Two years ago, in January 2019, I wrote an essay for the San Francisco society magazine The Nob Hill Gazette. It’s entitled “This Year Of Grace,” a reference to the city’s iconic Grace Cathedral, as well as a play by Noel Coward. So much has changed since then that it’s worth sharing again on this …
In 1963 Frank Sinatra had a hit with the song “It Was A Very Good Year,” in which the narrator sings about life at 17, 35, and finally “the autumn of my years.” If you played the game of life correctly this year, you should be closing it out a stronger and wiser man with …
Biltmore Clothes has offered good taste since 1912. The jacket above is a perfect example. Actually, perhaps the company’s taste was questionable: It doesn’t seem to be in business anymore. Pity, as this is a fine jacket to wear with black tie on New Year’s Eve in a place like Palm Beach. De gustibus non est …
In one of the most bitterly divisive years in American political history, Ivy Style is proud to announce its first-ever Politician Of The Year award goes to Kyle Singh. Mr. Singh has not actually won anything yet — he is running for legislature in Nassau County, New York — but in our book he’s the …
In a recent post, Ivy Style founder Christian Chensvold shared his embracing of black, the forbidden color of the trad wardrobe. Now columnist Richard Press recounts his rude awakening when he joined J. Press in 1959 and dared suggest the company stock a black item. * * * The only time the Man In The …
Over the past dozen years, Ivy Style has been honored to digitize for the Internet the work of legendary menswear historian G. Bruce Boyer, thereby making it available to a new generation of readers. In this post Mr. Boyer ruminates on the polo coat, the so-called “aristocrat of topcoats.” Below are some words of reflection …
Today we celebrate Christmas in a year that has tested all of us in new ways. And so as inspiration for the new year, Ivy Style asked contributor G. Andrew Meschter to opine on the notion of “muscular Christianity.” He said his best work on the subject is the following excerpt from his book As Iron …
It’s a shame to think there will be no more Christmas parties at 346 Madison Avenue. But perhaps Brooks Brothers will host its annual benefit to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at another location in the years to come. The photo above is from the 2010 party, and it is quite sobering to revisit and rewrite this …
The time for Christmas cheer is once again upon us and Ivy Style is here to help you celebrate in midcentury manner. When one thinks of the Christmas season, one of the first things to spring to mind is music. With that in mind, here’s a look back at some worthy old chestnuts, standards and …
Dark academians who honor their forebears by donning tweed and flannel and digging through libraries and old bookstores throughout the bleak midwinter may have come across the following line: Only when viewed as an aesthetic phenomenon are the sufferings and miseries of life eternally justified. (By the way, that’s how to use the term “aesthetic”when …
If you haven’t decided on what to wear for your virtual Christmas celebrations, consider taking inspiration from JFK. For his final Christmas, celebrated in Palm Beach 1962, the President donned white shirt, necktie, yellow trousers, white athletic socks, and crested velvet slippers.
Each year I try to listen to a new Christmas album from the postwar years, and this year I happened upon The Brothers Four. The pop-folk group often wore matching buttondowns, apparently even with ascots or turtlenecks underneath. You can find them on YouTube, while below is a sampling. God rest ye merry, gentlemen. If …
Since you’re unlikely to be doing much this New Year’s Eve, consider curling up by the fire with cigar and a snifter and reading my storybook “The Disengage,” which is set on December 31, 1899, as well as the following morning in the cold dawn of the 20th century. It’s by far the most flamboyant …
The shade known as kelly is the sanctified preppy shade of green. After all, it appears in the holy breviary known as “The Official Preppy Handbook.” And so we revisit this post from days of yore with the suggestion to break out this shade of green, which is normally associated with summer, during this yuletide …
As 2020 winds to a close, taking everything with it, let’s catch up on the latest news on a snowy day here in the Northeast. I) As we opined recently, comedy is officially dead. Or at least it’s not cool. Which at least means cool isn’t dead. Recently Rowing Blazers “dropped” a Babar The Elephant …
On December 16, Love Story starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal had its golden anniversary, meaning that it was released fifty years ago. Have you recovered from the shock? Good. As all Ivy-Style readers know, the clothing has held up. I recently wore the dark turtleneck, khaki skirt, and knee-high boots combo made iconic by …
Black is the verboten color of Tradsville. It is castigated in “The Official Preppy Handbook,” even though Lisa Birnbach at the time wore black Lacoste polos while working at The Village Voice, just to show that she could be preppy and Downtown, too. In “Try For Elegance,” the 1957 novel centered around a men’s shop …
In August 2018, J. Press shuttered their legendary Cambridge haberdashery after 86 years of dressing Harvard undergrads, professors, and the North Shore financiers commuting into their Boston offices. Indeed, it was a sad day on Mt. Auburn Street. On the subject of sad, 2020 has been nothing if not, well, sad. Like, really sad. But …
Both Chet Baker and Miles Davis played pivotal roles in the founding of Ivy-Style.com. Both were remembered fondly by Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop when I interviewed him for my 2008 article for Ralph Lauren Magazine entitled “Ivy League Jazz,” which inspired me to found this website. I later ended up writing profiles of …