If there’s one character in “The Official Preppy Handbook” who could be singled out for derision, it’s the skier. Wearing mirrored sunglasses and a cocky sneer, he looks like the kind of guy you’d hate everything about. Everything, that is, except his ski cap from Moriarty of Stowe, Vermont. For five decades the Moriarty cap …
This is a 20-minute clip, so watch it over lunch if you’re the kind of schlub who eats lunch at his desk. And if you’re at home, pour yourself a drink and get comfortable. Love the towel worn as a scarf in the opening. Great chinos and sweaters in action at 2:28. Jackets and ties …
Think you’re smart? Then see if you can figure out the cryptic meaning of this vintage Chipp emblematic necktie. Pictured are four motifs. They are: A clock reading 3:55 An empty whisky bottle A woman with one breast exposed A toilet What does it mean? Hint: It’s about baseball. Give up? It’s really quite simple: Clock = …
The annual Harvard-Yale football game presents one of the best opportunities of the year to put together traditional preppy ensembles and turn out in force. My great-grandfather graduated from Yale in 1916, and I’m the proud owner of several sartorial artifacts from his time in New Haven, among them a pipe, a smoking jacket embroidered …
Unless you are reading Ivy Style under the impression that you will learn something about the various species of the evergreen climbing plants that include Hedera helix and Parthenocissus quinquefolia, you probably do not need telling that, sartorially, the world is in a race to the bottom. Ivy Style readers and their fellow travelers are …
AldenPyle of Andy’s Trad Forum, one of the most diligent ransackers of the LIFE archives, recently dug up some photos of the 1936 National Amateur Golf Championship at the Garden City Golf Club. The winner was John W. Fischer, who took the cup not only for his fine form on the fairway, but for being …
This past week has been the Hall of Fame Open, a professional men’s tennis tournament at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport. Being a 250-level stop on the ATP tour, the event boasts being the only professional tournament played on grass outside of Europe. Along with the tennis, there are other events and …
Tennis is not tennis. Despite having played the sport competitively for nearly ten years, I only learned this fact a little over a year ago. Tennis is actually lawn tennis, the modern predecessor of a much older game. Court tennis, as we call it here in the US, real tennis in the UK, royal tennis …
Arthur Ashe in 1966 in patriotic colors. Check out the accompanying SI story on the groundbreaking legend here. And this is my new racquet. It’s not as pretty as Ashe’s old wooden ones, but nor is it completely ugly by today’s standards. For years I’d been stuck where most recreational players get stuck: the dreading ratings-system …
In honor of The Game today, Bill Stephenson shares his thoughts on Ivy League football. Stephenson graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1954, but presently lives in Princeton, where he cheers for the home team, which ranks a bit lower. * * * It doesn’t seem possible to have had an exposure to college …
Phanes College, a small liberal arts school in rural Vermont, has taken a bold step forward in the fight for gender equality. This year students attending any on-campus Halloween festivities are required to wear gender-neutral costumes in an effort to dismantle stereotypes and foster a safe environment for everyone. In a campus-wide email, Phanes dean …
Like this post and want more content like it, more often? Help Ivy Style reach its goal of 1,000 true fans. * * * In 1960 Biff wore J. Press and played tennis. That same year he sired Biff Jr., who in 1986 wore Lacoste and Brooks and played squash. That same year Biff Jr. …
My latest piece for Ralph Lauren Magazine is on the golden age of sailing. By “golden age,” I mean, of course, the five or so years in the late ’80s and early ’90s when sailing captured the popular imagination, receiving its Hollywood exploitation via the 1992 film “Wind” with Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey. The …
Want to take a unique motoring vacation through the Northeast next month? There’s still a chance to register for the Rally Around The Ivy League tour. “The window of opportunity is still open a crack,” says organizer Timothy Cataldo. “Call immediately on 203.451.5127 or email johnnymustard@oldscooltour.com to reserve your spot now!” Below is Cataldo’s description of …
Perhaps, in some dystopian future, strange people (such as Ivy Style readers) who do not want to wear shirts that ’T’, pants that ‘sweat’ and shoes that ‘sneak’, will be placed in confined areas so as not to shock the majority of the population, that is those whose clothing style resembles homeless teenage skateboarders on …
Axelrod’s, a menswear shop founded in 1954 and serving Aldrich College, the small liberal-arts school located in coastal Connecticut, has taken a bold step in attracting new customers by launching a collection aimed at anti-fascist student protestors. “We’ve always been resistant to change and have sold the same buttondowns and tweeds since ’54,” says owner …
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the year 1967, the year we’ve come to refer to around here as the end of the heyday of the Ivy League Look. We plan to make it a theme throughout 2017 as we gather photographs and anecdotes about this pivotal transition year in American social history. It’s …
“Vassar College’s touch football team today issued a challenge to the Kennedy family in Washington: play us,” announced The Poughkeepsie Journal in November 1962. The reason for such sporting confidence? In the fall of that year, Vassar students had formed the first all-female college touch football teams. With names like the Joss Jocks, Noyes Nymphs …
Today I revisted the golf simulator on the third floor of Brooks’ NYC flagship. It had been closed for a couple of months after severing ties with its previous partner, Golf Manhattan. It’s back up and running with three people who are now employees of Brooks. Stop by and check it out and you might …