The Wall Street Journal has piled on and it is safe to say now that we can stop posting articles about the comeback of “formal style” and just be grateful that the pendulum swung our way. Here’s their article, if you care to read it. Articles by yours truly and others to the contrary, …
Here’s the article in the October issue of The Rake. We have gone from Chensvold’s literary death sentence of the necktie to Boyer’s plea for clemency to a user’s manual. What are we to make of this? I reviewed Christian Chensvold’s book here, and in reflecting now on that review I realize that the …
In Hyde Park, NY, of all places, on the banks of the Hudson River, one of the most prestigious private universities in the country offers up one of the most aggressive and well-regarded educations available, the offspring of which is masters of their majors. Celebrity masters and non-celebrity masters alike, industry seeks graduates of this …
When I got the gig, I set out to meet the existing advertisers. Had coffee with some, went to the offices of others, the stores of even others. Started with a few emails, then phone calls, you know the drill. Ivy has the potential to be a stereotype. The boss’s son taking over the company …
I like pens and I go into town (that is what you call it when you take the train to Manhattan from where I am) about twice a week. There is a non-Staples pen store a few blocks outside Grand Central, I had a few dollars in my pocket from the last Evening With James …
I have worn a Columbia ballcap to Columbia before with predictable results. I have now worn Duck Head khakis to a cigar room on Madison Avenue, and gotten unpredictable results. If you are from parts south you might be more familiar with Duck Head. The company has everything we love here, including starting as a …
EDITOR’S NOTE: Please, for the love of god. This is a piece about Ivy dressed news anchors, or the lack thereof. I get you don’t like one side or the other. We are talking clothes here. Get it? – JB Walter Cronkite is still America’s most influential news anchor according to the polling done by …
Well well well. It does seem that our sails are catching some wind, yes? The flurry of Prep Is Coming Back (damn with the Prep thing but we can get to that too) articles that line up with our jam is gratifying. I could review one a day, but this one is particularly good and …
EDITOR’S NOTE: Nathaniel Means was kind enough to offer up this review of Alan Flusser’s book on Ralph Lauren. It’s a thought and reaction-provoking review, and if you haven’t read through the book, you should. I revisited the book itself in preparation for this article, and here is what I was left with. First, it …
Editor’s Note: ALL of the illustrations in this article were done by the author, ZG Burnett. – JB By and large, the Ivy closet was the first gender-neutral safe space. Since the founding of the Seven Sisters, students were snapping up their brothers’ and boyfriends’ clothes to wear in the secluded comfort of the quad. …
Here’s the article. Three observations, then have at it yourself. First, the using of Ivy and Prep as interchangeable. I know they aren’t, you know they aren’t, how does Kareem Rashed not know they aren’t? Easily explained dear reader – because for him they still are, and he is the window shopper we are looking …
There are more than one kind of whisky, but then there isn’t. Scotch Whisky is Whisky. There is Irish Whiskey if one cannot get one’s hands on Scotch Whisky. Scotch Whisky is made, or given to us by the Gods, I dunno, from malted barley. Irish Whiskey is a blend, made from malted and unmalted …
Editor’s Note: Old School sent me a collection of essays from old Land’s End catalogs… and they are fantastic. We’ll feature some of them – there’s an essay on ironing your own shirt (the male author says, “You may call me a pantywaist but…”) (I have to tell you, I had no idea pantywaist was …
Book reviews are so predictable. They start in one of two ways – either with the author’s take on the subject and then a segue into the book (if you want my take on the subject read WASPS by John Burton – KIDDING there is no book like that) or with a quote from the …
I promise cigars. But here is a close up of the guy to the left of JFK. This photo is credited as being at Hyannis. Ok, I will get back to the central thesis. But no promises that we don’t circle back. A number of events coalesced. First, I have a huge day on Monday …
Recently, JB posted an Ivy Style Playlist on Spotify, and there was a discussion in the Ivy Style community about music tangentially related to the Ivy League. Be it that the artist attended an Ivy, dressed Ivy, or had some sort of connection to Ivy. If we’re judging by those standards, Vampire Weekend is gold-caliber. …
An ill-mannered impeccably Ivy-dressed person is… … … an ill-mannered person. I shouldn’t have to sell you on the idea of wearing Ivy rather than Ivy wearing you, and that the difference between Ivy as cosplay and Ivy as wardrobe isn’t the Ivy, it’s the person wearing it, right? I am a product of …
The problem with picking a strong lead image for an article is that since a picture is worth a thousand words one has to start in the middle of the piece to avoid repeating one’s self. Since not everybody is a visual learner, here: the death of the necktie has been predicted almost as …
My favorite Rodney Dangerfield joke has nothing to do with the rules about madras and white bucks and Labor Day, which the rest of this article will be full of. Here’s the joke. “I asked my wife, Honey, how come you never make any noise when you have an orgasm? And she says, how would …