De gustibus non disputatum est. In English we know this apothegm as “There’s no accounting for taste.” Much of what is discussed on menswear forums and blogs comes down to personal taste. To illustrate the point, we asked a number of style writers, bloggers and forum posters to name their sartorial pet peeve. One man …
Editor’s Note: Many thanks to contributor Scott A. Burrell for the piece you are about to read. Alas it’ll be reruns for a while after this: freelance writers don’t get vacations (though they occasionally get paid press junkets), but I’m off to Cape Cod for some golf and DCG’s wedding (in order of importance). Expect …
How to let your fellow students know you’re already eyeing a corner office and you haven’t even graduated yet. Ivy Style Facebook group member Def George on the first day of his senior year, dressed up and already hitting the library! — CC
While other indendent menswear stores are shuttering their doors, O’Connell’s is seeking to expand. Fueled by ecommerce from guys like you, the business has submitted plans to the city to construct a two-story addition to its Main Street, Buffalo location. The Buffalo News (from where the above image is taken) has the full story here. …
I grew up in a Catholic, Eastern-European enclave in Pennsylvania coal country. As such, the Ivy League Look is something I’ve consciously adopted. It has not been passed-down to me nor born out of my environment, which I feel has given me total freedom in exploring it. To me it’s almost a form of fiction …
Previous contributor James Kraus herein shares some back-to-school memories from the late ’60s. If you came of age in the Ivy heyday or preppy ’80s and have sartorial and scholastic memories you’d like to share, please send them over using the contact button above. * * * The earliest memory I have of any particular …
Have a wild holiday weekend — in wild shirts by Gant. These ads ran in The New Yorker (hardly a periodical aimed at trendy kids) in 1966 and 1967. The models are surprisingly mature. You’re only as old as you dress! — CC & CS
The Ivy heyday may be long gone, but we’re truly living in a golden age of the oxford-cloth buttondown. There are so many options currently available that all you need to do is set your budget and priorities and there should be plenty to choose from. For those with bulbous budgets — or collectors willing …
And you thought you’d look trendy wearing a foulard buttondown! Alas according to a new Wall Street Journal feature, one of those moments of trads becoming accidentally trendy is falling fast upon us. The paper wastes no time getting to the punch. “The loafer, that 1980s preppy staple, has stepped back into the spotlight,” reads …
Something caught my eye in Brooks Brothers recently: a blue buttondown shirt with a foulard-type pattern. It conjured up visions of Gant ads from the mid to late ’60s, or something like that. I did some Google searching but was unable to come up with a vintage image; perhaps someone can help. Speaking of Gant, …
It’s actually Professor Week here at Ivy Style, instigated by the Wall Street Journal article we posted, which delared that corduroy and elbow patches are in. Members of our Facebook page already submitted photos of a number of tweedy pedagogues in fact and fiction, and you’re welcome to email me any suggestions. We’ll be rolling …
In the current isssue of Esquire, PJ O’Rourke attempts to analyze the clothing of all the presidential candidates (that is, all the ones we started with). O’Rourke opens the piece with a description of himself: “I’m no arbiter of style. I’m a navy-blue/banker-gray J. Press, barrel-cuff, club-tie duffer who buys a new suit when I …
Ivy Style’s Facebook group has been lively lately, so if you can’t get enough discussion of sartorial (and cultural) matters with your natural-shouldered brothers, then come over and join us. Recently a reader dug up this photo of the massive bow tie collection of E. Gordon Gee, currently the president of West Virginia University. Perform …
Reposted in honor of National Dog Day. This column originally ran on June 13, 2011. * * * Last night the Broadway revival of “Anything Goes,” which had received nine Tony nominations, ended up winning three. As I watched, I couldn’t help but remember one of the great historical anecdotes of J. Press: The time …
Back in the spring J. Press’ managing director told me that this fall the company would be unveiling live models on its website and in its promotional material. That day came yesterday when J. Press sent out an email blast showing new fall items worn by real live human beings. The collection of images are …
I’m seventeen and attend a prep school in Louisville, Kentucky. I have a fondness for classic clothing, but it’s definitely not inherited. I’m middle class and my dad’s taste in clothing is as bland as white bread. Instead I came to appreciate classic clothes through my love of film, especially old Alfred Hitchcock movies like …
Derek at the Die Workwear! blog may be a style omnivore, but he still has a soft spot for the Ivy League Look. Yesterday he was on a bit of a trad kick. First he tweeted the following: Then he posted a great gallery of images of jazz pianist Bill Evans, along with some remarks …
Recently I was asked to participate in a new side project from Christian Barker, my former editor at The Rake. Barker founded a site called Men’s Top Tens, part of which consists of style commandments from his colleagues in the menswear, media and luxury goods industries. The piece gives me an opportunity to talk about …
Our recent post on the new business casual dress code at JP Morgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers inspired this quip in the comments section: So glad Weiner ended ‘Mad Men’ so I never will have to watch a 60-year-old Don Draper wear a size large OCBD with Top-Siders and chinos to the office. Which got me wondering: …