Today in Japan sees the publication of a new collection of illustrations by artist Kazuo Hozumi, who created the smiling little caucasian characters used by clothing brand Van, and co-opted by myself for my Twitter avatars. We’ve got the book on order and will share the findings when it arrives. — CC
Can’t get enough debating in the Ivy Style comments section? Or at least watching the rumbles from the sidelines? Then think about joining Ivy Style’s Facebook page, which passed 3,000 members today. That’s thousands of guys to potentially to validate your opinion — or tear it to shreds. Along the way you might even exchange …
Ivy Style is approaching a milestone: We’re not only about to reach the end of our sixth year of publishing, we’re in countdown phase to our 1,000th post. Excluding this post, in 10 more we’ll reach number 1,000, for which we promise something special, the likes of which has never been seen before in the …
This morning a small new collection called Tracksmith launched. It’s the first thing in a long time we’ve felt should be categorized under Ivy Trendwatch. The founder, Matt Taylor, you see, is a Yale grad and the Ivy League is referenced as a style wellspring in the running-wear company’s marketing material. For example: Tracksmith offers …
Ed Heald (Dartmouth ’68) may have had to sweat through soccer tryouts to earn the famous sweater that bore the date of his graduation and appears twice in the pages of “Take Ivy,” but now, thanks to a team of entrepreneurial young Ivy Leaguers, a vintage-inspired collegiate sweater can be had with only the exertion …
Over the past few years, the Ivy Trendwatch has helped bring scholarly attention to the clothing and social customs of college men during the heyday of the Ivy League Look. “Take Ivy” shined an outsider’s lens on college life in the mid-’60s with a specific eye for what men were wearing. Then came the MFIT …
Fifty years ago, in the midst of the Ivy heyday, mass-market retailers started offering knock-offs of items previously available from only a handful of menswear shops. Often these brands referenced the Ivy League Look in their ad copy, throwing in, for such the nature of advertising, words like “genuine” and “authentic.” Now it looks like …
Four weeks from today Ivy Trendwatch will shift into overdrive. The developments of the past five years, during which we’ve seen the republication of “Take Ivy,” several Ivy and preppy books from around the world, the proliferation of trad blogs and tumblrs, and of course Ivy-Style.com, will presumably shoot to new heights of public awareness …
Today the Rugby blog plugged a relatively new tumblr called Men Of The Ivy League, so we figured it’s about time we did the same. The site should more appropriately be called Sportsmen Of The Ivy League, as it’s focused almost entirely on athletics. The photo-driven site (as are all tumblrs) features contemporary photos, and …
What a difference half a century makes. Brooks Brothers, essentially the creators of what came to be known as the Ivy League Look, used to scoff at the term. To wit, this passage from the 1959 novel “Try For Elegance” by former Brooks Brothers employee David Loovis: He [the floor manager] detested to the point …
Update, 3 July, 10:04 AM: Last night Ivy Style crossed the 10,000-comment threshold with these infamous words that will echo across America this summer as families pile up the station wagon and head out on the road: Are we there yet? The comment was left by none other than regular reader Henry, who will finally …
E-commerce site Mr. Porter has unveiled a new collection by Paul Smith in which the British designer draws inspiration from “Take Ivy.” According to the website’s announcement, Sir Paul, who has been at the forefront of British fashion for five decades, is well placed to explain how Ivy style first came to the UK from …
Perhaps because he’s a football player, Dink Stover has been at Yale for a hundred years. Hey, the real world is coarse and common, would you want to leave? One hundred years ago this month Owen Johnson published his college novel “Stover At Yale,” which is long on novel but short on college. I attempted …
Today Assouline sent out an email announcing the publication of “The Ivy League” by Daniel Cappello, my colleague at Quest magazine. The book starts by examining the history of the Ancient Eight and its place in American (and increasingly, global), culture, and goes on to devote a chapter to each school and what makes it …
Mark your calendars, guys: You have a four-month window to visit New York and see the Ivy League Look exhibit at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology. The exhibit will run from September 14 to January 5. Though I met with the organizers again a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know they’d …
This is Ivy Style’s 1,000th post x .50. In honor of the occasion, I bribed longtime friend and colleague Michael Mattis, who’s been at my side since I first started blogging on style in 2004, to write some moderately kind words. This was the best he could do. — CC I must confess I have …
This edition of Ivy Trendwatch is focused on the United Kingdom, where there are several news items worth mentioning. First off is the February issue of Esquire UK, which carries this article on “Hollywood and the Ivy Look” (the article evidently has an accompanying fashion shoot; if someone can scan and send to us it …
The Ivy Trendwatch and prep-for-the-masses have been hit with a massive setback as JC Penney has finally pulled the plug on its disastrous budget-prep collection American Living, created in partnership with Ralph Lauren. When the collection launched in 2008, I was living in Los Angeles and went to the department store to have a look. …
Last weekend I met up with Ivy Style contributors Zachary DeLuca and Jason Marshall for two of the smaller menswear trade shows. The highlight was a long session with Crittenden Rawlings, a longtime business associate of my girlfriend’s. “Critt,” as he’s known by friends and colleagues, is a menswear industry veteran who came out of …