1950s
Tradified
From The Editor
John Burton, Publisher Ivy is a fashion born of a mindset manifested in a lifestyle. There are values attached: dignity, the value and power of thought, ethics, hard work, aesthetics, appreciation of all things classic, and the dogged pursuit of excellence. While Ivy evolves (I haven’t worn socks since Easter) the values don’t. If you …
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Revamped Website For Cable Car Clothiers
We segue from Charleston’s Ben Silver to another trad outpost far from the Northeast, this time San Francisco’s Cable Car Clothiers. Founded in 1939, the store has managed to survive the city’s transition from traditional stronghold (in such neighborhoods as Nob Hill and Pacific Heights), to beatnik and hippie haven, and finally dot-com hotbed. It’s …
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The Buck Starts Here.
Jazz Goes to College: Jazz and Ivy Style at Mid-Century
The Writing On The Wall
Ivy Notes S1 E4 – G. Bruce Boyer Corrects Me, A Brief History Of Abercrombie & Fitch, and The Great Alpacuna Debate
Heavy Duty Ivy and.. well…
Sinatra, Matthau and some West Coast Ivy
Ok, we were right. Now what?
The Ivy-Style Playlist Update
Dateline 1954, The Ivy League Look Heads Across The US
In our last post we mentioned a 1954 LIFE Magazine article entitled “The Ivy Look Heads Across US.” It’s been referenced several times here, including in a few of Richard Press’ columns, as J. Press was largely featured in the article. But we’ve never actually presented it here and new readers may not be familiar with …
The Marketing Man Who Made Jazz And Ivy Cool
Commenting on our article “Is Ivy Cool?” reader “Camford” asked, “Are cigarettes and jazz cool?” I cannot say whether they are cool. Well, I could, but I won’t, as my physician, insurance agent and childhood music teacher might be reading this article. But I believe they are both addictive and potentially lethal. When I was young …
Liberty Belle
It’s the Fourth Of July 2021, and we’re at a loss for words. So let’s just look at a sex symbol from the heyday, in this case the woman born Norma Jeane Mortonson. No doubt many a buttoned-down fellow dreamed about her, saying things like, “Her eyes I adore so. And her torso? Even more …
Buckle-Back Flannels and Cordovan Loafers, 1954
This advertisement depicts the classic fall combo of gray flannels and penny loafers, with the added details of cordovan leather and buckle on the back. The ad ran in Gentry magazine in 1954.
My ’50s Childhood
This week for reasons unknown, though perhaps related to a fine bottle of California Zinfandel, I sat down and watched the movie “Grease.” The movie was released in 1978 when I was eight years old, and as my sister and I were both in dancing class, my parents took us to this clever addition to the …
Hanover Hangover: A Selection Of Vintage Dartmouth Videos
Yesterday Richard Press opined on his days at Dartmouth among “college guys with bloody bloodshot eyes,” and today we offer a hangover cure in the form of videos from the heyday of the Ivy League Look. You could call it a hair of the bulldog, except that’s Yale.
O’Connell’s, Where It’s Still 1959
With summer in the home stretch we revisit this post showing a glimpse of what O’Connell’s, one of the last surviving independent trad clothiers, sold back in the day. A 2012 edition of the Buffalo News carried a story on independent men’s clothiers, including O’Connell’s, which has opened in Buffalo in 1959 and still carries …
The Cleanest Cut: Remembering Dick Clark
A clean-cut appearance has always been part of the Ivy League Look. With a soft-shouldered jacket and Princeton haircut, a young man could conveniently mask his salacious intentions. After all, what father could fear for his teenage daughter’s honor while on a date with a boy wearing a cardigan? In the 1950s, this kind of …
The Ivy League Look In Australia In The ’50s
During the heyday of the Ivy League Look, the natural-shoulder diaspora spread not only from the Ancient Eight to campuses across America, it also spread to far corners of the globe. In March of 1957, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the growing trend for American Ivy League clothes. Farmer’s is a department store that …
Dirty White Bucks & An Ivy League Coat
We’ve previously featured pop tunes from the Ivy heyday (and from the good old days when guys would sing about their clothes), and here’s another one: Ronnie Haig & Jerry Siefert singing the praises of dirty white bucks and “an Ivy League coat to burn out your eye.” Ignore the references to tight pants.