During the Ivy heyday in the US, and as VAN Jac was budding in Japan, Kyu Sakamoto‘s “Ue o muite arukō” became one of the best pop songs to come out of the ’60s. It topped the Billboard charts in 1963, the only Japanese song ever to do so. Since the song’s title didn’t lend itself to …
Today we keep the rock-n-roll theme going with a flash back to this post from five years ago, which is anything but fogeyish. And at the bottom of the post is Waterhouse’s latest video, which should get you in the mood for… water. * * * Last week I saw Nick Waterhouse perform at the …
Years ago the Los Angeles Times asked me to write a story about a new men’s fashion trend that combined English gentleman tailoring with rock and roll style. Though it’s outside the boundaries of Tradsville, I thought it may serve as inspiration for freeing up latent energies, thereby having a therapeutic effect amid the social …
Spring is here, and, while not quite ready to call for my whangee and yellowest shoes like Bertie Wooster, I am getting ready to pack up the woolen tweeds and flannels until fall. Sometime in the next few weeks I will get the summer stuff out of storage at the dry cleaners, and I have been …
Do not let this post mislead you, for the necktie is not dead but will rise again. Happy Easter, everyone. * * * Amid the egg hunts, chocolate bunnies and flower bonnets, how can the menswear aficionado add some style to Easter Sunday? How about dyeing Easter eggs, but with the unique twist of transfering …
I will try to write this without vulgarity and profanity. Partly because someone’s son might read this. Partly because, well, it is a gentlemen’s site. Lived off of Lands’ End buttondowns for most of my career, back when they made a wide variety. Wore Brooks blazers, suits, ties, accessories, and even one pair of wingtips, …
Today the New York Times has a lengthy feature on the abandoned Brooks Brothers warehouse we posted about earlier this week, along with a summary of the present situation of the company. The Times writes: The office attire segment of retailing as a whole was battered last year as many Americans worked remotely, ditching entire …
The Ivy Style team has spent the past three-and-a-half weeks writing multiple drafts for our annual April Fool’s Day satire, only for us to finally conclude that there’s simply no greater gag or punchline than America in 2021. And so with warm wishes on this fine spring day we encourage you to join in the …
After a two-Manhattan lunch with the guys, I would occasionally go and sit with “my guy” at Brooks Brothers and go through swatches and order up a couple of MTM suits. One of the tailors, Sal, an impeccably-dressed Italian gentleman, would measure me. Pick-stitching, working sleeve buttons, pen-pocket, mid-break, no break, 1 5/8” cuffs, etc. At …
It can’t be all doom and gloom regarding Brooks Brothers. So before we get back to bittersweet nostalgia, let’s pay tribute to the company’s great stylistic achievements, such as this post on the red sweater, a rare piece in the trad wardrobe.
Yesterday I realized that Brooks Brothers is gone and it gave me a real sadness. A year ago this weekend, on a sunny day much like today, I took one of my nephews into Brooks Brothers and showed him around. I told him that one day I would buy him something there, when he was …
Perhaps because I scribe for a living, and know that a piece of writing always benefits from cutting,* I’ve always been a ruthless editor of my own wardrobe. There’s always something that can be discarded for being redundant, having fulfilled its use, or not being quite right. The simple test is to look at an …
Well here’s a super-cool discovery: a pack of 1960s playing cards using cover art for the magazine Heibon Punch, by artist Ayumi Ohashi. The cards, our translator tells us, depict a wide range of social situations and leisure activities and the proper attire for each.
The last week in March. You may remember this time from a year ago. It was when this mysterious virus we’d heard about in the news suddenly became real, and the businesses in your town — perhaps even your own — were forced to close, and people began panic buying the one commodity they deduced …
The above image, which comes from a 1928 Kuppenheimer catalog, ties in with themes explored in our comprehensive rise and fall essay: namely town and country, or city and campus. In it the three-button undarted suit is presented as “authentically designed” for the university man, while the postgraduate “Young Executive” model is a tapered two-button option.These …
On several occasions throughout Ivy Style’s tenure we’ve referred to this post, which originally ran in 2009. It remains a valuable pop culture document of what Spring Break used to be like, when young gentlemen wore blazers and ladies wore dresses, when romantic encounters were at least nominally aimed at being long-term, and when avant-garde …
Philip Roth, who died in 2018 and is considered perhaps the greatest novelist of his generation for books such as “Portnoy’s Complaint,” is the subject of two new biographies. Not many of us have led lives so pure they could stand up to the scrutiny of a biography published in 2021, and so it comes …
J. Press has generously donated three signed copies of Richard Press’ new book “Threading The Needle.” To press your luck, simply use the leave-comment feature below. The contest will stay open until Sunday at midnight and the winners will be chosen by random number generator. All you have to do is answer the following question: What …
Everyone knows the buttondown shirt has been around forever. Well, we can at least trace its popularity to John Brooks (grandson of the firm’s founder) trip to England in 1896. He saw the polo players wearing this style collar, liked it, and started to manufacture it on his return home. The buttondown was particularly popular …