Following the mention of Paul Fussell’s pinpoint-accurate and hilarious book “Class” in our last post, faithful reader “Old School” sent us a reminder about another entertaining class theorist, Russell Lynes. The above chart comes from Lynes’ 1949 book “The Tastemakers.” His 1953 Esquire article on the shoe hierarchy at Yale, which we presented several years ago, is a must-read.
We also featured him back when we were a wee little site of six months old. — CC
Lynes’ “Shoe” article was one of the first pieces that I read on Ivy Style. After reading it I knew that this was a site that I would visit often.
Imagine the changes for a 2014 rendition!
The chart appeared somewhere in the New York Times this Sunday I think. I found myself placing myself in the upper middle brow category. It’s doing something other than stereotyping class. The high brow is obviously a university professor. It doesn’t correspond with upper class. But it is still fun to look at.
@Tom Conroy
Thanks for the tip. After a little Googling, I just found the article you referred to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/arts/a-resurgence-in-inequality-and-its-effects-on-culture.html?_r=0