This week I met with the new owners of The Andover Shop. First off, they can report that Charlie is hanging in there at the ripe age of 93. The team that took over has only modest upgrading plans, which mostly include a new website and perhaps some store events. Certainly no collaborations with Urban Outfitters. Note they’ve also come on board as a sponsor, so please click their banner in the right-side ad tower and give a call if you don’t see what you need on the site. The revamped website should be up in the fall.
In the meantime, here are some images from the 1942 yearbook of the Phillips Andover Academy. You’ll note an advertisement that says “the Andover shop,” but it seems to be referring to the Andover location of Langrock, as the actual Andover Shop was not founded until 1947.
Thanks to frequent comment-leaver SE for the head’s up on the images. — CC
Lots of 3-button coats buttoned all the way to the top. Looking at these photos it seems that a whole civilization has been lost. Modern men in their 40’s look less mature than these kids. Shame.
I thumbed through an edition of GW Bush’s (Jrs.) autobiography some time ago. I recall he quoted that he was apprehensive that he would not be admitted to Yale, unlike his 1942 counterpart, and everyone else in his family.
How did GHWB sire such a jerk for a son?
I watched a golf tournament a few weeks back. The commentators were interviewing some old, grizzled guy. You guessed it. It was President Jr.
Delightful. I echo the sentiments expressed above regarding the superiority of dress and grooming in the 1940s and 50s. Beautiful photos and ads. Note the white and (very) dirty bucks worn with tweeds; even the ironic footwear fads of teenagers were dressy. And I am not sure whether the coat in the “Clothes & Accessories for Summer” ad for Brooks is a (belt-less?) trench coat, a “British Warm” (there appear to be epaulets) or a camel hair polo coat, an item which shows up frequently in photos of summer sports and country clubs of the era. Between the coat, the wool jersey shirts and the tennis sweaters, summers must have been a lot cooler back then.
This collection of photographs of these young gentlemen is both sublime and sad; it shows what was once largely expected of, and achieved by a goodly portion of society; accomplishment and conducting oneself as an adult who respected both themselves, and society. Sadly, since the incessant so-called revolutions (childish whining) which have transpired since the 1960s, so many people have shifted or at least not stood against the cultural paradigm shifts which have occurred, that now the tail well and truly wags the dog on a grandiose scale… Why are grown men aping after teens and tweens, let alone dressing like them? Why do grown women dress like trampy 15 year olds? Why do people flee from reality and responsibility and dignity and honor? Ugh! Weep for the culture! I often think of many of the people that I encounter as high schoolers, and for good reason.
Rant and sadness over the state of society at large, aside, these photographs show us that greater things can be expected, and achieved when standards are maintained and when the youth has not been molly-coddled into docile, entitled, self important brats, even into their middle-age.
In the crop of the two students and their extracurriculars, you can who’s the ambitious one pretty easily.
Nice images, but a tad murky. I brightened them up:
https://mega.nz/#!HN0nXCbQ!0a3Ih6gi_B9HZ94xa61JfIXiznGA4tGKvvILZfG4UR0
Lots of 3-button coats buttoned all the way to the top. Looking at these photos it seems that a whole civilization has been lost. Modern men in their 40’s look less mature than these kids. Shame.
I love the photo of the seven students in sweaters. It looks like they’re wearing Shaggy Dog and Norwegian sweaters.
Note that the coats are lower than your junk and cover your ass. Also note the slight break in the trousers, no socks showing till they sit down.
Lots of fun perusing these old photographs.
Best Regards,
I’ll venture a guess that half of the clothes seen here were special order / custom. Perhaps more.
In addition to being well-dressed, each young man has been to a barber and seems to know how to handle a razor; not one of them is fat.
John T. Marshall
From Instapundit,
PEOPLE IN 1951 WERE SLIMMER AND BETTER-DRESSED: Same Pictures. Same Places. 68 Years Apart.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/nyregion/nyc-photos-from-1951.html?
John T. Marshall:
1) re: “not fat”: They would have been physically abused.
2) re: NYT: They dressed like adults rather than children.
I thumbed through an edition of GW Bush’s (Jrs.) autobiography some time ago. I recall he quoted that he was apprehensive that he would not be admitted to Yale, unlike his 1942 counterpart, and everyone else in his family.
How did GHWB sire such a jerk for a son?
I watched a golf tournament a few weeks back. The commentators were interviewing some old, grizzled guy. You guessed it. It was President Jr.
It is always hard to be “junior” whether your last name is DiMaggio, Reagan, Sinatra, Unitas, Mantle, Gotti, Bush.
Delightful. I echo the sentiments expressed above regarding the superiority of dress and grooming in the 1940s and 50s. Beautiful photos and ads. Note the white and (very) dirty bucks worn with tweeds; even the ironic footwear fads of teenagers were dressy. And I am not sure whether the coat in the “Clothes & Accessories for Summer” ad for Brooks is a (belt-less?) trench coat, a “British Warm” (there appear to be epaulets) or a camel hair polo coat, an item which shows up frequently in photos of summer sports and country clubs of the era. Between the coat, the wool jersey shirts and the tennis sweaters, summers must have been a lot cooler back then.
This collection of photographs of these young gentlemen is both sublime and sad; it shows what was once largely expected of, and achieved by a goodly portion of society; accomplishment and conducting oneself as an adult who respected both themselves, and society. Sadly, since the incessant so-called revolutions (childish whining) which have transpired since the 1960s, so many people have shifted or at least not stood against the cultural paradigm shifts which have occurred, that now the tail well and truly wags the dog on a grandiose scale… Why are grown men aping after teens and tweens, let alone dressing like them? Why do grown women dress like trampy 15 year olds? Why do people flee from reality and responsibility and dignity and honor? Ugh! Weep for the culture! I often think of many of the people that I encounter as high schoolers, and for good reason.
Rant and sadness over the state of society at large, aside, these photographs show us that greater things can be expected, and achieved when standards are maintained and when the youth has not been molly-coddled into docile, entitled, self important brats, even into their middle-age.
Feeling acerbic.