The Golden Years by Richard Press

My time at J.Press in New York began in 1960 at the sliver of a store that occupied the second floor on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 44th Street. It was indeed a tight squeeze at J.Squeeze. The unforgiving 1,200-foot space stuffed 2,500 garments on double hangers in mobile Garcy racks. Customers were …

Note: This column originally ran on January 22, 2013, and is being reposted today following news of the death of Sinatra’s wife Barbara Sinatra at age 90. * * * The life that late I led in the heyday was “Mad Men” in real time. Until the 1950s, retailers respected the privacy of their celebrity …

George Axelrod’s play “The Seven Year Itch” lit up Broadway in 1952 and stayed there for 1,141 performances. The star, Tom Ewell, a dedicated J.Press aficionado, won a Tony Award, although his performance was later dimmed in the movie version when he was paired opposite Marilyn Monroe. Taking time out from my mainstream obligation running the …

As Marily Monroe once sang, “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.” Today JFK would have been 100. We mark the occasion by revisiting a 2011 column by Richard Press. * * * The epic saga of President John F. Kennedy’s individual travail and public triumph is recounted with explicit and captivating detail by Chris Matthews in his …

A powerful remnant from my retail family past overwhelmed me last week at a visit to the J.Press shop on Bleecker Street. Staff member Robert Wolf showed me a battered 1949 framed magazine article about my grandfather, Jacobi Press, an artifact recovered from the demolished New Haven premises. I clearly recall it on the fitting …

Nobody told Frank Sinatra the heyday of Ivy was dead when he steered his entourage into J. Press on a January afternoon in 1969. “Dressing The Chairman,” an upcoming off-Broadway play scribed by Joseph Cosgriff, tells the story of an unexpected and fascinating odyssey that began when Sinatra commanded, “Lemme see all your 38 Regulars.” …

It seems like only yesterday we hoisted our leather botas at the 1959 running of the bulls in Pamplona. It still goes on every July 6th, maiming an occasional drunk, catching a celebrity moment, and every couple of years there’s a fatality. My best friend and Loomis prep-school roommate Gene Mercy and I celebrated our …

Rahar’s was a home away from home for me and my pals. The watering hole served as Northampton, Massachusetts headquarters for visiting collegians pursuing female companionship at Smith College. The dilapidated bar and restaurant occupied the ground floor of a post-Civil War Victorian mansion set on a spare hilltop a block off Main Street, just …

Whether you’re watching football today in a freezing stadium or in your cozy living room, here’s a role model for how to dress. Pictured is Ivy Style’s Golden Years columnist Richard Press — former president of J. Press and grandson of founder Jacobi — at  the Dartmouth-Penn game in 1958. Happy New Year from Ivy …

“The Man In The Brooks Brothers Shirt” in Mary McCarthy’s 1946 short story wore his shirt buttoned down. But in New Haven during the heyday of the Ivy League Look, guys in dirty white bucks often made a different choice. They bought their shirts at Fenn-Feinstein, White’s, Langrock, Arthur M. Rosenberg or J.Press, dissing the …

Reposted in honor of National Dog Day. This column originally ran on June 13, 2011. * * * Last night the Broadway revival of “Anything Goes,” which had received nine Tony nominations, ended up winning three. As I watched, I couldn’t help but remember one of the great historical anecdotes of J. Press: The time …

This is the latest in our new series “My Kinda Clothes,” which takes its name from a delightful phrase coined by Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop. Richard Press will be trickling out a series of these posts, based on what he wore at different times of his life, from boarding school to Dartmouth to …

Last week a reader posted an image on Ivy Style’s Facebook page that appeared to show Cary Grant in a buttondown-collar shirt with French cuffs. One sees this occasionally in old photos and movies, but it’s not something you can exactly go out and buy readymade today. We asked Richard Press to weigh in on …

During the Ivy heyday, before the Free Speech Movement, discourse on college campuses was largely the opposite of today. Pro-establishment speech was politically correct, while anti-establishment speech was incorrect. Richard Press reminds us that while the tables have turned, there has always been speech that is discouraged. * * * Professor Herb West delivered his …

  My days at Dear Old Dartmouth began on a September morn 60 years ago with dad cruising confidently along Route 5 in his Buick super convertible and mom inhaling a pack of Camels for the five-and-a-half-hour drive from New Haven to Hanover. It was on this the virgin voyage to New Hampshire that my …

“Blood lust” describes my passion for Daniel Horowitz’s engrossing saga, “On The Cusp: The Yale Class Of 1960 And A World On The Verge Of Change.” Dan Horowitz grew up around the corner from me in New Haven. We haven’t been in touch for over 50 years, but his visit to the Ivy Style Exhibit …

April 6 is National Tartan Day. In its honor, Richard Press shares some thoughts. For more Tartan Day coverage, visit our fraternal site MasculineInteriors.com. * * * The Heyday of Ivy, the period after World War II until the civil disorder of the late 60s, regarded costume with contempt, at least at J.Press. Understatement was …