Junior Prom: Ivy Style Completes Year Three

Lately I’ve been hitting golf balls so obsessively I failed to notice that October 1st marked Ivy Style’s three-year anniversary. We’re finally seniors.

In the meantime, though, it’s time to celebrate the junior prom. The image above is from the Vassar archives, and comes from an article with an amusing run-down of men from various colleges, and how datable they are for Vassar girls.

In 1956, for example, the Vassar Chronicle noted of Princeton men:

Here is found an overabundance of the typical Tweed and Briar man with his oxford grey complexion and button down ears.

Now here are some highlights from the past year:

• First and foremost is the invaluable addition of Richard Press, grandson of Jacobi and former president of J. Press, who shares his memories of the Ivy heyday in his column “The Golden Years.” The column comes about after hours of exhaustive interviews resulting in a five-part Q&A.

• Last October saw the posting of one of Ivy Style’s most contentious articles, our review of “The Ivy Look” by Graham Marsh and JP Gaul of England. The ensuing comment thread revealed the vast dichotomy between the couple of dozen active online UK Ivy fans and the rest of us who live in America — and reality.

• We eliminate our bloated left ad column for a more streamlined layout.

Gant returns to Yale.

Trad is parodied by the caustic menswear tumblr Fuck Yeah Menswear.

The Norman Hilton brand is revived; later I write copy for the lookbook.

• I take a road trip to Cambridge to visit Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop, Denis Black of J. Press, Zach from Newton Street Vintage, and Joe from An Affordable Wardrobe. A return-trip plan to meet Muffy Aldrich falls through due to poor cellular reception in the wilds of Connecticut.

• For our 300th post, London-based contributor and Vassar alum Rebecca C. Tuite looks at the story and film adaptation of “The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt.”

• Fred of Unabashedly Prep takes a photo of me that sets a new standard of affectation.

• Ivy Style becomes the first WASPy website to celebrate Black History Month.

• The Wall Street Journal does a major story on the Ivy League Look — and gets my name wrong.

• With a bad winter haircut, I pose for Rose Callahan’s Dandy Portaits.

• Ivy Style breaks the news of Banks and de La Chapelle’s “Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style.” The strong reaction of Ivy Style readers to the cover image prompts the authors to change it.

• George Shearing, a fellow parishioner of St. Thomas Church, dies; I attend his memorial.

• Pegged on my cycle chic story for Ralph Lauren Magazine, Ivy Style presents Bicycle Week. Our post on girls in penny loafers on bikes becomes one of the most popular ever.

• Friend and colleague G. Bruce Boyer writes an ode to olive, major color during the Ivy heyday.

• We present a large gallery of Japanese Ivy illustrations.

• And finally, this past year’s personal highlights include falling in love with a woman I met at a J. Press cocktail reception, and taking up the maddening and exhilarating sport of golf. It’s been a great year, and I look forward to the next. — CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD

20 Comments on "Junior Prom: Ivy Style Completes Year Three"

  1. Congratulations! I always look forward to your posts.

  2. Button-Down Mind Strikes Back | October 17, 2011 at 3:50 pm |

    @Laguna

    For a place you claim to hate, you sure seem to spend an inordinate amount of time here…

    What is your contribution to the world exactly?
    I mean besides jealous rage-filled rants, junior-high insults, and bigoted brain-dead trolling…

    Seriously though…you’re a loudmouth, attention-whore, dullard. You routinely embarrass yourself.

  3. Congrats! Cheers for another great year to come.

  4. I have concluded that Laguna Beach Fogey is a closeted homosexual whose only outlet for expressing his obsessive adoration for Christian is trolling on this site.

  5. Congratulations, thanks, and best wishes for the future!

  6. The best there is.

  7. Congratulations. I have stolen, er I mean learnt an immense amount from Ivy Style. It just continues to get better.

  8. @Gabe

    “spot on”….

    Same goes for Russell Street, (otherwise known as “David James Frost Mellor”) the “out-and-proud” crippled impotent homosexual, mentally deranged psycho-stalker and obsessive-compulsive liar. Laguna Beach and “David James Frost-Mellor” are textbook examples of sad little cretins who specialize in never-ending obsessive online slander campaigns against people they’ve never met.

    “David James Frost-Mellor” has a disturbing obsession with accusing people of kiddie-fiddling too. I suspect it has something to do with his own childhood traumas, and bitterness over the sexual impotence brought on by the crippling illness he constantly moans about.

    Freud would have a field day with “David James Frost Mellor”‘s special brand of disturbing projection and sad untreated psychosis.

  9. Russell...Street Inc. | October 18, 2011 at 6:05 am |

    We’re all killing ourselves laughing – Do carry on.
    … And what could be more appropriate on this joke blog ?
    xxxxx

  10. @LBF

    Laguna Beach Fogey, Laguna Beach Trad, Laguna Beach Prep, how confusing… Maybe Laguna Beach Phoney is more appropriate.

  11. Laguna Bitch clearly needs help.

  12. Roy R. Platt | October 18, 2011 at 8:11 am |

    Not quite certain if “Ivy Style” has a theme song. If not, maybe “Grand Old Ivy” from “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” would be a good choice.

    Here it is, sung by Rudy Vallee and Robert Morse (who as any viewer of “Mad Men” knows), finally did succeed in business….

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhKubPO38w4

  13. Thanks Roy, that’s a fun clip. We linked to it in the Ephemera column back in year one!

  14. The 2011 version of “Grand Old Ivy” is a disappointment:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZPB83_ApqY&feature=related

  15. Congratulations Christian on a great three years, both personal and professional, and Richard Press has been a wonderful addition.

  16. Congratulations, Christian! I wish you all the best, and hope that you will continue to be successful, both personally and professionally. God bless.

  17. here’s to the next year! bravo

  18. Drinking alone again?

  19. Button-Down Mind Strikes Back | October 19, 2011 at 11:09 pm |

    @Christian

    Ha!

    Nice one.

  20. @OldSchool:

    Simply the best; better than all the rest.

Comments are closed.