Back in 2013 I wrote a 9,000-word essay on the Ivy League Look which I’m honored to say Alan Flusser considers “definitive.” As far as meta-analysis goes, I haven’t had much to say since then. However, perhaps the time will soon come for an addendum. In “The Rise And Fall Of The Ivy League Look,” …
Back in 2012 columnist Mark Oppenheimer penned an essay about prepdom for Salon that’s pegged on Whit Stillman’s new movie “Damsels In Distress.” The piece is more thoughtful than the usual stuff that gets said about the cultural phenomenon known as preppy. Oppenheimer’s thesis is that preppy is more than a style of dress. This …
Today we feature a random assortment of vintage images that have been lying around in an old shoe box, metaphorically speaking. And yes that’s a pun on “shoe;” after all, some of these images are from Yale. This one, however, is from an altogether different kind of campus shop: College men were once …
A clean-cut appearance has always been part of the Ivy League Look. With a soft-shouldered jacket and Princeton haircut, a young man could conveniently mask his salacious intentions. After all, what father could fear for his teenage daughter’s honor while on a date with a boy wearing a cardigan? In the 1950s, this kind of …
Recently I had drinks with members of Charlie Davidson’s family, and the subject of George Frazier and the duende game came up, which made said family member shake their head, as if it had come up one too many times at the dinner table. For those who don’t know what “duende” is, proceed to become …
Remember how in the ’80s Brooks Brothers was bought by a department store company, beginning its decades of downfall? Well the new owners could be even more odious: a shopping mall company. Reported yesterday and updated this morning, CNBC writes: A company known as Sparc LLC, which is comprised of the U.S. mall owner Simon …
During the heyday of the Ivy League Look, the natural-shoulder diaspora spread not only from the Ancient Eight to campuses across America, it also spread to far corners of the globe. In March of 1957, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the growing trend for American Ivy League clothes. Farmer’s is a department store that …
Today’s edition of USA Today carries an interesting op-ed from an African American who worked at Brooks Brothers in the 1960s. The piece is entitled “As a young Black man I grew up chasing Brooks Brothers’ Ivy image — then I grew out of it.” Robert Hill writes: Brooks Brothers largely created the Ivy League look, …
The past few summers I’ve gone into Nature Man mode. I think there’s a post called “hippie Ivy,” and I’ll probably do a surfer hippie Ivy post in September at the end of my first summer in Newport. But previously I was able to balance the barefoot, shirtless wanderings through Central Park with a jacket …
Looking to regain a foothold in the Spring Break market, The Bermuda Department of Tourism dedicated themselves last year to relaunching College Week in the form of Bermuda Spring Break 2012. Taking a page from the old College Week, students were given a pass for all sponsored events, complimentary food, free public transportation and discounted …
We’ve previously featured pop tunes from the Ivy heyday (and from the good old days when guys would sing about their clothes), and here’s another one: Ronnie Haig & Jerry Siefert singing the praises of dirty white bucks and “an Ivy League coat to burn out your eye.” Ignore the references to tight pants.
The past week has seen a slew of features in major publications on the announcement that Brooks Brothers is bankrupt. Many see it as the end of this hallowed American institution and symbolic of a certain period in American life that has reached its end. Here’s a roundup along with some choice passages. Forbes: Brooks Brothers …
In honor of Bastille Day, we revisit this post on France’s great contribution to the preppy-Ivy wardrobe. * * * One of the pleasures of spending time among archival material is the chance discovery. We recently came across an Izod Lacoste advertisement that was used in 1958 and 1959, placed by The Andover Shop. On …
Aaron Chang is an avid and very talented illustrator of Ivy style. I can’t recall when or how I first discovered Aaron’s work, but I firmly recall two things: I’d never seen “Ivy style art” before, and I absolutely adored his illustration style. I followed his account immediately, and eagerly refreshed my feed daily to …
Coinciding with the 2012 release of “Damsels In Distress,” Whit Stillman was the subject of a Town & Country cover story. Hearst’s publicity department was kind enough to send over a preview (which I’m not allowed to post, alas), and the story has some interesting revalations about this unique filmmaker devoted to deadpan humor and the preppy …
Back in 2012 we put up this preview to Whit Stillman’s first film after 13 years. Though not a top-drawer prep classic, it’s worth a view for those who can appreciate the writer-director’s subtle humor and critiques of contemporary life. Stillman, who’s been called the missing link between Woody Allen and Wes Anderson, has previously …
This is a sponsored post from Gant. Founded in New Haven in 1949, Gant is one of the key players in the history of the Ivy League Look, having helped spread the style when it took off nationwide in the ’50s and ’60s. The brand still preserves its legacy, making oxford-cloth buttondowns with such heyday details …
Brooks Brothers filed for bankrupty today, a symbolically ominous sign for the brand that did the most to establish the Ivy League Look in the United States. In the excerpt below from the Wall Street Journal’s coverage, president Claudio Del Vecchio blamed the lockdown from coronavirus: Brooks Brothers dressed the American business class in pinstripes …
Stumbled upon in a random Google search. On the left is a middle-aged trad dad; on the right is his high school-aged son. Their exchange goes something like this: Dad: Don’t wear down the heels of your loafers! Son: I don’t care. See you later. Dad: American students always give their shoes a good shine… …