Summer 2020 was certainly a summer like no other. In addition to the pandemic and chaos, it was my first summer in Newport. It’s also my 50th summer, and I found myself retracing my steps back to the beginning of my life, like a man reborn and going through a second childhood. For the past …
Recently I again found myself swimming in a sea of sneakers and t-shirts that cost unholy sums. You may be thinking I was pillaging a Neiman Marcus Last Call in the wake of its financial woes, but you would incorrect. In fact I was reacquainting myself with the college campus I call my own as …
Boola, Boola: American Internationalism and The Ivy League Revival By G. Bruce Boyer Forbes, 1999 At a fund-raising dinner in Miami, back when he was running for the Presidency, George Bush (Senior) told his audience how upset he was by an attack on him in Cuba’s daily newspaper Granma. “They called me a fascist in …
Yesterday Richard Press opined on his days at Dartmouth among “college guys with bloody bloodshot eyes,” and today we offer a hangover cure in the form of videos from the heyday of the Ivy League Look. You could call it a hair of the bulldog, except that’s Yale.
In 1958 Larry Elliot, fellow Chi Phi at Dartmouth and trombonist leader of the Dartmouth Indian Chiefs Dixieland Band, wrote the music and co-authored the book and lyrics with me for “The Chuck Sturdley Story,” a one-act musical. The theatrical event won a college award for best presentation at the inter-fraternity theatrical contest sponsored by the …
Ivy Style had the somber privilege of sharing the news of Norman Hilton‘s death back in 2012, and now, lest his name be forgotten at this tumultuous time in American retailing and American society, we revisit this post. May it serve as a reminder that the qualities of being both uncompromising and visionary can carry …
College football game with scarf and sweater, no mask. Those were the days.
You’ve no doubt noticed a number of artist profiles over the past few months. We continue the ongoing tribute to those keeping alive the great tradition of menswear illustration with this interview with Andrew Mashanov conducted by Ivy Style contributor ZG Burnett. * * * IS: Please tell us about yourself, and about your background …
It’s September and time — or almost time — to put away the Indian madras for another year. The term “Indian summer,” incidently, refers not just to a meteorological phenomenon (which actually happens in fall), nor to wearing madras for three or four months of the year. It’s also the name of a haunting tune by …
In September 1746, the British succumbed to a French attack on Madras (now Chennai) as part of a larger struggle for the control of India. But the Battle Of Madras is notable less for its strategic importance than for the fame it bestowed on Robert Clive, a brave and enterprising young clerk who was a …
Our impromptu Madison Avenue series continues with unconfirmed reports that the supreme symbol of the Ivy League Look in New York — Brooks Brothers’ flagship store at 346 Madison Avenue — will not reopen. The building is evidently owned separately from the company and is not part of the deal with the new owners. If …
I was just down at the popular Cliff Walk here in Newport and lamenting the change of seasons that’s in the air. That line from “The Great Gatsby” popped into my head, the one about wishing you could reach out and grab onto summer and keep it just a bit longer. But the seasons come …
When the Spanish Flu struck a century ago, J. Press was already in business. It survived that pandemic, the Great Depression, two World Wars, and everything else — including constant changes in how men dress. And so despite the coronavirus, the company is releasing its Fall/Winter 2020 brochure right on time. Expect it to hit mailboxes …
Last week the New York Times ran a major feature on the men who now own Brooks Brothers, and are bent on “reshaping the American retail landscape.” Of new co-owner David Salter, the paper writes: “Last year, we said within five years, we want to be at $20 billion,” he added, referring to the overall …
Today we revisit the work of a man devoted to the preservation of the Ivy League Look in its pure — albeit office attire — form: Yuhei Yamamoto, who operates out of Tokyo under the name Tailor Caid. Hardcore Ivy fans will know him from his blog, which features a vast library of vintage images …
One of most interesting aspects of the Ivy League Look is that while it campus dress was extremely formal in relation to that of today, it was relatively casual in relation to off-campus dress of the time. Historian Deidre Clemente has shown how college kids invented the very concept of being dressed-down in her book …
Yesterday we featured a contemporary artist who takes inspiration from the collegiate fashions of the past. Today, in contrast, we feature original collegiate fashion art from the 1950s which is scheduled to go the way of Columbus statues. Joe College, meet the year 2020. The iconic American figure Joe College is on the chopping block …
Wes Robinson is one of those inherent creative types, and we’re fortunate that the object of his interest just happens to be Ivy style. A synesthete, Robinson wields his condition like a secret weapon, and, combined with his talent for brushwork, creates delightful little portraits of some well-dressed fellows. Though that is hardly the extent …
Pictured is my posterior in 2009 at the end of my last California summer before embarking for the East Coast. Updated photo coming soon. Enjoy your Labor Day. * * * I can think of no better way to mark the end of summer than with my own end. It’s wrapped in a pair of madras …