Editor’s Note: MANY thanks to Mr. Jim Moore for this great photo and an even better story. Classic Ivy. In the spring of 1988, Jos. A Bank was a middle-income man’s version of Brooks Brothers: its undarted coats featured a 3/2 closure and a center hook vent, its button-down collars rolled admirably, and their tailors …
Unless you count the hybrid shoes that, despite Ivy-Style’s best efforts seem to be coming back, and maybe velcro but only on foul weather gear, the greatest innovation in men’s fashion over the last 50 years has to be the boxer brief and yet it gets very little love. Let us repair that breach. Boxer …
J. Press, Duck Head, and Jay Butler in this photo. Please leave me any final companies you want me to reach out to in the notes below.
From Steve Getman, perhaps the greatest Ivy Style photo of all time. And from the MIGHTY Anthony Kalamut, a quick laugh:
Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Mitchell for this Q&A. PennBilt has been featured on the site, we welcome them now as an advertiser. Please click through and check out the next step in khakis, and some badass gloves. Recently, I called PennBilt customer service with a question about khakis never expecting to have Bill Thomas …
For those of you who got that message from J. Press that they have gone all digital, fear not. Leave them your address and a paper catalog will be sent. And DO leave them your address. Jacket and Khakis = Duck Head. Shoes = Sperry. Stay tuned for a great series of reviews of over …
I don’t even need to introduce him or his work. The site is here. Bill. Bills Khaki’s. Now, on his own, free form. More in the next few days. But for now, welcome PennBilt to Ivy-Style.
Home Run. or…. Rest Easy. or… Told You. or… Core Strength (apologies to those who think fitness isn’t Ivy – actually I take that back, apology withdrawn). or… US UK. or… Classic Ivy. The book starts mailing today. K, first off, you aren’t gonna know what I am talking about if you don’t sign up …
FB Group member and #IvyGirl Colleen F. Montoya shared her Labor Day Pot Luck BBQ pictures, as hosted by herself and her husband. Thought you would want to see this. And THAT is West Coast Ivy. Top to bottom:– Earrings handmade by Charlotte Lynn Begay from Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico– RL Polo madras …
The J. Press Pennant Label brought about a very interesting conversation about evolving Ivy. It’s kind of a moot point, it has already happened, but hopefully this helps the few remaining who are struggling. Ivy started as a fashion innovation. People weren’t wearing loafers with shorts and no socks in the 40’s. Ivy was one …
If you follow Ivy, you know what happens when one generation tells another, “Wear what I did the way I wore it.” The resurgence of Ivy is an opportunity to invite a new generation to the party, but in a new way. That is an easy thing to get wrong, and a hard thing to …
In it, I asked him what he would do differently if he had my job. He said he really enjoyed “service series” where we compare and contrast different offerings in a category. Khakis, jackets, whatever. Boyer says jump, Burton asks how high? So, we are going to do it. I have categories laid out, but …
Editor’s note: The following piece, written by Daniel D. Covell, touched me. When I started at NW Ayer in 1986, Brooks Brothers was aspirational. I would go in not to buy, because I couldn’t, but I would go in to know what to aim for. Not all nostalgia is backward thinking as we have been …
Editor’s Note: Next week esteemed author and Ivy-Style contributor Daniel D. Covell is publishing a piece here about the closed Brooks flagship store in Manhattan. In research, he spoke to his brother, Rev. Brian Covell, about the Reverend’s own experience working at Brooks. The following are his recollections, and lessons. In the late 1990s, while …
So Mitchell was the first to send me this email he got from a company claiming they were Southern Ivy. I reached out to the company and they have not responded. Over the years I have met with resistance on introducing new items into the canon. We have come a long way on that. But …
A sample sale is both a great way to pick up bargains for the experienced but also a great point of entry if you want the best madras in the world.
Some great submissions, thought I would organize them here and see if there are any more. Mitchell wrote about the Fun Shirt, but I think that IS in the canon, yeah? Elder Prep suggested cargo pants. This is a great suggestion. Utilitarian. For years they were all I wore in the winter on jobs. And …
Ivy Icon Paul Newman in the A Shirt. Classic Fella sells an A Shirt that I tried, then researched, and now submit for addition. First, the case for addition. Exhibit A Exhibit B Exhibit C – not as Ivy as some but the 2nd best Christmas movie of all time. So the A Shirt is …
It takes a set of brass —-s to make the decision that Stephen Powell made. (Don’t worry, I am calling back the brass —- joke in a minute.) Some background. Powell was raised in a small town in northern Mississippi by an optometrist father and an accountant mother. The view of the world from this …