Earlier this week, Men of Habit’s Chris Callis — and current Norman Hilton lookbook stylist and coordinator — posted this vintage Hilton advertisement from 1958. The copy includes the phrase “comfortably distinctive,” a good description of the Ivy League Look in general. A link to the latest Norman Hilton lookbook was placed in our Ephemera …
The Yale-Vassar bike race found its origins in a drunken wager. At a meeting of Yale’s Trumbull Beer and Bike Society, one student declared he could beat another in a bicycle race all the way to Vassar. However, this valiant duel between two determined Trumbull residents quickly became a popular annual tradition in the early …
Bruce Boyer has noted that the two most prominent colors during the heyday of the Ivy League Look were charcoal and olive. But while charcoal remains a default basic, olive is an often overlooked accent color. We asked Boyer what he remembers of olive during the heyday, and he penned this little ode on its …
London-based Ivy Style contributor Rebecca C. Tuite, currently at work on a book on the iconic Vassar Girl of the ’50s, posted this photo on her personal blog. The shot is from the Vassar archives and commemorates the school’s sesquicentennial. Writes Tuite: Vassar students and their weekend dates take a stroll around Vassar’s beautiful Sunset …
As a follow-up to our previous post on the Brooks Brothers women’s collection moving back into the Madison Avenue flagship, we take a look at a 1954 LIFE Magazine article and newly discovered LIFE archive photos depicting the trend of women buying boys and mens clothing at Brooks. The photos also reveal what the store …
It’s kind of funny to think that standards of dress for a football game half a century ago were higher than for much of corporate America today. Several shots of the crowd reveal all the requisite gear: natural shoulders, buttondown collars, rep ties, short haircuts, and crewneck sweaters worn high in the front. — CC
Back in the heyday of the Ivy League Look, when a boy was going steady he’d remove the locker loop on the back of his oxford-cloth buttondown, signalling to other females that he was spoken for. And how did a female student signal she was taken? By wearing her boyfriend’s college scarf. The practice was …
If you don’t live on the East Coast and are under the age of 60, the term “Boston Cracked Shoe” will not likely have any resonance. But being 77, and having spent all of my business career in the East, it’s a part of the history of the Ivy League Look that is impossible to …
Princeton, NJ resident Bill Stephenson graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1954 and lived in the Delta Upsilon fraternity house. Herein he shares his thoughts on haircuts and grooming products during the heyday of the Ivy League Look. Back in the day, undergraduates throughout the US looked pretty similar when it came to hairstyles, …
We’ve previously written on how the Ivy League Look was the perfect garb to gain approval from a girl’s father. Even though a boy had wolfish intentions, in white bucks and a crew cut he might convince her parents to let her stay out past 10. Now here’s a tune that makes the same case: …
Just how much was the Ancient Eight a part of pop culture during the heyday of the Ivy League Look? Enough to inspire a B movie like 1959’s “Ivy League Killers,” whose title, reeking of both murder and elitism, was sure to have kids across the nation flocking to drive-ins. The film (which was made …
New contributor Rebecca C. Tuite, an English Ph.D. candidate studying the sociology of American fashion, recently toured the Northeastern US interviewing ’50s-era Vassar alumnae. In this article, on how the Ivy League Look influenced Seven Sisters style, she shares some of her findings. When Marilyn Monroe steps onto the screen in “Some Like It Hot,” …
I’ve previously presented two articles on Brooks Brothers from the troubled Marks & Spencer era. This one, from four decades earlier, was featured in the September, 1950 issue of the Esquire-owned digest Coronet, and also reflects a time of corporate management change. In 1946 Brooks Brothers was bought by the Washington, DC department store known …
For Ivy-Style’s 200th post, I thought I’d break out something special I’ve been sitting on for awhile. Last year, between Los Angeles and New York, I spent six months in my old environs of the Bay Area, including five weeks staying with a former flame (now married to a Hungarian who lost his baronetcy in …
The Hartmarx Corporation has closed up its Hart, Schaffner & Marx and Hickey Freeman archives until their full public unveiling. These are the last images I was able to grab before the gate closed. They date from the 1950s and document the trend in menswear to the natural-shouldered look. The final document has a nice …
Last spring, when I found this New Yorker article on the Ivy League Football Association, football season was already over and baseball was in the air. I’ve been sitting on it ever since and if I don’t post it now, I’ll forget and another season will be gone. It’s not much: The main revelation is …
Students in science and technology today aren’t exactly known for their style (then again, what students are?) But in 1956, MIT’s graduating class of 900 was better dressed than just about any random group of 900 people you could find anywhere today, even among the rich or the glamor professions. There are also some real …
Previously we’ve posted on the 1956 prep-school angst film “Tea and Sympathy.” Here’s an image from the newly digitized Hart, Schaffner & Marx archives, undated but from roughly the same time. Call this one Tea and Approval. The older gent is obviously the girl’s father, and clearly approves of her suitor’s suit. — CC
It’s overcoat season, and while extra bulk might give you the illusion of being warmer, it also takes away style points. At least according to this vintage advertisement from Hickey Freeman. While our previous two posts on the newly digitized Hartmarx archives highlighted images of the Hart, Schaffner & Marx brand, this one is from …
Recently I was invited to Hickey Freeman on New York’s Madison Avenue, where, in the offices above the retail store, I found the menswear equivalent of buried treasure: Four rooms packed with thousands of documents chronicling 100 years of American history through the lens of men’s fashion. The recently bankrupt Hartmarx Corporation — which owns …
One of the saddest phrases in the English language is “You missed a great party.” Well here’s one we all missed. In 1957 jazz historian and Harvard/Yale alum Marshall Stearns threw the ultimate jazz-Ivy shindig. Held in honor of sitar player Ravi Shankar, the party juxtaposed Indian music with jazz, and included a jam session …
For the Beat Generation, there were only two places to live: New York’s Greenwich Village and San Francisco’s North Beach. North Beach has been an old stomping ground of mine since my early twenties. I recently paid a visit to the neighborhood after years of exile in Los Angeles. Broadway is home to San Francisco’s …
Six months ago we ran a post called “College Miscellany,” comprised of various shots from the LIFE archives. Here’s an encore (click images for hi-res version). First up are several shots from Bowdoin College in Maine. Above, 1952; below, 1957: