Those Lapels
A terrific vintage illustration, presumably late ’40s to early ’50s judging by those lapels. You’ll likely wish to copy everything but those. Update: original source found:
Vintage Ralph
In celebration of the Ralph Lauren HBO special that aired last week (chime in if you saw it, as I didn’t), here are some vintage images recently posted to Ivy’s Facebook group. Most of these are new to me and might be to you, too. At the risk of sounding like someone who works in …
We Got Roger Stone: An Ivy Style Exclusive Interview
Update: As requested in light of today’s news, we revisit our interview with Roger Stone for you to bemoan or celebrate the verdict on his trial. After the publication of Friday’s story on political supervillain Roger Stone, contributing writer Eric Twardzik received an unexpected call from Stone, leading to an exclusive interview in which the …
Brooks Brothers For Sale?
Today WWD reported that Brooks Brothers has hired the investment bank PJ Solomon with eyes on a possible sale. As heard through the grapevine, there was talk that Claudio Del Vecchio would get through the 200th anniversary in 2018 and then perhaps look into unloading the brand. WWD content is blocked by a paywall, but …
Princeton Newsreel, 1961
This is a long one, but worth watching in full. Students in jackets and ties make their first appearance at 4:26, and return repeatedly, so be patient during the long science-lab scene. — CC
Back In The Day: The Inner Sanctum Of Brooks Brothers
I went to William And Mary, graduating in 1974, the second Watergate summer. My Richmond, Virginia public high school was a sea of Ivy style dress, as was the city itself, served by incredible downtown department stores and specialty men’s stores in the heyday. As the ’70s arrived, I drifted from the Ivy style I’d grown …
Ivy Jukebox: White Bucks and Saddle Shoes
We’ve previously written on how the Ivy League Look was the perfect garb to gain approval from a girl’s father. Even though a boy had wolfish intentions, in white bucks and a crew cut he might convince her parents to let her stay out past 10. Now here’s a tune that makes the same case: …
WASPs, Men’s Mags, And Bad Clothes
There are several big media pieces worth our looking at. As they came across my desk one by one, a certain theme emerged. The three pieces in question concern WASPs, men’s magazines, and finally a men’s magazine’s view of WASPs, among other things. First up is City Journal, which reports on the end of men’s …
Were You There?
Several Ivy-Style readers have left interesting comments recently, mentioning how they’ve been wearing button-downs and Weejuns for 50 years, and stuff like that. Here’s a comment on the Brooks Brothers novel post from a reader who worked at Brooks at the time: I took a year off from college and worked at Brooks from fall …
How We Roll: Mercer & Sons’ Classic Button-Down Oxford
The rolls of shirt collars are as subtle as the taste of hops in beer and identify their maker just as quickly. Shirtmakers and merchants distinguish their wares by the stitch along the front of a collar, how far from the placket the collar buttons are attached, the collar’s height and shape, and an arcane …
Kamakura’s Seventh Anniversary Video — Updated With Extended Cut
Update: Kamakura has just edited and uploaded a longer version of its interview with me: * * * Kamakura Shirts took a big risk when it opened a shop on Madison Avenue in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. After all, no one had ever heard of them. But it was the dream of owner Yoshio …
Bridging East And West In Pre-Ivy Japan
During the Taisho era (1912-1926) and the preceding Meiji era (1868-1912), Japan confronted rapid Westernization while traditional Japanese ideals were being challenged and altered for the changing times. A product of the times was Taisho-era writer Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927) whose epitomic works include “Rashōmon” (1915) and “In a Grove” (1922), which later became the basis …
Kirby Allison Talks To Alan Flusser About New RL Bio
Here’s a video from Kirby Allison talking to Alan Flusser about his new Ralph Lauren bio. — CC
The Preppy Beatnik
I stopped by J. Press today and salesman Robert-kun was wearing an olive herringbone sportcoat and black turtleneck. I said he looked very jazz-beatnik (he’s a jazz guitarist, after all). Then I peered across the room and there was a fellow in a beret, and he wasn’t a young hipster. And so we revisit this …
The Game
The annual Harvard-Yale football game — known to students and alumni simply as The Game — has been played since 1875 and alternates each year between Harvard Stadium and the Yale Bowl. The Game is famous for its always-waning-but-never-quite-dead tradition of genteel tailgating, nowadays conducted alongside college parties more squarely within the “Animal House” tradition. …
What To Do For A Halloween Post….
It’s Halloween 2019 and this is me wondering if I should post another satirical “trick” about campus culture or if nothing’s funny anymore. And then I get the perfect idea for a Halloween post…. Me wearing a double-breasted waistcoat and watch chain! Peter Lavelle, Ivy Style’s new Japanese reporter, certain thinks it’s funny. Here he …
Scent In The Air: How St. Johns Bay Rum Survived Two Hurricanes To Bring Back An American Classic
I remember being a poor college student and picking up a cheap bottle of bay rum at the drugstore. No doubt many of you had the same experience. Now that we’re older, wiser and richer, we also want to smell better. St Johns Bay Rum is the original purveyor of the “scent of Madison Avenue,” …
Boyfriend Jacket: The Vassar Girl and the Ivy League Look
When Marilyn Monroe steps onto the screen in “Some Like It Hot,” wearing elaborate furs and gowns, her soft blond curls swept into an elegant chignon, she spends much of her time pretending to be a wealthy, well-to-do Vassar student. She is a classic example of Hollywood’s vision of the Vassar Girl: the stereotypical rich, …
Permanent Style’s Ivy Symposium In New York
Last Thursday, to a standing-room-only crowd at the Town Stages venue in Tribeca, Simon Crompton of Permanent Style, in partnership with menswear company Thomas Mason, kicked off their New York stop in a series of talks on menswear they have been running called the symposiums. This event had a focus on the distinctly American Ivy …