Last week saw the passing of actor Robert Culp, who starred in the ’60s TV show “I Spy.” Last year Ivy-Style contributor Zachary DeLuca wrote a fine tribute to the show, in which Culp plays a former tennis star turned secret agent generously costumed in natural-shouldered suits and buttondown collars. The post can be found …
Yesterday Bruce Boyer and I visited Brooks Brothers, who were showing the Fall/Winter 2010 collection on the sixth floor of the 346 Madison flagship store. The goods represented the company’s growing commitment to reclaiming its heritage, and there were many nods to its golden age in addition to the new girls and home collections. Though …
The designers at Gant Rugger appear to have hit the books in preparation for the Spring 2010 collection. Or at least one book: “Take Ivy,” the 1965 Japanese photo book hyped to the max on the Web over the past couple of years. The sartorial motifs of “Take Ivy” abound in the Rugger collection, mixed …
Don’t things like this usually come in threes? Click here for The Washington Post‘s coverage.
Louis Auchincloss, author of prep-school classic “The Rector of Justin,” plus many novels and stories set among New York’s Old Money, died Tuesday night. The New York Times’ coverage is here. And from 2008, The Washington Post’s book critic Jonathan Yardley looks back on “Justin.”
As promised, a few notes on the ENK menswear trade show held last week. For spring and fall, Allen Edmonds will be bringing out a number of updated shoes in the trad category. Three of them are highlighted above, while all six are in the photo below (apologies for the bad shot).
This weekend I attended Designer Forum New York, a menswear trade show sponsored by the Custom Tailors and Designers Association, the oldest trade organization in the US. The event allowed me to finally meet two cyber-colleagues in person: Ivy-Style contributor Zachary DeLuca and author G. Bruce Boyer. Meanwhile, the clothes on display (such as the …
Young men who came of age during the heyday of the Ivy League Look could largely rely on their peers for sartorial guidance. By the ’80s, things were much different, and the budding man of style had to rely increasingly on books, magazines and movies. But today’s young men, who’ve never known life without the …
Last night Brooks Brothers held a Christmas bash at its flagship 346 Madison Avenue store. The event drew hundreds, with shopping proceeds benefitting St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. On the third floor, Wynton Marsalis (pictured at left) and members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who are dressed by Brooks Brothers, played swinging renditions of …
Fifty years after the release of his seminal 1959 album “Time Out” and on the day of his 89th birthday, Dave Brubeck was honored by the Kennedy Center. The gala event, which honors lifetime achievement in the performing arts, will air on CBS December 29. The Washington Post has a Brubeck profile here, while the …
Seven days ago I filed a story on JFK the man and then jumped on a plane to JFK the airport. I’ve just finished my first week in New York and think I’ll stay for awhile. Does it get much colder? I’m staying in Astoria. Longtime denizens of Tradsville will recognize this as the place …
Longtime denizens of Tradsville surely chuckle when their perennial preferences become temporarily trendy. Then again, perhaps the current Atomic Age influence on menswear is not an ephemeral fashion blip, but a veritable Reconstruction of the American Wardrobe. What we have here is a double-shot endorsement of the trouser cuff, which probably owes a lot to …
Today Ivy-Style.com completes its freshman year. From now on all posts will be sophomoric. The image chosen to commemorate our anniversary is from the LIFE archives (the well ain’t dry yet), dates from 1966, and is captioned “Freshman student Barry Unger gets perspective on Op Art exhibit at MIT’s library.” And what a dizzying year …
Last week the New York Times blog ran a piece on the new book “American Fashion Menswear,” by Robert E. Bryan, former men’s fashion director for the Times. As the book includes chapters on both The Ivy League Look and dandyism, the publisher asked me to read the manuscript. Adding to the honor was a …
As a follow-up to our recent post “Ivy is the New Preppy,” above is an image from a Ralph Lauren promo email sent out a few days ago, with updated terminology. A guy I play tennis with said his horse was used in an RL photo shoot done in Bodega Bay, setting for Hitchcock’s “The …
This is part two of Ivy-Style founder Christian Chensvold’s interview with Denis Black, manager of the Cambridge J. Press store. Here Black reveals the fate of the flap-pocket OCBD, discusses Brooks Brothers during its heyday, and addresses the current cut of J. Press’ suit shoulders. CC: During the heyday of the Ivy League Look, what …
The October 2008 issue of Men’s Vogue devoted its “Examined Life” column to the late literary lion George Plimpton. The piece consists of excerpts from Nelson W. Aldrich Jr.’s forthcoming oral-history bio, “George, Being George.” Included are various reminiscences by former boyhood pals, including classmates from the Phillips Exeter Academy, which Plimpton attended from …