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… …
Today, July The Fourth 2020, we celebrate America and things that are uniquely American. Like baggy oxford-cloth buttondowns, tassel loafers, national parks, and Hollywood. However, this comes at a contentious time in our nation’s history. In fact, it probably feels rather frightening. You may feel as if you’ve been abandoned in a barren wasteland. And …
The jacket above was made by Corbin for The English Shop of Princeton. It’s quite apropos for the Fourth of July, able to hold its own against even the most extravagant fireworks display. And although the jacket was made for a haberdashery called The English Shop, it’s pure Americana. So on this Independence Day weekend, let’s …
Lord Of New York may sound like a comic-book villain, but it’s actually a lesser-known Ivy haberdasher. It came up in conversation at a Paul Stuart event recently with a fellow who sells menswear on eBay under the username mack11211. Mack told me about a few bespoke Lord suits made in 1963 he has for …
During the quarantine, I have had a lot of time on my hands, as I’m sure we all have. There have been burst of extreme productiveness – including completing my undergraduate degree cum laude and starting my master’s program – and bursts of equally extreme inactivity, including hours spent loafing around (often in loafers) and …
J. Press has reopened its stores after months of lockdown. Says spokesman Robert Squillaro, “We fully respect the guidelines set forth to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, but at the same time we are delighted to welcome our customers back into our stores. “While our Web business has been very strong over the past …
Bilbo Baggins, Dr. Watson, the original Tim in the UK version of “The Office,” the adult film star in “Love Actually.” All these parts have been played to some acclaim in recent years by Martin Freeman, now one of Britain’s leading character actors. But just as important as Freeman’s acting capability is his sense of …
In a web post during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, GQ France wrote, “The classic rugby, in thick cotton, with a white collar and soft buttons, had an honorable place in menswear. Especially preppy menswear. It was a simple, comfortable, colorful item, easy for students in American universities to wear. It was also a good way …
It’s been a dismal year for American manufacturing, with the lights going off at the Brooks Brothers shirt factory in Garland, North Carolina; the culling of Southwick in Haverhill, Massachusetts; and the impending shutdown of the original Gitman factory in Ashland, Pennsylvania. Surely even the most cynical trads are hoping that at least one factory will …
They never taught me how to baste a suit at Dartmouth, but I had to learn how in a hurry when Ray Jacobs got sick on the road. “The road” was the term used to describe retail travel exhibits that fulfilled the clothing needs of Ivy grads after they left college and refused to partake …
For decades clotheshorses have signaled their custom suits to the cognoscenti by leaving one button on their sleeves undone. This subtle practice eventually served as fodder for budding literary dandy Tom Wolfe in his 1965 essay “The Secret Vice.” But today, thanks to the Internet, the style conscious are ceaselessly bombarded with photos of rakish …
If you’ve been neglecting your seersucker jacket, now’s the time to start wearing it all the time — even while riding the bike you stole from the new dork in school. After all, doesn’t this model from Ralph Lauren’s long-lost Rugby brand remind you of someone?
In 2011 I wrote a piece for Ralph Lauren Magazine on “cycle chic,” which was defined as the culture of riding a bicycle around a city while wearing fashionable clothing. When it came out, I ran a series of posts here under the heading Bicycle Week, and closed it out with the essay below. That …