It’s Still Shaggy Season

Someone over at InsideHook (formerly Real Clear Media, for which I wrote a few pieces) is an Ivy stylist. The site just put up an ode to J. Press’ classic Shaggy Dog sweater, which comes in an extra-high number of flavors this year.

Writes Jason Diamond:

The Shaggy Dog, for those that don’t know, is sort of a staple for people who want to dress like they went to Princeton or Yale in 1962. Called “everyone’s favorite Ivy sweater,” by Ivy Style a few years back, I wracked my brain to try and recall the first time I saw somebody wearing it, and yes, the adult in question had in fact gone to school in the Northeast in the LBJ days. Years later, I’d spot a picture of Mick Jagger rocking a Scottish cousin of the Shaggy — a baggy Shetland that wasn’t quite as fuzzy as the J. Press staple, but great nonetheless, especially on British rock-and-roll’s best frontman at his peak. It wasn’t quite preppy, but it also sort of was. It was the kind of look that could pass in a club but would also work on a prep-school campus or a night on the town. There are a few items of clothing that can have it both ways; a shaggy sweater is at the top of the list. And the Shaggy Dog, in my humble opinion, is the finest of them all.

It’s a thoughtful read, which you can check out here. Enjoy shaggy season while it lasts, avoiding spring-clothing premature unpackulation (a reference to a post from years back which, coincidentally, features a shaggy). — CC