Once at a conference, as I was chatting with colleagues during a tea break, a fellow attendee came over. “Sorry to bother you,” he said, “but I couldn’t help noticing your tie. Did you go to Harrow school?” “No, I went to Harrods department store,” I replied, and showed him the label. He gave a …
Some undated shots of Martha’s Vineyard from the Life archives.
In the arts and culture, generally things are either cool or beautiful. Marcello Mastroianni in “La Dolce Vita” is cool, while beauty is what happens between 1:18 and 2:59 in the third movement of Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Minor. “Cool” didn’t exist before midcentury, while since then the quaint notion that art should be …
When Marks & Spencer installed elevators in Brooks Brothers’ Madison Avenue flagship, they only went down. Widely acknowledged for monumental mismanaging Brooks, hastening a decline in quality and the isolation of lifelong customers, the UK apparel firm Marks & Spencer eventually sold Brooks Brothers in 2001 after 13 years and hundreds of millions in losses. This …
We cap off this week of Asia-themed posts with a little anecdote about Prince Siddhartha, who became known as the Buddha, or Awakened One. I’ve been reading about Buddhism lately, and went twice this week to the Metropolitan Museum to contemplate the dozens of statues of Buddha and other bodhisattva, or persons on the path …
We’re celebrating the Far East this week at Ivy Style. First the David Marx lecture video, then the interview with Ken Yamamoto of Tokyo-based Boston Tailor, and now another interview with a Japanese legend. This one comes to us via the website Gear Patrol, and the legend in question is Saddasue-san of Kamakura Shirts. In it, …
On one of my many trips to the mid-century American oasis amid the typical British High Streets, that special place called John Simons, I found a really neat navy blazer that had all the right details: 3/2 button stance, undarted sack fit, patch pockets, two-button cuff, stitched edges, hook vent, and of course, natural shoulders. …
The Armoury has posted a video on YouTube of W. David Marx’s lecture from last week on Ivy in Japan through the lens of its magazines. Video quality is basic, but cheers to them for recording it, and the audio is fine.
And with Sophia Loren, even better. Hope you enjoyed a fine spring day.
Here are a few shots of actor Jack Lemmon from the LIFE archives. Lemmon played many sack-suited characters throughout the Ivy heyday. He’s pictured on the set of “The Apartment” in 1959 in a classic outfit formula you should try if you haven’t. You take a simple solid suit and tie (often a knit), and for subtle …
When I was a young fogey in my mid-twenties, I had a number of vests so that I could sport a pocket watch and chain. It was an absolutely fobulous time in my life. Recently I got the urge to break out the watch once again, but this time I wanted not just an odd waistcoat, …
“Tea and Sympathy” is one of the books on the reading list featured in “The Official Preppy Handbook.” Written by Robert Anderson for the stage, it was adapted for the screen in 1956 with Vincente Minnelli at the helm. “Tea and Sympathy” is set at a boys’ prep school, where sensitive Tom Lee (played by John Kerr) …
In the midst of the heyday of the Ivy League Look came the short-lived music trend known as bossa nova. It hailed from Brazil and was soon picked up by many American musicians, even Frank Sinatra. One of the genre’s biggest hits was “A Day In The Life Of A Fool,” by composer Luis Bonfa, …
Last night The Armoury in NYC held an event for “Ametora” author W. David Marx, who lectured on Ivy, trad, prep and workwear in Japanese magazines. Like his similar lecture several months ago, it was very well attended. This time, however, Marx brought a generous sampling of said magazines, some of which go back to the ’60s. …
Playboy in its early years was certainly an innovative magazine. In contrast, or rather complement, to the buxom beauties, the magazine’s inclusion of jazz and literature, plus references to Nietzsche and psychoanalysis, gave it a highbrow edge not found in today’s magazines, in which articles on socially relevant topics, rather than aesthetic matters, provide the weight. Moreover, …
Corporate culture continues to change or evolve, and the suit now seems to be headed in the same direction of the buggy whip. Not long ago, however, there were practical and professional reasons to wear a suit and tie while doing business. First and foremost, the suit was a way of demonstrating respect for those you …
John Lindsay, mayor of New York from 1966 to 1973, personified the resolute confusion with which clubby, liberal WASPs faced the social upheaval of the era. Entering politics as a successful young lawyer, Lindsay represented the wealthy Upper East Side of Manhattan, known as the Silk Stocking District, in Congress from 1958 to 1965. While serving, …
Note: Post updated; scroll down to section marked Part Two. When I first arrived in New York, I was told about an old guard legend named Tom Davis, who had been running the custom shirt program at Brooks Brothers for going on half a century. That’s interesting enough, but Davis’ story has a fascinating twist: he …
This image from the Japanese illustrator Hiroshi Watatani brings several things to mind. First there’s a formula you rarely see, and that’s a completely sober outfit — like this one in black, white and gray — combined with colorful socks. I’ll do a slight variation, wearing a solid tie plus rep-striped or motif socks, essentially transferring the patterns from …