A couple of weeks ago we put out a call for anecdotes about the transition years of the late 1960s, when the Ivy League Look rapidly went from smart and current to formal and outmoded. Here are the first few reader responses, and if you have one of your own, please email it to christian@ivy-style.com. …
Today The Atlantic posted a lengthy article on the role Jewish clothiers and fashion designers have played in helping create preppy style. Here’s a snippet: From the beginning, American style was synonymous with WASP culture. Sportswear was the uniform of the prep school, the Ivy League, the yacht club, the golf course—institutions that had historically …
Today is opening day of baseball season, and on Ivy’s Facebook page a member alerted us to a wonderful video by George Will, the author of two best-sellers on baseball, complete with fun animation. Clad in a buttondown and what looks like a bar rep tie from Brooks (and, alas, a nondescript American Boardroom suit), …
Ayumi Ōhashi (b. 1940) — née Kumiko Ōhashi — grew up in Mie Prefecture and moved to Tokyo to attend prestigious Tama Art University. A pupil of the cartoon illustrator Jun Kawahara, Ōhashi started to experiment with crayon pastels to draw young men in stylish clothing. After showing her work to Shōsuke Ishizu at VAN …
A coalition of student activist groups has called for radical new dress reform at the Ancient Eight. Under the proposed new rule, items of clothing that developed under the legacy of the Ivy League’s formerly all-white-male student body would be banned, and students caught wearing items such as penny loafers and oxford-cloth buttondowns would face …
I am haunted by the photograph of a haberdasher in the twilight of his life. He is wearing a pin-collar gingham shirt and an Italian silk sportcoat of green and heather with the perfect patina. As I peer into the face of Maurice Julian, I ponder what might have been behind the quixotic expression. Is …
They sure don’t make ’em like they used to. What’s that, preppy clothes? No, preppy films. Last week saw the opening of “The Preppie Connection,” based on a true story of a student in 1984 who smuggled cocaine into the prestigious prep school Choate Rosemary Hall. The New York Times writes that not only is …
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on Ethan Hawke’s new Chet Baker biopic, we’re revisiting Ivy Style’s one and only fashion photo shoot, originally posted on October 23, 2012. Today we begin planning a new one. * * * He was a prep-school dropout From the Donegal Mist Academy, Fortune’s fool who dared to love …
Ivy Style has been reporting for years on Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic (which is finally going to be released), but who knew there was a Chet Baker film in development? Apparently we knew, and I’d forgotten all about it. And this weekend it opened. “Born To Be Blue” stars Ethan Hawke as the jazz …
Here’s a fun crafts project for all the dads and granddads of Tradsville, or the clotheshorse bachelors heading home for the holiday who want to contribute to the table with some menswear flair. * * * Amid the egg hunts, chocolate bunnies and flower bonnets, how can the menswear aficionado add some style to Easter …
This is the first in a three-part series on Japan’s original Ivy artists. * * * When Ivy League fashion first appeared in Japan at the beginning of the 1960s, it was a wholly alien culture with no local roots. Apparel maker VAN Jacket and its media partner, fashion magazine Men’s Club, needed to win …
The past couple of days discussion in the comments section has turned to the decline of the Ivy heyday. The stance here at Ivy Style HQ is that 1967 was either the beginning of the end, or the end of the end. The top photo is from the heyday, when college men sported jackets and …
Long time readers of our comment section have in all likelihood noticed these two themes: that the Southern interpretation of the Ivy League Look is underappreciated, and that college students dress poorly. Recent news out of Chapel Hill will have the first group cheering and provide further consternation to the latter. The Wilson Library at …
In honor of March Madness, which begins today, Ivy-Style pays tribute to Bill Bradley, the 1965 National Player of the Year for Princeton. At the time, the school had produced more American presidents than basketball All-Americans. Bradley made the cover of the December 7th, 1964 issue of Sports Illustrated, complete with classic Princeton haircut. (Shot …
Another member of Ivy League Look royalty who lived and worked through the heyday has left us. Elliot Gant (pictured above on left), who along with his brother and father ran Gant of New Haven, died on March 12 in Boston at the age of 89. On Friday The New York Times ran a lengthy …
I would’ve thought at this point in time that when most people hear the word “Yale” the first thing that comes to mind is moral indignation and censorship of free speech on behalf of marginalized identities. Who can forget the young student last fall during the wave of campus protests shouting that Yale was “not …
Last week Jesse Thorn put up an interview with Bruce Boyer for his podcast show called “Bullseye.” You’ll find it on this page under the date March 8, and Boyer comes in around the 39 minute mark. — CC
Today makers of luxury goods, especially autombiles, like to evoke some imagined ideal consumer. He has impeccable, uncompromising taste, they tell you, and you the viewer of the televised or printed message are meant to aspire to be like him. But this 1948 ad for Atkinsons is from another era, and the ad copy is …
Those lamenting that there’s no longer a J. Press store in New York will need to rethink that, starting with me. I hadn’t been to Press’ York Street store in quite some time. After all, it was always a little heartbreaking not to have the Madison Avenue store anymore, and who wants to check out …
Today Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop turns 90, and a young acolyte recounts how the legendary clothier continues to inspire. * * * When I was in high school I read Christian Chensvold’s article for The Rake on Charlie Davidson and The Andover Shop and knew I needed to visit the legendary haberdashery as …
Early in my career I wrote a feature story on skilled trades that were fast dying out, such as watch and clock repair. These days the typically male worker who doesn’t go to college and who likes to work with his hands is more likely to take a technology-based job, such as setting up your …
There’s a line from an old movie that goes, “It’s easier to change your mind than you cafe.” After a couple years of intractability, neighbor and Millennial Fogey columnist DCG and I had our morning coffee today at a new cafe. It’s a longer walk, but the coffee is better and so is the music. …
Today, in honor of International Women’s Day, Ivy Style revisits one of our most popular posts: the much-shared, much-lauded, moutwatering girls + bikes + penny loafers post of 2011. It may not be what the organizers of IWD had in mind, but it’s the best this old boys’ club can do. * * * The …