Pipes & Sacks Get The Chicks, Arthur Miller Version

Back in Ivy Style’s freshman year we did a post on Hugh Hefner’s Ivy phase called “Pipes And Cardigans Get The Chicks.” Well Hef may have gotten Marilyn Monroe as the first Playboy Playmate, but Arthur Miller got her for a wife. Some years ago Esquire’s website paid a little style tribute to Miller with a simultaneous lionizing of the sack jacket:

In this photo, taken in 1956 at the couple’s estate in Englefield Green, England, Miller is a paragon of East Coast style. A born-and-raised New Yorker, the playwright’s trad roots clearly run deep, from his dark-rimmed specs to his dotted silk tie to his oxford cloth button-down (with a pretty perfect collar roll, we might add.) But it’s that little buttonhole — right above his thumb; see it? — that holds the key to Miller’s superior style.

Basically a reworked three-button setup where the top button and buttonhole serve only as ornament so it fastens like a two-button, the three-roll-two is one of the most quintessentially American button stances. Closely associated with the “Ivy League” look that reigned during Miller’s mid-century career, it’s an enduring (and increasingly international) style to this day. Put simply: It’s a classic.

Esquire goes on to muse whether the sack jacket helped catch Marilyn’s eye. There was no mention of the pipe, alas. — CC