Phil Sears Schoonmaker wears a black knit tie 98 percent of the time. This one preference serves as a symbol for his entire approach to dressing. Thirty-seven-year-old Schoonmaker, a New York-based business process consultant, is a living embodiment of the idea that less is more, of restrained taste and bold simplicity. With his superb balancing …
We head into the long holiday weekend with a grab-bag of news items, starting with the New Yorker cartoon above, from an issue earlier this month. The cartoonist takes the thread of time and bends it, thereby bringing an Edwardian woman and a contemporary young man onto the same subway car. She concludes that his …
Our last post looked at Dierdre Clemente’s book “Dress Casual,” which charts how college students over the course of the 20th century transformed the way the world dresses. Dr. Clemente today takes a curtain call as we share a piece she did last month for The Atlantic. The piece is entitled “Why American Workers Now …
Here’s a long-overdue look at Dierdre Clemente’s book “Dress Casual,” which credits — or blames — college students for the concept of informal clothing. It’s a must for every serious student of the history of fashion and culture, and you can order it on Amazon here. * * * Exposure to the world of tailored …
If you’re in London, there are still a couple days left to see a small Ivy exhibit. “Craft To America, Style To Britain” debuted in 2015 at the University of Northampton (see Ivy Style’s coverage here); it has been edited down and repackaged for the atelier of tailor Timothy Everest. Below here are images from …
Despite the fact that you’re supposed to be learning to think for yourself, college has always been a conformist environment. Those with an excess of individuality may be respected, but are rarely popular. And even during the heyday of the Ivy League Look, not every student was a perfect example of the style. What became codified …
Our last post was called “Come Fly With Me” and featured Frank Sinatra’s private jet. In this post we look not at flying in planes, but leaping from them. Contributing writer Jeff Samoray examines this little-known bit of historic trivia. * * * Sixty years ago this past May, curious onlookers gathered in Woodbury, Connecticut, …
I was browsing at the newsstand the other day and saw one of those LIFE photo collections on the Rat Pack. I flipped through, saw an interesting outfit on Dino, and brought it home to share with you guys Forgive me for taking snapshots rather than scans; I don’t want to anger the folks at …
Since starting this website I’ve looked at countless hundreds of trad outfits. Some on regular guys posted on the web, some in catalogs and magazines, and some on gents I’ve met around the fair city of New York. But one outfit has stood out above all the others, and though it’s been three years since …
Several weeks ago I awoke on a bright Sunday morning and instead of going straight to the coffee and computer, I threw on my Sperry Top-Siders and took a walk around the block. It may sound mundane, but in my particular state of mind that morning, and at this particular juncture in my life’s journey, …
Kirby Allison of The Hanger Project (Ivy Style’s most prominent and loyal sponsor, so be sure and check them out for your clothes-care needs), has put up a new video on caring for your cordovan shoes. And here it is. — CC
Earlier this week saw the passing of Adam West, the actor who played Batman — as well as Batman’s alter-ego, the billionaire Bruce Wayne — in the original TV series. The show ran just as the sun was setting on the Ivy heyday, but that didn’t stop Wayne from adopting fine outfits such as this. …
Part two of James Kraus’ survey of what was happening in American culture from 1954-67, the heyday of the Ivy League Look. * * * Favorable demographics and consistent sizable gains in productivity continued to fuel prosperity in the 1960s throughout the industrialized world. Between 1954 and 1967, Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden suffered not …
We’ve got one more post — for now — on pop music from the 1950s. I mentioned in the comment thread on the “Optimism And Prosperity” post about discovering my parents’ record collection, which included some 45 RPM records from the late ’50s, when my father was a teenager, and which he later converted to …
How cool was it to dress Ivy during the heyday? Cool enough for the El Capris, an African American doo-wop band from Pittsburgh, to cut a B-side called “Ivy League Clean” in 1958. The song failed to chart, however, and the band became just another forgotten doo-wop band whose name starts with “El.” That is …
Speaking of American music during the Ivy heyday — as we are on the “Optimism And Prosperity” comment thread — here’s a terrific pop culture find. Frequent comment-leaver “GS” uncovered a reference to Ivy League suits and desert boots in the song “Have You Got Any Castles, Baby?” recorded by Bobby Darin in 1960. GS noted …
Contributing writer James Kraus is an arch-connoisseur of the 1950s and ’60s. Herein he takes us on a tour of the years of the Ivy heday, giving us a broad overview of what else was going on in American life besides penny loafers and buttondown collars. Part one covers the first half of the heyday, …
Kamakura has a new collection on its website called “Looking Ivy Stylish” in conjunction with Graham Marsh. Included is a tab-club collar shirt, something I’ll need to consider as a change of pace from my pinned club collars. Alas Kamakura’s are alpha-sized, but that doesn’t mean a decent fit is impossible. Check out the collection here, …
Yesterday was National Seersucker Day, which began on Capitol Hill as “Seersucker Thursday.” It went on in DC as usual, with Senator Dianne Feinstein grabbing the spotlight. There aren’t any noteworthy photos of Congressmen worth running. So instead we’ll jump in our sartorial time machine and journey back to May of 1961, when Esquire called …