Ivy Trendwatch: Bikes And Bow Ties Edition

Fifty years ago, in the midst of the Ivy heyday, mass-market retailers started offering knock-offs of items previously available from only a handful of menswear shops. Often these brands referenced the Ivy League Look in their ad copy, throwing in, for such the nature of advertising, words like “genuine” and “authentic.”

Now it looks like our own Ivy Trendwatch is producing a new round of what Richard Press calls “Main Street Ivy.” On Friday the e-commerce company Indochino sent out a mailer promoting Ivy League style.

As you can see, “Ivy League” apparently consists not of specifically styled clothing items, but of a formula that can be achieved with simple ingredients, such as bow ties, cardigans, bicycles and side-parted hair.— CC

25 Comments on "Ivy Trendwatch: Bikes And Bow Ties Edition"

  1. Shirt collar on model at least 1/2 inch too large.

  2. leisureclass | October 21, 2012 at 1:27 pm |

    So let me get this straight, 2B darted jackets with horrible shoulders, poorly sized shirts, pleated pants, and horrific black shoes are ‘ivy’ now? Gotta love fashion…

  3. I can’t believe that they would have the gall to market this as “Ivy League” at all.

  4. “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” – H. L. Mencken

  5. I like the bike.

  6. Boston Bean | October 21, 2012 at 8:05 pm |

    @oxford cloth button down

    Hear! Hear!

    Particularly the American consumer.

  7. So tell me again. Who is that style and cut supposed to appeal to?

  8. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe “glossy” has ever been used to describe Ivy style. This kid is positively shellacked.

  9. Richard Meyer | October 22, 2012 at 2:56 am |

    I agree with all the negativity.

  10. Retail is a numbers game.

  11. It’s Ivy gone Euro!

  12. Jack Spratt | October 22, 2012 at 6:02 am |

    It’s Ivy gone gay.

  13. It’s Ivy gone sh*t! Sorry for the crude comment..

  14. Horrible clothes aside, that bike looks like it’s built for someone about half his size.

  15. That jacket is cutting edge Ivy, it’s SHHHHOOOORRRRT! Organ grinder monkey short. The pants are fashionably short, in the midwest we call that high water or flood pants, something I’ve never understood of some the Ivy practitioners.

    I really don’t mind cheap knock-offs of fine clothing. Yes, I know the difference and I have always personally bought the best I could afford. But, not all high school and college men have the resources to buy $700 blazers.

  16. Boston Bean | October 22, 2012 at 8:11 am |

    @Mark Miwords

    If that’s the way the English really feel, more power to them!
    Preppy is immature, adolescent often clownish pre-Ivy garb.
    It bears no marks whatsoever of the British influence on Ivy.

  17. Bernie Bananas | October 22, 2012 at 8:28 am |

    Although I do agree with you and those who post on ‘that forum’ would too Boston Bean, again, it isn’t an England(UK) or europe wide thing. There are plenty who are influenced by preppy fashion across the pond.

    What I will say is that those who post on ‘that forum’ (who some here refer to as ‘England’) pay very little attention to preppy fashion trends and I think we are all the better for it.

    I think the sooner Ivy Style distances itself from Preppy overnight trends (whether praising or dismissing) and focuses on Ivy League style the better, for all involved.

  18. Philly Trad | October 22, 2012 at 9:12 am |

    Why isn’t the model wearing a ear stud?
    Wouldn’t that complete the Indochino conception of Ivy League style?

  19. Mark Miwords | October 23, 2012 at 1:56 am |

    @ Bernie Bananas.

    But things have moved on. There is no Ivy style today. For the last 30 years it has been Preppy style. Ivy was fashionable for a decade at most in the dim and distant past before most of us were born. Be honest. Preppy has been consistantly fashionable for 30 years and counting. You do the math.

  20. Reactionary Trad | October 23, 2012 at 3:13 am |

    @Mark Miwords:

    There are still dyed-ın-the-wool adherents of Ivy style, I assure you. It is still possible to find all of the basic components of the style at Brooks Brothers, J. Press, Cable Car Clothiers, even Lands’ End. We stick to blue or white oxfords, navy blazers, herringbone tweed jackets, grey flannels, reppe stripe ties, wingtips or bluchers, etc., without succumbing to any of the ludicrous excesses of “Preppy” style.

  21. Bernie Bananas | October 23, 2012 at 3:29 am |

    @Bark Miwords,

    Fashion is for flouncers. Preppy is for kids.

    The only reason Prep has continued to be fashionable (on and off) for 30 years is because men have developed a bizarre and kinda creepy attachment to juvenility that seems to last well into their 30’s,.. at which point most start calling themselves ‘Trads’. But those critter belts are harder to give up than Coke* aren’t they Tradly dudes?

    Preppy has lingered in the world of fashion for 30 years, sure, but in the last 30 years the great ‘Ivy League’ manufacturers have all gone wrong. The awful fashions we see at Brooks today are there because of Preppy. This all happened on the Prepsters watch. Thirty years of Preppy, thirty years of classic American clothing going right down the tubes. You do the Maths (with an ‘s’).

    *of course I mean Coca Cola.

  22. Seems like it is “Ivy” when somebody calls it “Ivy”. This is high street fashion, riding on the preppy route. But it is CLEARLY NOT “Ivy League”. It is less “Ivy” than most Polo RL items, even Hilfiger has more Ivy League in it… ridiculous. “Ivy Style” gets worse every day…

  23. P.S. a bow tie and a side part doesn’t make it “Ivy”, and even my typical Austrian “Waffenrad” is much more an “Ivy” bike than this fashionable singlespeed… a big joke.

  24. formerly "Reactionary Trad" | October 23, 2012 at 7:08 am |

    @Bernie Bananas

    I most certainly agree with everything you have said about the abomination known as “Preppy”.

    Had no idea that “Trad” had such negative connotations. Will henceforth refer to myself as “Reactionary Ivy”

Comments are closed.