I was hoping to have something really special to share with you guys, but alas fate had other ideas. This summer I was approached by Kamakura Shirts, who wanted to do a video interview with me. I suggested doing it at the famed New York watering hole The Campbell Apartment, and we were able to …
This month Ivy Style celebrates its eighth anniversary. Tempus fugit! Yes, October is the month I typically say thank you to our readers, sponsors and contributors. Special thanks go out to associate editor Chris Sharp, columnist Richard Press, contributor G. Bruce Boyer, and friend and neighbor Daniel Greenwood, with whom I’m privileged to regularly discuss …
Global Ivy Trendwatch is alive and well, proving the broad and timeless appeal of traditional American menswear. Today a reader posted on Ivy Style’s Facebook page about a new collection out of Thailand. It is a collaboration between two companies, Wardrobe Ministry and John Henry. The latter, if it’s the same trademark, sounds an awful …
Tokyo-based W. David Marx, author of the recent book “Ametora,” has just posted an English translation of an extensive 2013 interview with Yoshio Sadasue, founder of Kamakura Shirts, as part of his research for the book. Much of the interview centers around Sadasue’s years at VAN and the early days of Ivy in Japan. Sadasue …
The web persona known as “Billax” may have been “wearing the Ivy League Look since 1958” — the name of his website — but it only took a couple of years of blogging to get creeped out by a troll and decide to quit. On Sunday Billax announced that he is shuttering the site after …
The Japanese trad magazine Free & Easy, which has been publishing since 1998, will cease operations with its March issue. — CC 1998年9月の創刊以来、皆様にご支援いただいておりました月刊誌『Free&Easy』ですが、 3月号(1月30日発売)をもちまして休刊させていただきますことを、お知らせいたします。 発行から17年以上もの間、絶大なご支援をいただきましたことを、この場を借りて厚く御礼申し上げます。 大変ありがとうございました。今後のお問い合わせにつきましては、以下の通りです。 問い合わせ先：info-fe@east-com.co.jp
Earlier this week, Derek at Put This On posted a lengthy Q&A with W. David Marx, Ivy Style contributor and author of the new book “Ametora” about Ivy, trad and Americana in Japan. It’s a smart conversation that Ivy omnivores will want to check out. Here’s a teaser: It feels like Americana, prep, and denim …
Here are the highlights — good, bad and neutral — from 2015, the year that was. Help us add to the list. — CS & CC * * * Ivy Style gets a magazine-style, device-responsive redesign Ralph Lauren steps down as CEO According to The Daily Beast, college students lose their collective mind John Simons …
Mark McNairy, former designer at J. Press, and, under his own name, creator of a host of “Fuck Ivy” gear, including hooded sweatshirts, has a forthcoming book entitled “F**k Ivy… And Everything Else,” slated for release in February. From the Amazon description: The renowned designer’s views on dressing and behaving well: Ivy League meets street, …
W. David Marx — who has contributed several pieces on Japanese Ivy for Ivy-Style.com — has hit the bullseye with his new book “Ametora” (that’s Japanese for “American Trad”). It’s a pioneering piece of research and a deftly handled narrative that traces the ups and downs, misunderstandings and mania for the Ivy League Look that …
The fall isssue of Lapham’s Quarterly features an excerpt from W. David Marx’s upcoming book “Ametora” on American style in Japan. Marx first wrote for Ivy Style in 2009 with the hugely popular article “The Miyuki-zoku: Japan’s First Ivy Rebels.” Pictured above is VAN JACKET founder Kensuke Ishizu, the man who brought Ivy to Japan. …
Yesterday an exhibit opened at the Northampton Unversity Gallery devoted to the Ivy League Look in the UK. Entitled “Craft To America, Style To Britain.” It was organized by Tim Walker and Tom Shaw (FNB Talk Ivy forum members) and is presented in partnership with the British Footwear Association. The exhibit features the usual English …
Today marks the seventh anniversary of Ivy-Style.com. We’ve now produced 1,233 posts by several dozen contributors, with no end in sight. As per tradition, let’s review the highlights of the past year. • At the top of the list must surely be the addition of our new Millennial Fogey columnist Daniel C. Greenwood, who has …
This amusing scenario landed on our Facebook page. DCG provided the headline quip.
Lately there has been a number of posts in Tradsville, as well as on the outskirts, that you may have missed, so allow us to catch you up. First off is an interview with J. Press from “Billax,” elder statesman of Ivy at the blog Wearing The Ivy League Look Since 1958. J. Press vice …
In September, 2010, I was watching my old cordovan oxfords get polished at Tokyo’s “shoeshine bar” Brift H, when a middle-aged man walked in and pulled out an original 1965 print of “Take Ivy.” The book had not only been autographed by all four authors, but also had a rare printing error. I leaned over …
One of the more interesting books I read during my fascination with cultural decadence in my twenties posited that there is no progress or decadence, only change — change interpreted as good or bad. Today I think we can all agree that change is a good thing. As we approach our seventh anniversary, Ivy Style …
A year-and-a-half ago, before he was christened The Millennial Fogey, Daniel Greenwood wrote a piece for Ivy Style called “What Now? The Uncertain Future Of Neo-Prep.” Now those in the towns that border Tradsville are starting to wonder the same thing. Yesterday Put This On posted a long piece called “Whatever Happened To Prep?” The …
We haven’t had anything to classify as Ivy Trendwatch in some time, but today the UK edition of GQ Style unveiled a video, apparently of a photo shoot entitled “Jocks & Nerds.” It features a campus setting with penny loafers and white socks, bicycles and sweaters with class year, plus the usual tedious model antics …