Comment-leaver “Chewco” spotted the news today that Ralph Lauren is closing the Fifth Avenue Polo store here in New York. While it was never anywhere close to the majestic Rhinelander Mansion uptown (it wasn’t trying to be), it was a nice place to stop by (my church is across the street). I got to know …
Ivy Style contributing writer James Kraus has organized a meetup for fellows trads in the Los Angeles area for next Wednesday, April 12, at 7 PM. The plan is to pick a nightspot in Beverly Hills with some midcentury heritage, to be decided based on the number of RSVPs. Working behind the scenes and with …
Axelrod’s, a menswear shop founded in 1954 and serving Aldrich College, the small liberal-arts school located in coastal Connecticut, has taken a bold step in attracting new customers by launching a collection aimed at anti-fascist student protestors. “We’ve always been resistant to change and have sold the same buttondowns and tweeds since ’54,” says owner …
Thanks to regular comment-leaver “SE” for the recent head’s up on the 1969 Davidson College yearbook, from which I took these screenshots. Yearbooks always provide a fascinating look at college life from the past, and you’ll find several things noteworthy here from a dress and deportment angle. Davidson is located in North Carolina, and the …
Prompted by our post on Roger Sterling’s “acid drenched swinger” look, contributor James Kraus sent us the above scan from a 1966 Sears Christmas catalog showing a couple in matching ensembles of double-breasted blazers and ascots. The natural shoulder, double-breasted sack is a bit of an anomaly in Ivy, and one which fell out of …
This week I received an email from a young guy just discovering traditional American style. He was in need of a blazer and wanted to know all the proper Ivy details and then where to get one. I offered up the usual suspects, but told him there are many variables, price being the first one. …
Golden Age of Hollywood actor Robert Montgomery poses for the camera with ample roll: not only on the lapels of his ’30s-cut suit, but on his buttondown shirt collar as well. Wonderful example of Old Hollywood masculine glamor (with obligatory pipe and sleek hair) combined with the youthful nonchalance of a buttondown. Thanks to Ivy …
Many remember Polo Ralph Lauren for its reverie-inducing advertisements of the 1980s, a period referred to as the brand’s golden age. The ads had a dreamlike quality, and Lauren often said that he had always wanted to be an actor, and the ads were his way of making movies. They were photographed by Bruce Weber, …
A college student and Ivy Style reader recently submitted this article on TV pundit Tucker Carlson. Mr. Carlson was kind enough to respond to the young man’s email asking about his clothes. And it’s no surprise he’s a trad dresser: Carlson grew up affluent and has quite the preppy education. He even married the headmaster’s …
Brooks Brothers has brought back the university-stripe oxford in green rendered in the new-old (as opposed to the old-new) version with unlined collar and $140 price tag. Brooks has also started making alpha-sized sport shirts the same unlined way and at the same price, but with the chest pocket that was removed on the new-old …
Within one year of LIFE Magazine’s 1954 feature “The Ivy Look Heads Across The US,” which surely would have caught the eyes of the apparel industry given the magazine’s enormous circulation, Botany 500 was already jumping on the new menswear trend. You can all but imagine the product development meeting. Let’s come up with a …
Ivy Style asked readers who were around during the heyday of the Ivy League Look to share their reminiscences. Here are some of the responses about clothes and college life back in the day. * * * I’m a Westerner, now 58 years old. My first dealings with Brooks Brothers were when I was in …
A powerful remnant from my retail family past overwhelmed me last week at a visit to the J.Press shop on Bleecker Street. Staff member Robert Wolf showed me a battered 1949 framed magazine article about my grandfather, Jacobi Press, an artifact recovered from the demolished New Haven premises. I clearly recall it on the fitting …
David Rockefeller, grandson of tycoon John D. Rockefeller, died in his sleep at the age of 101. He was the world’s oldest living billionaire. Here’s a quick-snap of his impressive list of life highlights via Bloomberg Business News: He was also a confidant of world leaders, from Deng Xiaoping in China to Nelson Mandela in …
Chuck Berry, the poet laureate of American rock-n-roll, died yesterday at the age of 90. He’s pictured here giving a concert at UV in 1965 in a photo by Ed Roseberry. You can read our 2015 post on the photographer here. As an English major, I can tell you that Berry’s lyrics read like few …
The cold will come upon us soon and stay. In preparation I pulled out my faithful Irish handknit. It might come as a surprise to some that the source for this sweater was Lands’ End. The company was stocking their catalogs with some credible country attire at the time, such as moleskin trousers, heavyweight Viyella …
According to Atkinsons, makers of Royal Irish poplin, Huguenots brought their silk-weaving craft to Ireland in the 17th century, and where they began blending their silk with a fine local wool. The result is a half-silk, half-wool blend that makes for a necktie with great hand and character, one that belongs in every trad’s neckwear …
This is what passed for undergraduate nonchalance in 1934: three-piece suits, suspenders, lace-up shoes, topcoats and hats. From the January issue, here’s Esquire‘s take on the studied carelessness of collegiate style. — CC
One often sees the subject of watches come up here in the comments section as well as on Ivy Style’s Facebook group, usually concerning which timepieces might confer an Ivy aura. That can be a wormhole, since people wore a variety of watch styles over the decades. However, there are watches that were popular during …
A League Of His Own: His aloof demeanor may not be that of a man locked in the groove, but Charlie Davidson has spent seven decades making Ivy Leaguers and his very own jazz heroes “hip to my kinda clothes.” By Christian Chensvold From The Rake, issue 23 (click here for PDF) Half a century …
Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop turns 91 today and refuses to retire. Truly one of a kind. Happy Birthday, Charlie, from all of us here. — CC
After a mild start to the year with many sunny days for golf and tennis, a fresh batch of cold weather has hit Ivy Style’s New York headquarters, and so despite being an hour behind following a sneak-attack by Daylight Savings Time, I find myself sitting down to gather my thoughts on a topic I’ve …