Squeeze Into This
J. Press windbreaker currently on eBay with Buy It Now of $250. Wear it to the Yale Club and see whether they let you in. — CC
Barbarians Storm The Gate Of Yale Club
Yesterday the New York Post’s gossip column Page Six reported on the annual meeting of the Yale Club, where some members aren’t too happy about all the tatterdemalions running amok. Writes the paper: One member wrote in a letter to the club, “A horrifying example of this denouement, this sad decline in the atmosphere and …
Golden Years: Rebel Without A Suit
Yesterday saw the e-publication of phase one of Richard Press’ memoirs, which he has been hard at work on for the past couple of years (and which is why you haven’t seen as many Golden Years columns). The lengthy stand-alone essay, entitled “Rebel Without A Suit,” is available from Amazon for $2.99 and can be …
Full Rise, Narrow Leg: The Ivy Style Khaki Project
Take a look at the illustration in this vintage advertisement: would you like pants like that? Recently I’ve been in talks with a menswear manufacturer about making a batch of khakis with a very specific cut: full rise with a leg that tapers to a relatively narrow opening. It’s a very heyday kind of look …
Six Years Ago — Club Dues: Geoffrey Wolff’s “The Final Club”
This post originally ran this week in June of 2009. Since then I have referenced it regularly. The novel in question dramatizes what it was like for a young man of the 1950s to leave the netherworld of the West Coast for Princeton and learn the nuances of proper dress from his peers. * * …
Modest Capitol Hill Turnout For Seersucker Thursday
Turnout for yesterday’s Seersucker Thursday on Capitol Hill was a modest nine, down from previous years. It was also predominantly, though not exclusively, Republican. In the interest of balance, here’s a brief history of political seersucker, courtesy of NPR. — CC Update: There are some quotes from me in this article at The Daily Caller. …
Ornette Coleman, 1930-2015
Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman has died at the age of 85. Here is the Wall Street Journal’s coverage. I don’t know what the guys are wearing in this photo, but for me it’s always been the epitome of ’50s-“Talented Mr. Ripley” suited-up blacks-and-whites making music together jazz cool. — CC
From Middle America To The World: Lands’ End’s New CEO Talks To Yahoo! Finance
Yahoo! Finance talks to Federica Marchionni, formerly an executive at Dolce & Gabanna, who became CEO of Lands’ End in February. This makes Lands’ End another in the list of American brands to come under foreign leadership. “My mission is to transform this incredible American iconic company into a meaningful global lifestyle brand,” Marchionni says …
Style Icon: Jon Carlo Dominguez
On May 23, The New York Times ran a story called “Catching A College’s Eye,” based on an open call the Times holds for college application essays that address the subjects of money and class. One of the high school students featured is Jon Carlo Dominguez, pictured above in a Times photo by Bryan Anselm. …
‘Sucker Bait: Guess The Maker
National Seersucker Day is a week from today. To get the festivities started, see if you can guess the maker of the jacket above, which is currently for sale by an American retailer. The jacket has a 3/2 roll, patch pockets, and no darts (though obviously some shaping). — CC
Dog Days Of Summer: Introducing Logan Richard
June arrived with a letter of introduction in my inbox from Logan Szidik, a young style entrepreneur looking to corner the market on preppy dog collars. No kidding: Szidik, a 23-year-old who graduated last year from the University of Vermont, has launched a collection called Logan Richard featuring collars for canines and belts for humans. …
Made For Each Other: J. Press & MTM Maestro Jay Walter Reunite
Today Jay Walter, longtime head of made-to-measure at J. Press‘ New York store, has reunitede with the company, working out of a suite located at 3rd Avenue and 40th Street. — CC
Scoundrelous!
Did designers at Ralph Lauren find a fountainhead of inspiration in the Rand-reading, madras-clad scoundrel from “Dirty Dancing?” This outfit from the Spring/Summer 2015 collection, at least from the waist up, echoes the screen shot in our last post. — CC
The Young JFK, Not Yet Ready For Prime Time
Yesterday was the birthday of John F. Kennedy. Here are a few pictures of him while a student at Choate, submitted by a reader a couple of birthdays ago. Above Kennedy is pictured in buttondown collar, which he would abandon during his presidential election — the first to reach a mass audience via television — …
Golden Years: From The Pale To Yale
“Blood lust” describes my passion for Daniel Horowitz’s engrossing saga, “On The Cusp: The Yale Class Of 1960 And A World On The Verge Of Change.” Dan Horowitz grew up around the corner from me in New Haven. We haven’t been in touch for over 50 years, but his visit to the Ivy Style Exhibit …
Six Years Ago: Haole Spirit
As we approach our 1,200th post, I’m going to start giving some of the early ones an encore in a regular series of reposts from five, six and seven years ago. This one originally ran on this day in 2009, and concerns heyday-era Ivy in unexpected places (or maybe not), as well as the interesting …
Boutonnieres For A Summer Wedding, And That’s No BS
If you or someone you know is planning a summer wedding, why not outfit the groomsmen in boutonnieres made of oxford cloth? Made by Mordechai Rubinstein of the blog Mister Mort, these were a highlight of the Pop-Up Flea show, founded by Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean, held two weeks ago.
Frame Up: The Warby Parker Summer Collection
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, which featured a bespectacled gentleman in tortoiseshell frames, here are some new glasses by Warby Parker released earlier this month. The new shapes are called the Buckley (above), Bates (below) and Oxley (bottom). I ran them by David Wilder, longtime salesman in J. Press’ New York store and known …
Caught On Camera
Last night’s evening news featured the rare appearance of a suited man on television not wearing the American Boardroom look we associate with politicans, newscasters, and virtually everyone else on television. Pictured in buttondown shirt, conventional rep-striped tie and tortoiseshell glasses is NTSB spokesman Robert Sumwalt. Can you guess what part of the country he’s …