Well that’s a coincidence. No sooner had I posted on the completely made-up concept of “beatnik prep” than a reader informs me that that is the very theme of an upcoming collection. Beams Plus, the Japanese brand known for its Ivy and vintage Americana, has developed a collection entitled “The Subterraneans” for this fall/winter. The …
Back in the chilly days of March I amused myself by playing with style juxtapositions. The concept of “beatnik prep” was pretty simple. Start with a beard or goatee (check), take your corduroy or tweed cap and wear it backwards at an angle, so it resembles a beret. Then add natural-shouldered sportcoat and maybe even …
Meet Ivy Style reader and Facebook group member TJ Aguilar, and have a look at his outfit. The first thing you’ll notice is the strong sense of whimsy: lobster-emblazoned sneakers, madras belt, collegiate crest tie given to him by a friend. Now for his serious side: Aguilar is a sergeant in the Tulsa County Sheriff …
There’s a guy you probably encounter on a regular basis. Sometimes it seems like he’s right over your shoulder, following you. He kind of looks like you. He has a neat haircut. He wears khakis and boat shoes. On festive summer occasions he’ll wear patch-madras shorts and polo shirts in bright, go-to-hell colors. When he …
Wonder what these kids thought of Holden Caulfield? St. Andrew’s is where “Dead Poet’s Society” was filmed. — CC
“Rebel In The Rye,” a new movie charting the development of JD Salinger and his writing of the classic prep-school angst novel, “Catcher In The Rye,” will open in September. Alas early reviews, presumably based on the festival circuit, are not good. There is much debate about whether “Catcher In The Rye” and its smart-alecky …
Note: This column originally ran on January 22, 2013, and is being reposted today following news of the death of Sinatra’s wife Barbara Sinatra at age 90. * * * The life that late I led in the heyday was “Mad Men” in real time. Until the 1950s, retailers respected the privacy of their celebrity …
The past couple of April Fool’s Days, I’ve amused myself — and hopefully a few of you — by indulging one of my pet peeves: campus political correctness. It’s a pet peeve because, you know, it has the power to destroy Western Civilization. Some are concerned that Evergreen State College won’t be evergreen anymore because …
This weekend we presented some great photos of composer Burt Bacharach. This led some readers to point out the other Bert Bacharach, which Ivy Style covered in this post from 2013. At the time, it never occurred to me that two men with the same name — but spelled differently — could be related, but …
An Ivy Style reader recently submitted this fine photo of composer Burt Bacharach circa 1966. Fans of the Great American Songbook will likely consider him the last in a line of succession that stretches back to the parlor tunes of the early 1900s. After Bacharach’s hits for Dionne Warwick in the late ’60s and early …
We haven’t had anything to classify under Ivy Trendwatch for quite some time, but we do now thanks to J. Crew. With a headline called “The New, Old School Oxford,” the company has introduced a collection of oxford-cloth buttondowns that tout their vintage collegiate inspiration and unlined collar. “With a longer, unlined collar, our new oxford …
Martin Landau died this week at the age of 89. The actor should be familiar to everyone here for his role in the Hitchcock classic “North By Northwest.” In 1995 he won the Best Supporting Actor award for the movie “Ed Wood.” Landau also starred in the TV series “Mission Impossible,” in which he had …
In Thursday’s post about Brooks Brothers, some readers expressed horror at the pairing of tailored clothing with sweatpants. While I certainly made fun of the forced nonchalance of adding a pocket square to the mix, combining athletic wear with jackets and trousers gets to the very heart of how college men revolutionized the way the …
Even an item as banal and unstylish as the hoodie can be elevated by its wearer. Case in point, that handsome old gent from Polo ad campaigns from the late ’80s and early ’90s. I remember these ads — including the hoodie shot above, taken alongside a tennis court— from when they first came out, …
Yesterday the trade publication WWD ran a slideshow of the Brooks Brothers Spring/Summer 2018 collection, giving us the first glimpse of what the company has up its sleeve in celebration of its 200th anniversary. Alas it was more of the same, and we will have to wait and see if Brooks has any kind of …
Perhaps, in some dystopian future, strange people (such as Ivy Style readers) who do not want to wear shirts that ’T’, pants that ‘sweat’ and shoes that ‘sneak’, will be placed in confined areas so as not to shock the majority of the population, that is those whose clothing style resembles homeless teenage skateboarders on …
Remember the days when America had a president who would go sockless in penny loafers? Outside the Oval Office, that is. That president was a Kennedy, and in order to bring back that tradition, it will no doubt take another Kennedy. On Thursday Town & Country posted an interview with Joe Kennedy III with the headline …
Contributing writer Christopher Sharp takes us on an epic journey through the 20th century, charting how madras went from obscure resort wear to a national craze during the “guaranteed-to-bleed” days of the Ivy heyday. * * * If I were to create an Ivy-inspired urban myth, I would spin a tale of how the first …
Yesterday we looked at young JFK in 1941 and wondered if his knit tie was black or navy. Today we have a knit tie whose hue is not in doubt. This is Ivy Style contributor Pani M., who’s channelling George Plimpton with his hair and severely underplaying his madras jacket with a severe black knit …