August 28th seems like an odd day of the year to dedicate to the wearing of bow ties. It’s summer, when many are trying to avoid ties if at all possible. And everyone’s preparing for the long weekend, if not already somewhere coastal or tropical. Yet tomorrow is indeed National Bow Tie Day. Consider this …
Last week something new shook the foundations of the sedate community of Tradsville — a rockin’ blues band called The Hook Vents. The coolest thing about the band and their tune “Soft Shoulder Shuffle” is that the musicians were never in the recording studio together. They simply laid down their tracks individuallly and emailed them …
It helps to be old enough to look dignified.
This week Dick’s Sporting Goods, a major golf retailer, announced it is bailing out of the sport since nobody except me seems to want to take it up anymore. My latest piece for Ralph Lauren Magazine, which posted this morning, was given the ominous title “The Future Of Golf.” In it I explore the sky-is-falling …
A couple days ago I visited the Finnish menswear site Keikari and spied a quote from Hugh Hefner that was right up our alley — or at least mine: I like jazz, foreign films, Ivy League clothes, gin and tonic and pretty girls — the same sort of things Playboy readers like. I posted it …
Recently J. Press sent out an email plugging its fall items, so if you haven’t visited the “new looks” page, take a look. And while you’re there, tell me if things look a bit different compared to seasons past. The mannequin forms, shirt collars, tie choices — something feels like a piano slightly out …
We’ve had such a steady stream of newsy material that the menswear trade shows have been put off for months. So for the rest of this week I’ll be posting photos from shows in January, springtime, and just a couple of weeks ago. In other words, there will be a seasonal mixture. Check back on …
I was on a film set with Robin Williams once, working as a dance extra on his movie “Bicentennial Man.” It was a disastrous night of shooting. Already behind schedule, the lighting set the sprinkler system off at San Francisco’s City Hall, where we were filming. It flooded the set and delayed us yet hours …
Nick Hilton just sent over photos of the new Norman Hilton sportcoats we posted about recently. Made in the US, they will be priced at $695-$795, or about the same as last time around. They are scheduled to arrive in Hilton’s Princeton shop in the next few weeks. — CC
We’re long overdue for an update on Kamakura Shirts. A couple months ago I had coffee with the NYC store manager and a a member of the founder’s family visiting from Japan, and they said the New York store is doing just great. In fact, they’re currently scouting for a second NY location, likely in …
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 …
This ad from a 1959 issue of Sports Illustrated is interesting for a number of reasons. Most obvious is the ad’s premise of dressing young. From our perspective 55 years later, the men in the ad could hardly look more mature. Yet such were the small distinctions of suit-wearing at the time. Then, in the …
In a previous article, I mentioned that native prints are not common among Ivy retailers today. This possibly overreaching assessment prompted me to make a more thoughly investigation of current offerings. I approached O’Connell’s, the purveyor of all things traditional and known for its expansive collection of old stock. I struck out in finding any …
A few weeks ago, on a short jaunt to Westchester County, I passed a sign for Ossining and immediately thought of John Cheever. Now it turns out the former house of the author nicknamed “Ovid in Ossining” is for sale. Newsweek has a great story on both the author and the property. — CC
Was batik really worn by college men, or was it a marketing ploy by clothiers, as one reader recently suggested? Evidence courtesy of Lehigh University yearbooks from 1961-65. — CC & CS
Some examples of ads from campus newspapers during the Ivy heyday. In the next post, we’ll show you some examples of batik in 2014. — CS & CC
As we reach the heart of summer, I sense a deprivation. It goes virtually unnoticed, and yet it is there for any Ivy enthusiast to investigate. The stores are full of the requisite madras and seersucker, but little else. Compared to the Ivy boom years, or even the golden age of the 1930s, it appears …
In a 1973 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Richard K. Rein wrote about P-Town’s legendary clothing shop Langrock. “Princeton’s oldest and most successful men’s clothing store,” he wrote, “is a curious mix of effete snobbery, highbrow intellectualism, and small town warmth and personal service that remained singularly unruffled by the sweeping sartorial changes occurring …
This morning a small new collection called Tracksmith launched. It’s the first thing in a long time we’ve felt should be categorized under Ivy Trendwatch. The founder, Matt Taylor, you see, is a Yale grad and the Ivy League is referenced as a style wellspring in the running-wear company’s marketing material. For example: Tracksmith offers …