Here’s a gallery of images of the so-called aristocrat of topcoats. Perhaps because it’s called a polo coat, Polo Ralph Lauren has used them frequently in its advertising imagery, including the image above as well as the following: Here’s Ralph himself, looking casually bundled up rather than stiff and formal. This is the feeling …
For many years the 1981 BBC miniseries “Brideshead Revisited” has been my favorite film, if you can call a 10-hour book adaptation a film. It had been enough years since I’d last seen it, and so I decided to watch again between Christmas and the New Year. A great book or movie will constantly yield …
Comment-leaver “Old School “offers this appreciation of the bar stripe necktie, also known as Brooks Brothers’ #3 stripe. * * * It all started in my freshman year in college in 1961. My French professor was an Englishman who came to school every day in a black suit, white broadcloth shirt, and a bar stripe …
The subject of tie knots may seem sufficiently banal and #menswear to only occupy the concern of selfie-snapping enthusiasts, but a recent discussion I had on an Internet forum underscored the subtle —and not so subtle — messages such a thing can send. A tie knot can project fastidiousness, nonchalance, ignorance, and any numbers of …
Where can you find bow ties and bongos in the same place at the same time. Why in cinematic history, of course. In 1958’s “Bell, Book and Candle,” Jack Lemmon stars as a warlock who plays bongos with a suit-clad jazz combo in a Greenwich Village beatnik club. Kim Novak is the female lead in …
Midcentury modern fans, as well as guys who are single (or sometimes wish they were), will likely enjoy heading over to our fraternal site Masculine Interiors for a fine article posted yesterday. It’s about Playboy’s architectural and interior design articles of the ’50s and ’60s, and was written by contributor James Kraus. Kraus’ previous articles …
James Kraus, who has authored a piece for Ivy Style on bachelor cuisine, has alerted us to a post from his vintage automotive blog, Auto Universum. The piece centers around Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, the Matisse and Picasso of automotive illustration. Writes Kraus: These lush images depicted scenes of glamour and sophistication populated by …
It’s the “Jetsons” era and your job is composing imagined music of the future. To put yourself in the proper frame of mind, what do you wear? Like George Jetson, do you wear a high-tech pullover with a collar that looks like rocket wings? If you’re Bob Thompson — composer of space-age bachelor pad music …
Ivy Style recently received a dispatch from scholar Deirdre Clemente, who is busy doing groundbreaking research on the history of college students as consumers. In fact, she said her career might be made if she can get a paper into a certain scholarly journal. When they say academia is publish or perish, they’re not kidding. …
There’s a fascinating new 5-minute video out on how tweed fabric is made. If you’re not a nuts-and-bolts geek about clothing craftsmanship, this might just make you one. Head over to The Atlantic to check it out. — CC
Though a desire to tell stories emerged in my earliest childhood, I’ve always had a strong visual side. In college, happy to get an A so long as it required little effort (and able to get a B with less effort still), I used the spare time to give myself a minor in Art History. …
I’ve been focused on tennis more than golf lately, and am fortunate to have a 14-court facility just down the street from me in Astoria Park. The Triboro Bridge snakes above, and the East River and Manhattan skyline provide a fantastic view. Recently I got into a couple of pickup games with a new guy, who happens to …
Are you a “Mad Men” fan, as in a really big fan? Then surely your life won’t be complete without Taschen publisher’s giant boxed set priced at $850. Here’s the rundown: This book is TASCHEN’s tribute to Mad Men’s television art. Volume 1 chronicles the show’s seven seasons with sequential stills alongside key script excerpts. …
Ah, the search for the happy medium. This tie’s too wide, this one too narrow. This trouser has a full rise but the leg’s too baggy; this one has a slim leg but a low rise. You get the picture. It’s something every man who’s exacting about his clothes goes through. Enter the new Golden …
Rahar’s was a home away from home for me and my pals. The watering hole served as Northampton, Massachusetts headquarters for visiting collegians pursuing female companionship at Smith College. The dilapidated bar and restaurant occupied the ground floor of a post-Civil War Victorian mansion set on a spare hilltop a block off Main Street, just …
I was in the sixth grade when I watched “Animal House” for the first time, and while much of the humor was lost on me, the clothing left a lasting impression. The film’s poster, which I saw at a friend’s house, was powerful enough to make me want to see it. When I finally did, …
“Vassar College’s touch football team today issued a challenge to the Kennedy family in Washington: play us,” announced The Poughkeepsie Journal in November 1962. The reason for such sporting confidence? In the fall of that year, Vassar students had formed the first all-female college touch football teams. With names like the Joss Jocks, Noyes Nymphs …
Whether you’re watching football today in a freezing stadium or in your cozy living room, here’s a role model for how to dress. Pictured is Ivy Style’s Golden Years columnist Richard Press — former president of J. Press and grandson of founder Jacobi — at the Dartmouth-Penn game in 1958. Happy New Year from Ivy …
In 1993, five-odd years under new owners Marks & Spencer, now widely agreed to have veered the brand drastically off course, Brooks Brothers took out a six-page advertorial in The Atlantic Monthly celebrating its 175 years in business. Literary heavyweight George Plimpton was hired to write the text, which combines history with everyday goings-on at …