth problem 😛 🙂
* from the times when a man might have been more likely to actually have a real valet, and have to distinguish between the two. My Dad had a valet, when I was young. His name was Tony, he was also my Dad’s driver and worked on the cars.