The College Man By Albert J. Beveridge, 1905

The College Man By Albert J. Beveridge From ‘The Young Man And The World” Go to college. Go to the best possible college for you. Patiently hold on through the sternest discipline you can stand, until the course is completed. It will not be fatal to your success if you do not go; but you …


Biden It Now

Another 180-minute Democratic debate has passed with few fireworks aside from ex-HUD secretary Julián Castro accusing Joe Biden of forgetfulness. Castro’s arrow may have missed its mark, but newly uncovered evidence suggests that the former vice president once left a glen check Ralph Lauren sportcoat at a Delaware dry cleaner, and it can now be …


Ivy Trendwatch: Close Up And Private

While going through the archives, I found this post on Danish photographer Sergei Sviatchenko from January of 2010. Turns out he is still doing his “Close Up And Private” project, which consists of atmospheric, artistic shots of midcentury and preppy style. Below are a few shots from his spring/summer 2019 edition. Head over here to browse …


Remembering The ’80s: Valley Guy

As a child in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I was about as far from the Ivy League schools of the Northeast as one could get. The San Fernando Valley, where I spent my childhood in the 1970s, was very blue collar at its core. Most of my friends’ parents and neighbors worked in the …


Slim Down Your Overcoat

If you’re already planning on a new overcoat for this season, you might want to slim down. That is, with the cut of the coat. That’s according to this vintage advertisement from Hickey Freeman, which advocates “comfort and natural lines” with “lapels narrow to emphasize smartness.” Finally, “shoulders are normal,” because abnormal shoulders are so …


Ties Make The Man: CC On Going Sans Cravate, 1994

While clearing out Ivy Style headquarters I came across an amusing clipping in a box of ephemera. It’s a letter to the editor that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1994, when I was 24 and was publishing anything I could, anywhere I could. It’s in response to a columnist who had written about …



The Authentic Ivy Look Chesterfield

It may be too soon to wear one, but in case this vintage ad inspires, you can start shopping now. The ad appeared in Cornell’s student newspaper in 1955, suggesting that even Ivy Leaguers wanted to make sure they got the authentic Ivy model. 



My Kinda Clothes: Motif Ties

We interviewed Benton Nilson back in April. Now he takes on our regular series My Kinda Clothes, which is named for a delightful little phrase used by Charlie of The Andover Shop. If you’d like to write about your own personal style, use the email contact button above.  * * * In my eyes, motif …


Oak Street Bootmakers Made In USA Sale

There’s still time to take advantage of the Labor Day sale at Oak Street Bootmakers, one of the sponsors that puts the wind in the Ivy Style sails. Oak Street makes its shoes in Chicago, and offers such trad classics as beefroll penny loafers, bit loafers, boat shoes, camp mocs, and chukka boots. Head over …


Endless Summer: Haspel’s 110 Archival Seersucker Collection

The following is a sponsored post from Haspel. * * * It may be the last semi-official day of summer, but as Haspel likes to say, it’s always seersucker season somewhere. It’s no surprise they’d say that, given that seersucker has been their business for over a century. So for those of you who have no …


The Bucks Stop Here

This weekend marks the end of summer, and therefore the end of white-bucks season Unless  you’re Pat Boone, who, like college men in the ’30s, wore his year-round. His above collection is from 1959. Go here for a CBS News slideshow on the clean cut idol, who in mid-life made a heavy metal album.


The Cable Guys

Looking back on this 2009 post by old friend Michael Mattis, which touches on the timeless themes of trad clothes and “no hard sell” because the stuff sells itself. * * * If some places never change, it’s because they never need to. They have reached a pitch, if not of perfection, then at least …


Student Body: First Coeds at Princeton

In 1969 the old-boy network at America’s most stylish university was broken with the admission of female students. The fellow above is clearly pleased with the change. Not only in the student body (and what a body it is), but with campus fashion. Sartorially speaking, the pivotal year of change — 1967 — was two years …


Kamakura Shirts Video + Vintage Ivy Collection

Like things buried in your closet that you didn’t know you had, I keep finding drafts of old posts that apparently never published or became deactivated for some reason. This one goes all the way back to 2012 and includes the following video clip from Japanese TV. And while you’re in a Kamakura mood, head …


Standards Maintained At Henley Royal Regatta

Unless you are reading Ivy Style under the impression that you will learn something about the various species of the evergreen climbing plants that include Hedera helix and Parthenocissus quinquefolia, you probably do not need telling that, sartorially, the world is in a race to the bottom. Ivy Style readers and their fellow travelers are …


Bass From The Past

This selection of vintage Bass Weejun ads comprised one of Ivy-Style’s earliest posts. Check out this next one from the pivotal year of 1967: Weejuns and wingtips juxtaposed to sandals and flower-power graphics. Post updated with a few new images, including a couple of snazzy loafer-clad guys. — CC