Last Weekend For J. Press’ West Village Store
This weekend is your last chance to visit J. Press’ cool West Village shop. And the new store has been given an opening date of October 30!
Quack From The Dead: The Return Of The Duck Head Brand
In light of our last post about the re-relaunch of the Duck Head brand, here’s Chris Sharp’s 2014 piece on the last company to try and resuscitate the dead duck. It includes much company history and how the brand became a favorite among college students. * * * Some time later today, according to the …
Fowled Out: Once Again, The Return Of Duck Head
Duck Head has been sitting on the bench since the last time the heritage brand fowled out. Now it’s back in the apparel game with a new coach, or rather owner: Oxford Industries, which also owns the Tommy Bahama and Southern Tide brands. You can see by the newly relaunched Duck Head website that they’re …
Tom Davis To Run MTM Shirt Program At New J. Press Store
Tom Davis, one of the few octogenarian haberdashers who has worked since the heyday of the Ivy League Look, will be joining J. Press at its new New York location, which is scheduled to open within the next few weeks. Mr. Davis spent some four decades running the made-to-measure shirt program at Brooks Brothers’ Madison …
Finding The Classics
As mentioned a week or so ago, the latest issue of Japanese magazine Popeye is entitled “Finding The Classics.” Apparently the best means of transportation for this search is via skateboard, as half the magazine features streetwear-clad boys on skateboards. Of course, maybe they’ll go from skaters to trads some day — it happened to me. …
When The King Of Cool Found The King Of Kings
No matter how cool and detached you are, with an aura of earthly immediacy and cynical skepticism, you can’t run from the question “What does it all mean?” And when you grow up in Western Civilization, you might find yourself in old age doing things that you never imagined. Such as taking up golf. Or …
The Rowing Blazers Pop-Up Shop
With a Ph.D. in history from Oxford, a World Championships medal, and books authored since the of eleven, Jack Carlson would seem poised to do just about anything (I didn’t even mention his global network of distinguished contacts, including myself, of course). Which is why it’s a bit surprising he’d want to dive into the …
M Magazine, 1991: Unbuttoning Brooks Brothers
The March, 1991 M Magazine article — of which scans are presented below after the jump (click “Continue”) — is our second article on Brooks Brothers during the Marks & Spencer era. Along with the previous one from Forbes, the article is part of a cache I collected while doing a paper for a Business …
But Is It Art?
The Museum Of Modern Art here in New York has a new exhibit entitled “Is Fashion Modern?” I went to check it out on Friday, when the museum is free in the late afternoon. The scene was a perfect illustration of the genius behind the law forbidding yelling fire in a crowded building. I deftly …
Papa’s Pennies
Penny loafers: suitable for everyone, including old bearded men who like safari-hunting, sea-fishing, arm-wrestling, bullfighting and hard drinking. Shout-out to longtime comment-leaver “Old School” for submitting this great photo. — CC Addendum: photo info: “Ernest Hemingway at his standing writing desk on the balcony of Bill Davis’s home near Malaga where he wrote The Dangerous Summer.” …
Strap Yourselves In: The Ivy Style Heyday Belt Sneak Peek
Yesterday I met with MKG, my partner on the Ivy Style Club Tie (of which there are still a few left; order info here), to see the samples from our latest project: The Ivy Style Heyday Commemoration Belt (until we come up with a better name). In a handful of motifs, the belt cleverly illustrates …
Eye-Popping
Last month, when we shared G. Bruce Boyer’s piece on cardigan vests for Drake’s, someone remarked that cardigans are fine under sportcoats, but never under blazers. Naturally we followed it up with a series of images from Ralph Lauren that included — what else? — cardigans and blazers. And then the new issue of the …
Im-Press-ive: Much News At J. Press
J. Press is brimming with new energy. For starters, construction is moving along at the new New York location, and we’ll announce the opening date as soon as we hear it. Next, the company has revamped its website, which is now easier to navigate and features a bunch of live humans wearing the clothing, as …
Can They Keep A Secret?
There’s a new book — with a whopping 800 pages — devoted to one of the things Yale is most noted for, besides being the mecca of the Ivy League Look. And that is the secret society, which flourished during the simultaneous heydays of the Ivy and the Cold War. Many a buttondowned Eli went …
Hef vs. WFB: The Playboy Philosophy In The Firing Line
In 1966, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was a guest on William F. Buckley, Jr.’s TV show “The Firing Line.” Here’s how it all went down.
To The Penthouse In The Sky: Hugh Hefner, 1926-2017
Hugh Hefner, who once hosted a TV show called “Playboy’s Penthouse” in which he talked about Ivy League suits before becoming a full-time pajama wearer, has died at the age of 91. He will be remembered for many things, chief among them the association of pipesmoking with promiscuity. Here are Ivy Style’s posts on Hefner …
Back From The Living
I spent the past week in Newport and what a letdown it is to return to the honking hullabaloo of New York. I can see why people find the transition from vacation life to normal life so jarring. Perhaps we’re doing something wrong in life and only get it right one or two weeks a …
Golden Years: New Haven, Home of the Ivy League Look
In 1954, LIFE Magazine declared New Haven the home of the Ivy League Look, writing “Sometimes regarded as more of a club than a clothes shop, J. Press is delighted rather than dismayed that its look is now capturing the country.” Though it is closely associated with Old Blue, J. Press was hardly the only …
Boyer on Langrock, Princeton’s Legendary Campus Shop
When I was an undergraduate at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, there was a wonderful campus shop on Main Street called Tom Bass. It served three colleges and a university (Moravian, Muhlenberg, Lafayette and Lehigh University), and it stocked many of the iconic Ivy League labels: suits by Southwick, buttondowns by Gant and Sero, Pringle …