Though a desire to tell stories emerged in my earliest childhood, I’ve always had a strong visual side. In college, happy to get an A so long as it required little effort (and able to get a B with less effort still), I used the spare time to give myself a minor in Art History. …
If you were a socialite who lived through the 20th century and married enough times — say, nine — eventually one of your spouses would have been in the right place at the right time and dressed fairly Ivy League. Actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor died recently at the age of 99. Husband number …
As a blizzard whips through our national’s capital today, one preppy policeman is taking duty into his own hands — and putting his feet inside classic LL Bean rubber boots. We’ve previously profiled the same Washington, DC police officer in a post entitled, “Fashion Police: Ivy Style Reader Is A Top Cop.” And today the …
I chanced to meet famed attorney Eddie Hayes in a hotel suite. No, nothing like that. There was a visiting tailor I was there to interview — Stephen Hitchcock, as I recall — and the client before me getting fitted was none other than the notorious clotheshorse Mr. Hayes, who was the model for the …
Over the years, one of the recurring themes at Ivy Style has been the lost art of menswear illustration. From JC Leyendecker’s Harvard jocks of the teens and ’20s to Esquire and Apparel Arts in the ’30s, from Ivy ads in the ’50s and ’60s to contemporary Japanese illustration, we’ve presented it all and many …
The day has finally arrived! Yes Ivy Style readers, it’s your chance to vote on who was America’s preppiest president. Here are the candidates and their qualifications: John F. Kennedy Catholic Choate Harvard Spee Club Swimming Navy Family compound: Hyannis Port, Cape Cod Hobby: sailing Clothier: Chipp Style signatures: sunglasses, no socks, Nantucket Reds George …
Was John F. Kennedy the most Ivy of US presidents, or did the most important man in the country actually encourage American men not to follow the Ivy League Look? That depends on whether you’re talking about President Kennedy the nation’s leader, or Jack Kennedy relaxing among friends and family in Hyannis Port. On assignment …
In the current isssue of Esquire, PJ O’Rourke attempts to analyze the clothing of all the presidential candidates (that is, all the ones we started with). O’Rourke opens the piece with a description of himself: “I’m no arbiter of style. I’m a navy-blue/banker-gray J. Press, barrel-cuff, club-tie duffer who buys a new suit when I …
Ivy Style’s Facebook group has been lively lately, so if you can’t get enough discussion of sartorial (and cultural) matters with your natural-shouldered brothers, then come over and join us. Recently a reader dug up this photo of the massive bow tie collection of E. Gordon Gee, currently the president of West Virginia University. Perform …
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the DNC, here’s a style tribute to collar-pin devotee Adlai Stevenson, onetime Democratic presidential hopeful. In 1952, Richard Nixon called him an egghead (a pejorative term for an intellectual, for younger readers unfamiliar with the term). His baldness may have also had something to do with it, which …
This weekend a political coup was attempted in Turkey, leaving many dead and the country in turmoil. In the interest of levity, Ivy Style presents the style icon Ahmet Ertegun. Ertegun (above left) was the cofounder of Atlantic Records and is responsible for helping launching the careers of Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, …
Recently Pedro Mendes of The Hogtown Rake cohosted an event for G. Bruce Boyer held at LeatherFoot Emporium in Toronto, Canada. If Mendes sounds familiar, that’s because we featured him here on Ivy Style for the high-rise/tapered leg custom trousers he had made, which were inspired by our ill-fated project with Bills Khakis. Mendes has …
Funny, both candidates in the current presidential race are Ivy League… Maybe finally we know the difference between Ivy and preppy: you can have an Ivy degree and be anything but prep. Happy birthday to GHWB, a true American sartorial patriot. — CC
Social media sources are reporting that Bobby Garnett, founder of Bobby From Boston, has died. Garnett was considered a pioneer in vintage fashion. His influential store was well known to the props department at Ralph Lauren (as well as to Lauren himself), and the store’s reputation was global. More info as we get it. — …
Recently I wrote about the evolving J. Press York Street store in the West Village, but there’s one more way to get a J. Press experience in New York despite the closing of the Madison Avenue store. Jay Walter, a menswear industry veteran of the highest order who celebrates his 87th birthday today, reconnected with …
This is the W. David Marx’s last installment in his series on the original magazine illustrators who depicted the Ivy League Look when it first reached Japan. * * * Yasuhiko Kobayashi (b. 1935) is the missing link between Ivy League style in Japan and the post-hippie West Coast style that followed in the 1970s. …
William Hamilton, a popular cartoonist for the New Yorker since 1965, has died in an auto accident at the age of 76. His work has been featured on Ivy Style before via an ’80s-era panel with the caption “We decided to just stay preppy as if nothing had happened.” From the New York Times: Mr. …
I am haunted by the photograph of a haberdasher in the twilight of his life. He is wearing a pin-collar gingham shirt and an Italian silk sportcoat of green and heather with the perfect patina. As I peer into the face of Maurice Julian, I ponder what might have been behind the quixotic expression. Is …
This is the first in a three-part series on Japan’s original Ivy artists. * * * When Ivy League fashion first appeared in Japan at the beginning of the 1960s, it was a wholly alien culture with no local roots. Apparel maker VAN Jacket and its media partner, fashion magazine Men’s Club, needed to win …