Are you a Japanophile, or just like to brush up on your knowledge of world history? Well earlier this season online retailer Bodega ran a lengthy piece on “ametora,” or American Trad in Japan. What’s helpful about it is that it provides a nice cursory overview of Japan’s gradual opening to Western cultural (and sartorial) …
During my first two of years of college, I worked part-time as an English as a Second Language tutor to immigrants and exchange students. One guy on my roster was a slightly cocky fellow from Japan who preferred we conduct our lessons in the student union over the billiard table, which I was more than …
Last Friday Richard Press, the team from J. Squeeze, DCG aka The Millennial Fogey, and myself gathered at the Rowing Blazers shop in downtown NYC for a shindig celebrating the latest RB collaboration. It’s with none other than J. Press, and consists of what you might call a postmodern branding of the iconic Shaggy Dog. …
Shaggy Dog season is upon us in most of the country. It’s certainly here for the Lauren family, as one member was in J. Press this weekend stocking up on brushed Shetlands. And that’s our springboard from winter to spring, as we take a look at the recently unveiled Spring 2019 Polo collection. Neo-prep is …
Are we in the midst of a preppy revival, or its final orgiastic-death throes-supernova? As with everything, there’s reason to believe both. But today let’s look at the notion of a prepocalypse. Last week LA-based designer Greg Lauren partnered with fashion brand KITH for a collection that was likened to a preppy apocalypse. The creative wellsprings …
Darkness has fallen, the witching hour is upon us, and the boys from “Take Ivy” have rolled over in their graves, disinterred themselves, and become the walking dead, driven by the unholy urge to retake Ivy. Trick or treat!
Last week I stopped by the Ralph Lauren Madison Avenue flagship, where the collegiate trend was out in full force. I quickly and stealthily took some iPhone snapshots, and then chatted with what you might call the chief decorating officer. Together we expressed our curiosity as to how the fashion-consuming public will respond to the …
Here’s a patch of prose from Esquire: Imagine a world in which the style of John F. Kennedy’s America never ended. It’s a world where clothes are unapologetically preppy, and where dressing for occasion is still a primary element of social life. Suits and blazers would be of the classic Brooks Brothers variety (perfectly tailored, …
There are signs that neo-prep is witnessing a global revival, as Drake’s fall collection was shot at Oxford and invokes the sacred term “collegiate.” Of course, it also invokes “irreverent.” …a collection which approaches the tenets of classic menswear in irreverent fashion; doffing its knitted watch cap to collegiate apparel while remaining distinctly unstuffy. Check …
Like this post and want more like it, more often? Help keep Ivy Style going for another decade. * * * There’s much brand news to catch up on over the next couple of weeks. We start with Ralph Lauren, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last night with a fashion show in Central Park, complete …
According to GQ, a preppy style comeback has begun. Apparently fashionistos have gotten tired of workwear and streetwear. In a post from earlier this week, the mag writes: Brendon Babenzien’s Noah—the New York brand that unites streetwear heads, skate rats, and glossy prepsters under one roof—just unveiled its latest seasonal collection. While the brand has …
Like this post and want more like it, more often? Help keep Ivy Style going for another decade. * * * Since the publication of “Take Ivy” and the MFIT’s “Ivy Style” exhibit five-plus years ago, there hasn’t been much to add to Ivy Trendwatch. That’s our very narrow category used only for cultural happenings …
As mentioned a week or so ago, the latest issue of Japanese magazine Popeye is entitled “Finding The Classics.” Apparently the best means of transportation for this search is via skateboard, as half the magazine features streetwear-clad boys on skateboards. Of course, maybe they’ll go from skaters to trads some day — it happened to me. …
Yesterday I met with MKG, my partner on the Ivy Style Club Tie (of which there are still a few left; order info here), to see the samples from our latest project: The Ivy Style Heyday Commemoration Belt (until we come up with a better name). In a handful of motifs, the belt cleverly illustrates …
Following the Boston Magazine Vineyard Vines profile and Garden & Gun OPH interview, we’ve one more batch of media pieces to catch up on. They concern Japanese Ivy, and are excellent, lengthy pieces well worth your time. First off, Lapham’s Quarterly has a piece by “Ametora” author W. David Marx called “The Climb Of Ivy,” which …
We haven’t had anything to classify under Ivy Trendwatch for quite some time, but we do now thanks to J. Crew. With a headline called “The New, Old School Oxford,” the company has introduced a collection of oxford-cloth buttondowns that tout their vintage collegiate inspiration and unlined collar. “With a longer, unlined collar, our new oxford …
It’s a bit odd that J. Crew would put together a guide to preppy style for its website, given that it largely abandoned the look after the Ivy Trendwatch and Neo-Prep trends petered out some five years ago. Perhaps J. Crew is going to take a sharp right turn back to its roots. Heck, when …
We haven’t had a story to classify under Ivy Trendwatch in quite a while, but here’s a positive sign that classic American style is still thriving at home and abroad. These great photos were posted to Ivy Style’s Facebook group by Anton Miranda, who does visual merchandising, PR and marketing for a men’s retailer in …
Ivy-Style.com just celebrated its eighth birthday and reached 1,500 posts. That’s a lot of topics, contributors, and readers. We figured it was time to bring everyone and everything together symbolically with our very own Ivy Style Club Tie. The project grew out of Ivy Style’s Facebook group at the suggestion of a member. I came …