“Tea and Sympathy” is one of the books on the reading list featured in “The Official Preppy Handbook.” Written by Robert Anderson for the stage, it was adapted for the screen in 1956 with Vincente Minnelli at the helm. “Tea and Sympathy” is set at a boys’ prep school, where sensitive Tom Lee (played by John Kerr) …
Previously we’ve posted on the 1956 prep-school angst film “Tea and Sympathy.” Here’s an image from the Hart, Schaffner & Marx archives, undated but from roughly the same time. Call this one Tea and Approval. The older gent is obviously the girl’s father, and clearly approves of her suitor’s suit. And here’s an interesting tribute …
If you are a member of the Facebook Group (and if you are not, you should be) then you know Evan Everhart. If you have posted, you definitely know Evan. There are various iterations. The definitive Ivy Expert (we write each other a lot, and I tell him all the time he has forgotten more …
Who’s that stylish Frenchman in yesterday’s post? Why this fellow right here, who we originally profiled in 2010. * * * How influential are blogs? Influential enough to make at least one guy from the nation that invented chic to start taking his cues from America. French guys aren’t exactly short on style. Nor on having …
One year ago I closed my chapter in New York and crossed the bridge into Newport. I arrived in my U-Haul at twilight, that “exquisite hour” as the poets say, with a lifelong on the radio: Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin.” I felt I was crossing into a fairy tale kingdom where I could further …
In our last post, a comment was left asking me to speculate what if the heyday of the Ivy League Look had never happened, that it had remained the relatively closed, little-known aristocratic style that it was in the 1930s. Would this have been better or worse in the long run for preserving authentic …
Since the 1960s, Japan has been an important part of the story of the Ivy League Look, and during a few dark periods the island nation has played an important role in preventing the style from possible extinction. Anyone interested in the Ivy-Japan connection will eventually encounter the name Kensuke Ishizu — perhaps on the …
In Thursday’s post about Brooks Brothers, some readers expressed horror at the pairing of tailored clothing with sweatpants. While I certainly made fun of the forced nonchalance of adding a pocket square to the mix, combining athletic wear with jackets and trousers gets to the very heart of how college men revolutionized the way the …
Every so often I get these little obsessions. The athletic ones drag out for years, and things like the taste for late 19th-century French chamber music are lifelong. But every so often something cultural piques my interest, and I’ll spend a month or so furiously reading books and watching movies. I think last year’s was …
Here are some news tidbits as well as things that have caught my eye recently. I recently visited the remodeled Ralph Lauren Rhinelander mansion and no surprise the elegance and style are absolutely suffocating (above photo by Michael Williams; check out the rest of his shots here). What a tactile experience: I don’t think there’s …