Frugality and restraint are qualities that are admired in the world of traditional menswear, but may seem perplexing to those not in the know. For example, why does Prince Charles insist on wearing a Barbour jacket so tattered and threadbare when he could easily buy a closet full of them? Simply speaking, it is a …
Thursday brought the news that former UN Ambassador John Bolton will be replacing HR McMaster as National Security Adviser. Bolton’s best known for his hawkish foreign policy views and walrus mustache, but a less remarked-upon trait is his penchant for buttondown collars. Bolton appears to be sporting one in every photo that appears on Google, …
Our last post looked at a Main Street clothier during the Ivy heyday. Today we revisit an historic piece on the brand that started it all, and spread its look from Madison Avenue to Main Streets across the US. This document, originally posted in summer of 2013, helped cement 1954 as the starting date of …
If you can’t become an executive with an Ivy degree, perhaps you can with an Ivy League suit (after all, fake it till you make it, right?) This image was snapped by contributing writer Eric Twardzik; he found it on the wall of an independent menswear shop called Giblee’s in Danvers, MA. Glad to know …
Today is World Poetry Day, and since much of the East Coast is housebound from the snow storm, what better excuse to light the candles, pour some tea (or cognac) and enjoy some rhyming verse by Ivy Style’s founder Christian Chensvold and special correspondent G. Bruce Boyer. Both men studied English in college (Boyer even …
Last week we posted that neo-prep is back at Ralph Lauren. Today we journey back 40 years ago, when the brand was first beginning to stage lavish fantasy shoots done on location. These would reach their apex in the mid to late ’80s with, for example, 20-page ad narrative spreads in magazines such as Architectural …
As today is Sunday, it seems the ideal day to share something that concerns not just looking you best, but feeling it and acting it. And sometimes acting your best means you need to start play-acting it until you actually get there. Last month I announced that anyone out there struggling with the challenges of …
Ivy Style proudly brings back its famous Battle Of The Wits contest. The prize for this contest is nothing less than an ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINT-DESERVING CUSTOM SHIRT OF YOUR CHOICE BY MICHAEL SPENCER! Contest is open to those who don’t already own a shirt from Michael Spencer. To enter, simply use the leave-comment feature …
Four-and-a-half years ago, our erstwhile columnist The Millennial Fogey mused on the uncertain future of neo-prep. Well, fashion life cycles are pretty short these days, and I think we can say it’s back. I’m a bit biased when it comes to Ralph Lauren. They’re my longest running client, as I’ve written for their online magazine …
Yesterday Stephen Hawking left us for another world. In honor of his passing, we revisit this amazing photo from his college days that we ran last spring. * * * Today we take a trip to England, the country that gave us the blueprint for America’s universities and the raw materials for the Ivy League …
Evidently there’s a day for everything. Today is Alfred Hitchcock Day, and so we raise a toast to actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in Hitch’s 1960 film “Psycho.” Perkins, who’s appeared on Ivy Style several times before, showed that a tall, lanky man can still look great in sack suits and blousy buttondowns. You’d probably, …
Although it’s 2018 and no longer the dubious 50th anniversary of the fall of the Ivy League Look, we can still continue our Dateline ’67 series. This one comes not from the twilight of the Ivy heyday in America, but from the dawning, rising sun of Japan. Tokyo-based W. David Marx tweeted out this vintage …
While struck down by a cold last month, I watched “A Futile and Stupid Gesture,” the new Netflix-produced film about the tragic rise and fall of National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney, played by Will Forte. Of course there never would have been a National Lampoon without Harvard Lampoon, and one of the film’s first scenes …
Today Troy Patterson, Princeton man and longtime linker to Ivy Style in his work, wrote a piece for The New Yorker on Robert Mueller as style icon, linking to this post from last summer. Writes Patterson: Within the community of men passionate about preppy clothing, there’s a lively conversation around Mueller’s preference for starch in his …
If you’re reading this, it’s highly likely you’ve already received the new J. Press brochure in the mail. If not, contact the store by phone or email and ask for one, because it’s terrific. In the meantime, you can check out a PDF right here. The brochure features graphics taken from heyday-era catalogs, the much-improved shoulder …
Four years ago today I lost my dear friend Michael Mattis, who unexpectedly died in his sleep at the age of 49. We had met in our mid-twenties through a mutual intellectual and historical interest in style (specifically, the long literary history of dandyism). As we got older we both found our taste in clothing …
There are several bits of news surrounding John Simons, the so-called patron saint of English Ivy (it’s been so long I’m not sure who coined that term; it might have been here). First off, the documentary about him, “A Modernist,” by Jason Jules and Lee Cogswell, is complete and has been getting theatrical screenings in …
Sorry to disappoint you all, but after much delay, the video of Richard Press’ chat at J. Press’ New York store last month is finally ready and…. — brace yourself — it’s been professionally and stylishly edited down to 90 seconds, making it quite literally a case of shoulda been there.
As a follow-up to our recent post on hook vents, here are two new finds from frequent comment-leaver Carmelo Pugliatti. The first shows a hook vent from the 1890s, when men carried walking sticks and wore bowler hats. Note the lapped seams as well. Below that is is a flash forward two-and-a-half decades later, to …