Contributing writer Christopher Sharp has buckled-down, hit the books, and put his nose to the grindstone in an effort to suss out once and for all the origins of the mid-’50s buckle-back chino trend.
During my formative years back in the Fifties, I was the kind of kid who was secure in the belief that God wore buttondown shirts and madras Bermuda shorts. The worst villain passed my inspection if he wore trousers with a vestigial little belt in the back or possessed the skill to tie a bow tie. Good and bad were simply a matter of tweedy and non-tweedy.
That was how Owen Edwards, in a November, 1988 GQ article, described his youth in the boom years of the Ivy style. What I find of note is how solidified in his mind some three decades latter was the signifgence of the belted back trouser to the Ivy image.
With the recent resurgence of interest in the Ivy League Look and the historical study of it components, one of the natural questions is where did the 1950s phenomenon of the belted-back trouser originate?
In our previous article on H.I.S we attributed it to Jesse Siegel. We made this claim initially based on an article entitled “Jesse Made the Pants Just Right,” which appeared in the April 15, 1966 issue of Forbes, that claimed, ”Siegel was the first to take khakis, an old-time favorite in work clothes, put a buckle on the back, aim it toward the youth market. “ A second contemporary source is a H.I.S advertisement from 1958 that makes a more detailed claim. The advertisement is for a new line of back-flapped khakis called the Post-Grads and plays one trend off another. The copy reads “H.I.S introduced the IVY-ALLS six years ago and saw them become the biggest style idea in the history of men’s slacks. We still turn them out by the thousands every week, but the future belongs to the Post-Grads.” The copy goes on to say, “the buckle-on-the-back has yielded to a pair of neat flaps.” This advertisement places the introduction of the belted back Khaki trouser to 1952.
One might wonder where Siegel got the idea for a back-belted chino. Ivy Style asked Roland L. Kimberlin, a former HIS executive, who points to an earlier time in Siegel’s life hinted at by his nickname “Yank”. “He was quite the good baseball player and had a try out with the New York Yankee’s farm team. Baseball gloves at the time had a buckle back strap which you could tighten to fit your wrist and hold it snuggly in place. It is rumored that this is were the idea came from.” Even if this explanation is apocryphal it was good for business. The rumor was never challenged, and Siegel and those associated with this project are all dead.
IVY-ALLS is an interesting bit of word play. It almost sounds like “IVY-HALLS” (and if you perform an Internet search for “IVY-ALLS,” Google suggests “Ivy halls” instead). Even the logo has what appears to be a campus building. The two words viewed independently, Ivy is firmly collegiate and “alls” seems to harken back to H.I.S workwear roots, bringing to mind overalls. The two words together form a creative name for a hybrid product.
IVY-ALLS were described in a 1955 advertisement as a “new slim silhouette” with a “low hip fit”. They measured 21 inches at the knee and 18 inches at the cuff. These measurements are echoed in other contempory trousers, like the flannel and stillwater worsted sold by Milton Julian, owner of Milton’s Clothing Cupboard of Chapel Hill. The wool version sold for $18.95 in 1954, while the cotton Ivy-Alls retailed for $5.95 in 1955.
Period Advertising demonstrates other college outfitters offered wool belted-back trousers. In 1955 Browing King & Co sold Majer slacks for $21.95; their advertising copy states the trousers were “Approved by the Ivy trade.” Another venerable Cornell outfitter, Irv Lewis, offered charcoal flannels for $15.95 the same year.
Two of the earliest proponents of the slim trouser among the famous names were Chipp and J.Press. A tipped-in Chipp mini catalog was included in the 1952 Gentry Holiday issue and featured several odd trousers with a back belt in the same dimensions mentioned above. Chipp offered three shades of grey flannel priced at $17.50, two shades of gray nine-ounce worsted at $21.50, and one shade of whipcord for $27.50. A J. Press advertisement in the same issue offers “clean hanging flat hipped and slim legged” trousers in charcoal flannel for $18.50 and two shades of worsted at $22.50. The Chipp India whipcord trouser in charcoal gray with a belted back was introduced in the fall 1953 Gentry college fashion article. The belt was still present on all trousers when Paul Winston joined Chipp in 1961, Winston told Ivy-Style.com.
A 1955 advertorial for the Pittsburgh firm Hughes & Hatcher puts the look together by defining “Ivy Style” as “British influence, characterized by natural easy fitting coats, very little shoulder padding, slimmer lapels and three or four buttons. Trousers are narrower, often unpleated, often with strap in the back. Tweeds, flannels, herringbone…” By all accounts it appears this retailer had a coherent look to sell.
To get a better sense of the period and the signifigence of the belted-back trouser, Ivy Style spoke with Stuart Lewis, who possesses the duel ability to address the subject both as college man and tradesman. He is the son of Irv Lewis and was a retailer for 38 years in Ithaca, NY. Lewis graduated high school in 1952 and was in the Bucknell University class of 1956. As a university student he was an early adopter of the “soft shoulder” style, and as a retailer promoted the look we call “Ivy.” He affirmed the importance of both the cotton odd trouser and grey flannels in the collegiate wardrobe. Gray flannels he said were of charcoal or Cambridge grey, with “heavy and lofty” English and Scottish woolens preferred. Shetland jackets were worn often with elbow patches, a casualty of resting one’s elbows on wooden desks. During those years,” You wore a jacket and a repp tie to dinner in your frat house.” On the subject of the back belt, Lewis described it in perfect mid-century terms, saying, “It was like fins on a car. It was a detail, and details are what sells fashion.”
As a retailer, he explained the way you sell a customer a pair of grey flannel trousers when he already owns a pair is to change the details. Why did students want the back belt? Simple: they wanted to be cool. This brings us back to Jesse Segel. When he was interviewed for the 1966 Forbes article, he reflected on his success with the buckle back, stating, “The stragedy was simple, We took the basic cheap garment and put a little fashion in it.’”
In the world view of college students, manufacturers and retailers of the 1950s, fashion wasn’t a dirty word. And for a time campus cool meant wearing white bucks and a belted-back trouser. Sixty years later as a few portions of the trade make another run at offering the belted-back trouser, we zoom full-speed ahead back to the future.” — CHRISTOPHER SHARP
Christopher Sharp lives in upstate New York. He is a former community-newspaper reporter and a veteran of the Global War on Terror. He has served in Navy Reserve for over 20 years.
To those who complain that slim-fit shirts are evidence of Brooks Brothers having lost its way, the brethren have offered them for at least 25 years, as this late ’80s catalog shows.
In general, WASPy preppy types have preferred a generous cut to their clothing, and the sack suit got its name for a reason. But “Take Ivy” shows that the Ivy League Look had plenty of streamlined cuts in keeping with the general fashion of the early ’60s.
So shirts that actually fit — especially slender guys — may be a tad less tradly but certainly aren’t heresy. — CC
Note: This post was composed by a slender guy with a diplomatic temperament wearing a full-cut oxford under a fitted pink sweater.
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 retirement a few years ago and manufactures clothing for a number of specialty stores. Currently based in Kentucky, Critt previously worked for Norman Hilton (who he said had “the best taste in the history of American menswear”) and Ralph Lauren.
Last season I had a look at a prototype sportcoat based on a classic Ivy pattern, and was happy to learn that the project is steaming along. While we were there, two members from J. Press (the US general manager and a designer from Press’ Japan division) were meeting with Critt, so you may see his jackets in J. Press stores this fall. (Continue)
I ended up getting the Rugby pants in all three colors, and here are some tips in case you’re thinking about them for yourself. First off, this is a “relaxed” chino, so the fit isn’t super-skinny. The “longer rise” simply means that the rise is more normal for a chino and not a low-rise for college-aged guys with 1 percent body fat. Regarding colors, the “green” is more of an olive (perfect for a “Take Ivy” look), but the charcoal is really faded black, so beware if you consider black a forbidden color. (Continue)
Hollywood’s status as an epicenter of impeccable sartorial taste is long gone, but there was at least one guest at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards who gave a nod to the well tailored days of yore.
That man was talent agent Ben Press, son of former J. Press president and Ivy Style columnist Richard Press. Company founder Jacobi was Ben’s great-grandfather.
Ben accompanied client and longtime friend Elle Macpherson and was dressed in a dinner jacket made for his grandfather Paul (Richard’s father, if you’re having trouble following the family tree) in 1968.
The tradly duds got Ben named one of the evening’s best dressed, according to the London Daily Mail’s Alex Shekarchman. — CC
This weekend I received an email from Brooks Brothers with a surprisingly terse subject line. No long-winded winter sale announcements, such as “plus free shipping on orders over $200.” This one simply said “Be Radical.”
Was Brooks introducing a line of X-Games-inspired athleticwear? I opened the message and found that the mailer was a plug fior the brand’s iconic buttondown shirts. The ad outlines the shirt’s origins — English polo players — with a gentle reminder about how Brooks made this (a different kind of athleticwear) the quintessentially American business shirt. Paul Winston has called the Brooks Brothers oxford “The single greatest invention in the history of menswear.”
Yeah they don’t make them like they used to, as the lined collars don’t roll (as seen in the image above) like in the old days. Of course I wasn’t around then so it doesn’t really bother me.
Still, when I mentioned to friend and colleague Bruce Boyer that I was looking into getting a couple of custom shirts, unable to find Bengal-stripe types with a slim fit, no non-iron chemical treatment, and a straight collar for use with a collar pin, Bruce suggested I try the legendary Tom Davis, who’s headed up Brooks’ made-to-measure shirt program for decades (and where you can get unlined buttondowns). He’s been on the Ivy Style editorial calendar for three years now, so I think it’s time I finally sit down with the guy and soak up some anecdotes. Stay tuned.
Finally, speaking of Brooks and radicalism, on the same day that I received the shirt email, Brooks showed up in a Google Alert. It was another one of those cliché-dependent newspaper reporters using “Brooks Brothers” as cultural shorthand for conservative and establishment (in this case, referring to Mitt Romney’s entourage).
Of course, these associations have dogged — or boosted — Brooks since the prosperity of the Eisenhower era, the rise in college admissions and the proliferation of corporate America. In 1950’s “Guys And Dolls,” Frank Loesser writes of “the breakfast-eating Brooks Brothers type,” exactly what the heroine is looking for.
Last Thursday marked the annual “Dress like Deerfield Day” at Choate. The layered pastels and out-of-season white pants reminded me of the “preppy” style boarding schools are well known for. Brightly colored polos, popped collars, blazers, cashmere sweaters, madras, and plaid ensembles dominated Choate dress, mocking the tradition of “preppy” dress that we somewhat ignorantly disregard has not disappeared from schools, including our own.
This look that we mock is not only present at Deerfield but rather has developed and morphed into a modern version of prep. There has been a growing presence of preppy style as the ’50s and ’60s Ivy League clothing comes back into popularity within America. Looking back on the classic Ivy League, preppy style of the ’50s and ’60s it was a time of obsession with detail as men worried about, according to “Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style” by Jeffrey Banks and Doria De La Chapelle, “the roll of a collar, the width of a lapel, the vent of a jacket, and the vital question of whether a shift cuff should possess one button or two and a sport coat two buttons or three.” Men had a relaxed, nonchalant elegance that is now lacking in the age of sweatpants and t-shirts. The women of the same time, like Grace Kelly, Katherine Hepburn, and Jacqueline Kennedy, also oozed self-confidence and elegance.
While “preppy” usually referred to white, WASP-y, wealthy, American families, the evolving style has become inclusive, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious. Japanese fashion especially has taken great interest in the “preppy” style revitalizing old, preppy American brands such as Woolrich or Gant. While classic brands such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger have maintained their original styles, they have also modernized their brands. For example, Tommy Hilfiger created a new form of the old duck boot by adding five-inch heels to the boot bringing it the level of runway shoes. The brand’s Fall 2010 campaign portrayed a multi-ethnic, fictional, fun, and extremely preppy family displaying the new essence prep style brings to the world.
Brands incorporate elements of preppy style and elements of simple elegance into edgy, glamorous pieces. For instance, Balenciaga has designed double-breasted boyfriend blazers that have a hard edge with their sharp padded shoulders and overly emphasized details that effectively combine rocker glam with preppy chic. Rugby has also branded a style influenced by the prep trend. However, Rugby has veered away from the classics and towards a younger, hipper, more modern interpretation. Band of Outsiders has incorporated the Ivy-League, preppy, men’s style into an amazing, stylish, sophisticated brand for women.
The Ivy-League style that John F. Kennedy made global began to slowly disappear and was almost completely gone by 1968. As Ivy League schools began to accept a more diverse student body, the tweed jackets, khakis, and sports coats began to die out and much of the preppy style was replaced with the counter-culture, hippie movement of long hair, beads, bell-bottoms, loose clothing, and nonconformance that opposed the classic conservative roots of prep. However, the preppy style never completely disappeared and is at present springing up in new, unconventional ways that allow the classic, simple style to live on. — ELIZABETH MELLGARD
We all have our dealbreakers when it comes to tailored jackets, and over the past couple of years I’ve settled on mine: I need a natural shoulder and a three-inch lapel. Everything else is negotiable. Of course a center vent is kind of required, since I mostly wear buttondown collars and believe they’re best paired with a single vent, but those aren’t tough to find. And darted versus undarted doesn’t really matter to me.
The problem I’ve come up against is that there’s very little off the rack that fits this criteria. I can get a narrow lapel though not with a natural shoulder, and I can get a natural shoulder but not with a narrow lapel.
The only source I’ve found for both — not to mention bonuses such as patch pockets, lapped seams and a 3/2 roll — is Polo Ralph Lauren, but these jackets tend to run about $1,500. I’ve been lucky to find three on eBay at a fraction of that, and these Italian-made jackets are terrific. Another option is the new Norman Hilton, where you don’t get patch pockets but you do get a hook vent, and the shoulder is natural and the lapel is three inches. Unfortunately fabrics are limited.
But at Bruce Boyer’s recent book-signing party at Leffot, I spent a long time talking shop with a bunch of hardcore clotheshorses who suggested I try LS Clothiers on West 45th between Fifth and Sixth. The result is my first made-to-measure sportcoat, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The jacket was manufactured by H. Freeman, originally founded in Philadelphia a century ago but now operating out of Maryland. I selected one of their fabrics, a simple mid-weight charcoal herringbone, and offered up my physique to the tape measure. About a month later the jacket arrived, and it’s a peach. The comfort factor is amazing due to the balance of how the jacket hangs from my shoulders. But just as compelling as comfort is the ability to choose all the details.
Jacket details include a full canvas lining with plenty of handwork, a 3/2 roll, lapped seams, edge stitching and 8.5-inch hook vent. The chest is undarted but has some mild shaping through the sides. The two-button cuffs feature working buttonholes, and I provided the English horn buttons myself. And of course you get your name sewn in the lining, which is kind of cool the first time you see it.
For the next one I’ll bring in some Holland & Sherry cloth and maybe scoop up the last of Paul Winston’s Kama Sutra lining.
You’re probably wondering about the price. With tax and working buttonholes (a $38 surcharge), the jacket came out to $640, quite a bargain considering you’re getting exactly what you want and a perfect fit.
Inside the breast pocket there’s a little card to remind you where your money went. Thanks, Mary. — CC
As the editor of Tradsville’s news gazette for the past three years, I’ve been obliged to work my beat with at least some attempt at assiduity. That includes keeping an unjaundiced eye on the discourse at Talk Ivy, a discussion forum hosted at filmnoirbuff.com whose members are mostly from the UK and Continental Europe.
From their discourse I’ve received the general impression that English Ivy fans are a kind of retro style-tribe subculture with a fanaticism for the music and clothing from 1955-1965. This fuels them with a tireless drive to dig up forgotten historical documents such as photos, films, record albums and advertisements. When it comes to putting these things into historical and social context, however, the English are severely hampered by two things: the need to see history in a way that fits their subculture’s sensibility, and the fact that they don’t live in America.
Their “talk,” then, is primarily fandom threads about favorite clothing items, records and movies, while their analysis of the Ivy heyday is speculative and interpreted rather than fact-based and reported.
I’ve previously written about the English following the publication of “The Ivy Look” by Graham Marsh and JP Gaul, a book almost baffling in its inability to articulate — a couple of sentences would have sufficed — where the Ivy League Look comes from, how it got its name, and other such basic information in what was intended as an introductory guide. And yet it’s not hard to see why this is squeamish territory: for London style-tribe scenesters, nothing could be more unhip than the thought of dressing in the clothing style whose original arbiters were the East Coast establishment.
Combined with an avoidance of the origins of the Ivy League Look and its chief merchants (who, outside of New York, were nearly all located in the communities serving Yale, Harvard and Princeton), was the curious inclusion of all sorts of randomalia, such as Zippo lighters, Porsche speedsters and French New Wave cinema, which may share the historical timeline as the Ivy League Look’s heyday but bear no direct relation except in the imagination of tribal members.
Perhaps opting to play it safe this time, the authors’ new follow-up tome, “Hollywood And The Ivy Look,” has minimal text. And in Marsh’s one-page introduction, England’s resident Ivy expert now sounds so confused he’s resorted to a wishy-washy cop-out when it comes to addressing his readers with the topic at hand:
There is a strong case to be made that the “Ivy League Look” was, in essence, pure Brooks Brothers and did not emanate from the eight East Coast universities. The jury is out as to the final decision and probably always will be. But now, back to Hollywood and the Ivy Look…
As Marsh returns to his comfort zone with an ellipsis, the book’s real content — rare photos — are fantastic and gathering them is something to be lauded. Though the second half, as in “The Ivy Look,” falls into the same trap of including many photos, films and TV shows that feel merely contemporary to the years 1955-1965 rather than expressions of the Ivy League Look, the book is a tremendous photographic documentation of the brief time when Ivy was popular and entertainers dressed with restrained good taste.
The text’s peccadilloes are largely confined to instances of scenester-geek chumminess (”kings of the buttondown,” “our man Perkins”) and calls to style-icon mimicry and tribal initiation (”wear this outfit and you’re guaranteed a passport to the Ivy Look”). There’s also a reference to Ivy as an “aesthetic,” but perhaps I’m the only one who finds that word pompous.
But as a counter to the many fusty dullards who have kept Ivy clothiers in business over the decades, the English provide a useful reminder that American natural-shouldered clothing can, in additional to being traditional and correct, also be cool. — CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD
Seems a couple of designers found an old college t-shirt, and, without bothering to research its origins, decided it would make a cool name for a logo-driven sportswear brand.
This year the company grossed $61 million.
The college eventually got wind of the name appropriation, and though initially miffed, ultimately decided to let the brand continue, since when you’re a school no one has heard of innocuous buzz is better than no buzz.
The tragic irony, however, is that the fake collegiate Franklin & Marshall sweatshirt (right), designed in Italy, looks more handsome and collegiate than the generic one sold in the real Franklin & Marshall bookstore (left):
Pictured at top are F&M students from 1956 wearing dirty white bucks. — CC
Christopher Sharp lives in upstate New York. He is a former community-newspaper reporter and a veteran of the Global War on Terror. He has served in Navy Reserve for over 20 years. 
