Buttondowns & Batik: A Campus Shop Ad Gallery

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Some examples of ads from campus newspapers during the Ivy heyday. In the next post, we’ll show you some examples of batik in 2014. — CS & CC

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13 Comments on "Buttondowns & Batik: A Campus Shop Ad Gallery"

  1. The last ad is a fascinating rundown of the breadth of the genre during the heyday. Who says Ivy can’t be elegant?

  2. Vern Trotter | July 29, 2014 at 1:50 pm |

    It is always a bittersweet experience when I see the old ads. I never dreamed our style, with a very few exceptions, would have almost completely become a total anhedonia.

  3. Go togethers, Timothy Leary and Batik!
    Sorry, but I think Batik is hideous and reminds me of the psychodelic days and the beginning of the end for Ivy’s heyday.

  4. I remember the batik button downs, but most weren’t “tribal” prints. They were paisleys and more like large foulard tie prints. OneI must remember that batik is as much a process as a style of print.

  5. @MAC

    You’re right. Didn’t give it a thought on the earlier article, but I had a batik button down back around 1965. It was predominately blue with the geometric print, like the Arrow shirt in the first ad. I don’t know why, but at the time, I identified the shirt with the Dave Clark Five.

    It was my favorite shirt at the time, and my mother promised to buy me another when the shirt became tattered. I recall a small rip that disintegrated the shirt sleeve almost overnight. I never got another; I recall she told me she couldn’t find one. Mom made it into a short sleeve for summer duty.

    If I see a similar shirt on clearance sale at Macy’s or somewhere, I’ll buy another. Full price, NEVER.

    Cheers!

  6. Olive seersucker, please (University Shop ad).

  7. Reactionary Trad | July 29, 2014 at 11:03 pm |

    As if madras weren’t bad enough!

  8. Why did they portray a man with an eye patch in The English Shop ad? Were they trying to be funny by mixing the images of an old English pirate and a modern father? Maybe it was part of a witty marketing plot, but I don’t get it. I think it would look rather sinister in today’s advertising. 🙂

    On the other hand, I love the first jacket on the Saks Fifth Avenue ad.

  9. Confronted with $35 Batik jackets and $32.50 Madras jackets it must have been a tough job to convince yourself that you preferred the look of an $18.50 Seersucker jacket.

  10. OldSchool | July 30, 2014 at 8:32 am |

    Here’s an easier-to-read version of the full text of the “Man in the Hathaway Shirt” ad:

    http://www.directmarketinginstitute.com/HathawayShirtAd.htm

  11. Where would one wear such a thing nowadays, other than to a screening of “Magical Mystery Tour”?

  12. @ OldSchool,

    Thanks for calling me a “youngster”. You’ve made my day! 🙂

    Now I understand what it was all about. It was, indeed, part of a witty marketing plot. Glad to have learnt something new today.

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