If you’ve ever wondered where my patronym comes from, the answer is Norway. My paternal grandfather came over in the ’30s and settled in San Francisco, where he married my grandmother, who had about the plainest English name imaginable: Betty Jane Smith. We’re one of only two Chensvold families in the US (the other is …
New video from the Brethren with tour of their Long Island City tie factory, just down the street from Ivy Style headquarters.
During the heyday of the Ivy League Look, Norman Hilton was a leading natural-shoulder brand sold at many campus shops and regional clothiers. Hilton was also Ralph Lauren’s first major investor, and made many of Lauren’s suits and sportcoats in the ’70s. His son Nick Hilton has continued the family tradition, running a clothing shop …
I love the message-in-a-bottle quality of the net. Send a note out and see what comes back. So on day three or so of tweeting — which is actually pretty fun — I hear about this new site Fuck Yeah Menswear, which runs “on point” stream-of-consciousness parodies of fashionable pretension. So on Friday I tweeted …
O’Connell’s is a big place. How big? Big enough for 26 tweed sportcoats to get lost for decades. Owner Ethan Huber recently discovered a stash of two dozen tweed sportcoats made shortly after the store opened in 1959. The jackets have all the Ivy details straight from the heyday: natural shoulders, three-button fronts, narrow lapels, …
Originally founded in New Haven in 1949, Gant is returning to Yale with a “campus store” opening next month, the company announced today. Gant will also recreate “a limited-edition shirt collection featuring the historically significant Yale Co-op label,” set to debut in early 2011. The shop will be located at 268 York Street and Broadway, …
This Friday marks Ivy-Style’s two-year anniversary. With our sophomore year behind us, we’re upperclassmen at last. The year was full of highlights. For starters, I coined the acronym PITA (for Preppy-Ivy-Trad-Americana), which has been picked up by at least two people, and, less significantly, moved to New York. Ivy-Style added a new category called Ivy …
I know, fall is here and you’re eagerly breaking out the woolens. No one could be happier than me, as I get to spend my first autumn in New York. But apparel brands are always working well in advance, so I need you to temporarily shift your brain back into warm-weather mode and have a …
Just how much was the Ancient Eight a part of pop culture during the heyday of the Ivy League Look? Enough to inspire a B movie like 1959’s “Ivy League Killers,” whose title, reeking of both murder and elitism, was sure to have kids across the nation flocking to drive-ins. The film (which was made …
J. Press has given Ivy-Style a sneak peak at items from its Fall/Winter 2010 collection. The full collection will be posted on the Press website on August 19.
Last week Allen Edmonds unveiled the Kenwood model to US consumers. Previously — and inexplicably — the classic American beefroll penny loafer, made in the company’s own “Gentry” leather, was only available in foreign markets. The lone penny option for US customers was the beefless Walden model. The Kenwood will be available in Allen Edmonds …
Two 19th-century American heritage brands have teamed up to offer a new US-made jean. Brooks Brothers and Levis — founded in 1818 and 1853, respectively — today debuted a collaboration appropriately called Levi’s Jeans, Made In The USA For Brooks Brothers. “For generations, nothing has conveyed the image of iconic American style more than a …
Since their invention by British soldiers in India, who tried to conceal dust by dying their trousers with tea, khaki pants have been a menswear staple marked by overabundance. Department store racks are lousy with them, and new brands appear and die out yearly. The khaki market is a hard one to win a share …
Will Fall 2010 be remembered as the peak —and therefore beginning of the end — of the Preppy/Ivy/Trad/Americana trend, or will it mark the beginning of a much larger and longer influence on American style and culture? Time will tell, and things are heating up in preparation. In this weekend’s Sunday Styles section of the …
It’s Menswear Market Week here in New York, and I’ve spent the past few days at a couple of the trade shows. First up, Designer Forum, sponsored by the Custom Tailors & Designers Association, the oldest trade organization in the US. Pictured above are rep bow ties from Collared Greens, which has combined the preppy, …
Last summer, when I posted a photo of myself on the front page of Ivy-Style, I was also wearing madras. Of course, that was a shot from the rear. This year I’m showing my less flattering side. Recently, while researching a story on madras for The Rake, I spoke with Ethan Huber at O’Connell’s and …
Eager to reinvigorate a stodgy brand in the wake of the Americana fashion trend, Bass is preparing a new marketing campaign aimed at “hipsters,” Harbor Footwear spokesman Jason Lazar told Ivy-Style. Curious, we probed Lazar, the excutive vice president for Harbor, which holds the footwear license for G.H. Bass & Company (which is owned by …
The current issue of Details devotes its style section to home-grown looks, saying that American style is a rapidly growing global trend. Writes the magazine: Classic American style is dominating fashion these days. What started as a domestic revival has snowballed into a worldwide movement — well-dressed guys from Antwerp to Tokyo have suddenly traded …
“Take Ivy” inspires once again, this time New York shoe shop Leffot, which has unveiled its $625 cordovan Venetian loafer with direct reference to the former cult book that’s soon to be ubiquitous. Made in Maine, the “Ivy” loafer comes in unlined cordovan and four color choices. If you like the look of the Venetian …