Much news in Tradsville over the past week. First up is the “Take Ivy” movie, which I’ve just finished watching. A DVD of it is included in the current issue of the Japanese magazine Oily Boy. A friend in Japan ripped and uploaded it, but asked that I not share. Sorry, guys. The film is …
The handful of 50-somethings who comprise the UK Ivy style tribe put on their best wide lapels and skinny ties (the unfortunate result of buying vintage clothing from different decades) and gathered last Thursday at trad shrine John Simons to celebrate the launch of the book “Hollywood and the Ivy League Look” by Graham Marsh. …
Last night Jeffrey Banks (pictured above) and Doria de La Chapelle signed copies of their new book “Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style” at Saks Fifth Avenue. It was a full house, though hardly a Prep-a-Palooza. Besides your humble blogger in rep tie and pinned club, there was just KJP and sweetheart:
Later this year Reel Art Press will release a lavish photographic coffee-table book full of rare images of Hollywood icons wearing Ivy garb. It will surely be a delight to behold. Reading it, however, may be another story. One should never judge a book by its cover, but we’ve had an Ivy book by this …
In “This Side of Paradise,” F. Scott Fitzgerald called Princeton “lazy and aristocratic.” How times have changed. In the age of meritocracy, sloth is hardly a helpful quality in gaining admission to the elite university. And anything “aristocratic” would have to be an individual eccentricity as the school is seeking to discourage “exclusivity” by banning …
Last week Women’s Wear Daily ran a feature on the upcoming book “Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style,” by Jeffrey Banks and Doria de La Chapelle. Among other things, the story includes the great photo above of Deerfield Academy’s class of 1961. The story’s author, David Lipke, goes on to note preppy style’s relative imperviousness to change …
The Ivy trend has officially reached the cash-grab phase: Abercrombie & Fitch — which once sold tweed sportcoats and other authentic Ivy-style items — has released a new collection for teenyboppers entitled “Elements of Ivy.” The web copy reads: “Distinguished from the rest and exceptional by every standard, Elements of Ivy is a collection of …
Yesterday The Sartorialist ran a photo of “Take Ivy” author Shiro Itoh and announced the publication next month of “Take 8 Ivy,” which was touted as a sequel to the seminal Japanese book chronicling American collegiate style. I was able to flip through “Take 8 Ivy” here in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. Basically …
A few days ago someone who goes by the sobriquet “Andover Hotchkiss” posted the above image on Ivy Style’s Facebook page. It’s an ad for a book entitled “Prep 101: The Battle of Status and Social Rank,” by Dr. Charles Walker, Jr. and Cedric S. King that is supposedly due out next month. The tome …
For the last couple of years, one of the recurring refrains on the trad forums and blogs has been an impatient wish for the Preppy/Ivy/Trad/Americana (PITA) trend to go away so that stubborn fuddy-duddies can go back to being behind the times. Rejoice, gentlemen, for that day is here: Mark McNairy, arguably the leading guru …
Earlier this week Gilt Groupe sponsored an “Ivy Style” flash sale with contemporary fashion pieces about as closely related to the Ivy League Look as my alma mater is to the Ancient Eight. Now rival company Mr. Porter presents an exclusive three-button suit with patch pockets, tapered trousers and “quirky off-centre [sic] single vent.” The …
The grounds of the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum in Paris, is an unlikely place to find a display of preppy clothing and accessories. But that’s where Tommy Hilfiger recently chose to set up shop for Prep World, a new collection in collaboration with “Preppy Handbook” author Lisa Birnbach. Or rather it’s where he …
Over the past few months several menswear colleagues have mentioned that fashion designer Jeffrey Banks, who started his career at Ralph Lauren, was writing a preppy book. Then a couple weeks ago, as I exited the J. Press warehouse sale, I received a phone call from Mr. Banks, who was trying to track down the …
Stuttgart-based department store chain Breuninger has given a Teutonic interpretation of campus style in a photo spread from its in-house style magazine. The shots have even inspired a South African blogger, further evidence that Ivy is on a world tour. Germans may be precise when it comes to engineering, but the photos are anything but. …
Nordstrom has released a men’s fashion video that devotes 18 seconds to acknowledging the Ivy trend, with vintage footage and a style endorsement of cardigans and wingtips (click here to go directly to the Ivy section of the clip). Yes, the gingham shirt doesn’t have a buttondown collar, and the wingtips aren’t longwings. What do …
In what probably hasn’t been done in half a century, GQ has endorsed the sack suit — sort of. The March issue features a one-page primer on the Ivy League Look (more or less), though it avoids the term “Ivy” and instead opts for “sack suit.” The Ralph Lauren suit pictured appears to be dartless, …
The Wall Street Journal offers a summary of the zeitgeist so far. Prediction: The topic will continue to generate buzz this year, but the buzz will end in 2012. Of course, everything is supposed to end in 2012. — CC
This fall/winter season Ivy and related references have multiplied at both Ralph Lauren and Rugby as vintage university style continues to be rediscovered by the fashion industry. Likewise, Ralph Lauren’s Fall 2010 in-store magazine features the image above, which has a vaguely “Take Ivy” vibe, combined with the car from “La Dolce Vita” and stately …
GQ has dispatched photographer Gordon von Steiner to capture contemporary Princeton style (for an appreciation of vintage Tiger style, see our post “The Princetonians“). Unabashedly Prep‘s Fred Castleberry is one of the subjects. I recently recruited Fred to shoot for The Rake team and he’ll be heading up to Cambridge soon to take photos for …