Editor’s Note: DEFINITELY NOT including how hard it is to transfer, how hard it is to incorporate a decade of content into a redesign, the fact that Women’s Ivy is confusing to me so I can’t write it, and how much it costs to host.
It’s coming up on a year. I LOVE THIS WORK. I have met some really cool people (our advertisers are very, very nice people, I think that the venue vetted them a little and acts like a filter so if you like Ivy you are gonna be nice anyway but still). I’ve learned a ton about Ivy. And how to work with other writers (it isn’t as easy as you think), digital image compression, keywording – you name it. I get to wear clothes I would wear anyway, and I get to try to be funny.
In the course of this year, we have QUADRUPLED the site’s monthly traffic (unique readers), we have boomed on FB to the point where our engagement rate is higher than GQ and Esquire’s combined. We’ve redesigned the logo and the site (you will see it soon, promise), we have maintained the involvement of iconic Ivy figures (G. Bruce Boyer, Richard Press) and we are starting a podcast, Instagram, and an expanded LifeStyle section. We even have an ex post facto proofreader. It has been fun and the future looks so bright I have to wear Ray Bans.
There’s only one thing that still bothers me. I have learned to let go of comments that confuse me or are just plain wrong. We have had fun debating and disagreeing, and we have opened the doors a bit to new ways of breathing the air for our style. Still.
I posted, early on, one picture from Wedding Crashers. I said in the caption that it is the funniest movie ever made. And it is. Caddyshack is second. Animal House is ok (it is kind of the same joke after a while). When I posted that, I expected some disagreement about what the funniest movie ever made was. But one guy (remember, this was back before it was okay to write about anything other than jazz and an oxford) wrote: What does Wedding Crashers have to do with Ivy?
Are you kidding me? You’re kidding, right? I didn’t answer then because I was getting my sea legs. But I have them now brother. The funniest movie ever made is also one of the Iviest movies ever made. I preach a lot about the practice of dignity, so I am not going to call you out, oh What-Does-Wedding-Crashers-Have-To-Do-With-Ivy reader, but you know who you are.
Let us begin.
I will build the case. First, Bradley Cooper in a rugby shirt, for a solid five minutes of the movie.
Cooper leads most of the Ivy charge here. But he is not alone. I present to you, outside of Rodney Dangerfield (funnier character in a not-as-funny Caddyshack, I said it, yes I did)…
Oh wait, that’s not enough? Vince Vaughan in GTH pants is not enough? I am taking a boxing workout class on Tuesday with Julie. She is a remarkable boxer. Remarkable. She is teaching me combinations. Here. Cooper in rugby = jab. Cooper in Rugby with Vaughan in GTH = hook. This is the uppercut.
Wedding Crashers came out in 2005, when Brooks Brothers was in that phase when it realized it was taking water but thought it could borrow its way out of the boat. Still, if you were amongst the faithful a decade and a half ago, you recognize this:
Wedding Crashers is 1 hour and 59 minutes. Cooper is either in a rugby or Brooks for at least half of it. But then, the deep cut:
I love this man as an actor so much I don’t even say his name. But. Here he is in an ECRUOCBD (I fixed that ’cause Mitchell pointed it out and he was right… I am not so sure ECRUOCBD is a thing, but it is now).
This actor is Keir O’Donnell. Look at his jacket:
As a guy who makes a living in part posting pictures of himself that I know my grandchildren are gonna see (including the Burtonian Fat Phase), I have a particular sensitivity about bad pictures of one’s self. This isn’t Ivy but to balance out the kharma here:
If you have seen the movie, by now you are in full agreement. If you haven’t seen the movie, it is a gift. Go see the movie. But I make one more point. And it is a huge one.
Wedding Crashers answers the question for me: What is Women’s Ivy? You ask me what is Women’s Ivy, I say Wedding Crashers. Here.
And finally,
There. The itch has been scratched, we can move the site now with a clean slate.
JB
Ladies Ivy = pink cardigan sweater. Sure, that’s how I remember it anyway, although I didn’t crash a lot of weddings. Has it been 15 years already, since we could find straight cut chinos? Seems like it.
I am gonna dig around. They have to be out there.
… did you crash ANY?
No. I worked them as a musician. The crazy songs people request.
Since wife and child are away visiting grandparents, I might just need to watch this movie tonight after a solo dinner, lawn chores, a shower, and fresh pajamas.
Ladies ivy? Probably not anything that includes jeggings, yoga pants, tights, or similar on the upper body.
Lastly, congratulations on the approach of your first year anniversary at the helm. You have breathed some much needed life and headspace into the site. Looking very forward to the launch of your planned podcasts. I’ve recently started one myself, but on the more pedestrian topic of teaching practices and (sigh. . .) fostering student success.
Kind Regards,
H-U
You are gonna laugh. Let me know what you think?
… and how do you like podcasting? I bet you are good at it.
The movie’s premise is funny but much its content is vulgar and lacks dignity (your favorite word). The lewd dinner table scene ruined it for me. Finally, football isn’t what Maryland does best; it’s lacrosse, the state’s official team sport. By the way, whatever happened to Zoe Burnett, your much ballyhooed women’s Ivy expert?
Tell me, Di. What do you do for a living? Would you like it if someone put, on the most widely read men’s trad fashion blog in the world, your HR information? If not, and we both know it is “not” then why on earth would you ask such a question?
Those are lines and scenes from a movie, not legislation. I am reminded of a line from another funny movie: Lighten up Francis.
Do, why not assume good intentions and best efforts on the part of JB and others involved in the site? It seems odd to comment here with such cynicism.
*Di,
John, I don’t want to nitpick, but two points:
1. Patch madras pants are very “King of the Hobos.”
2. The shirt that is pictured is not a white OCBD, but ecru.
You say patch madras, I say GTH. We are mincing… I dunno. But we are mincing. But you are 100% right on the other point, and I will fix it thank you.
Thank you, John, for acknowledging my correction.
I have to give you credit for hosting the best menswear forum in the blogosphere.
So much social media is very vituperative, but Ivy Style is mostly civil and genteel. Let’s keep it that way.
That’s Cristopher Walken. His khakis are pleated making them look sloppy. And they have a bit of a permanent press, poly-cotton-blend look to them. One day he will be cast to portray Soros.
I worked in the old school natural shoulder clothing world (trade?) for a while — once upon a time. Around and among seriously capital-T Traditional Traditionalists. (A lot of Episcopal vestrymen and Presbyterian elders, which used to mean something). And I had a TNSIL *-as-Milton’s hell father who knew his way (if clumsily, drink in hand) around three of the best men’s stores — uh, ever. Ever and R.I.P. It’s entirely likely (though not provable) that, by experience (good mentors) and reading, I know as much about U.K. woven worsteds, woolens, and tweed (including the history) as any living, breathing person in North America, save Boyer — and Nick Hilton. And I’m learning more about natural shoulder tailoring with every passing day: I think I know enough to know the Canadian maker Press is presently using is, in terms of grading, about a C-. As JFK said, “we can do bed-ah.” ** (He said that, right??).
We’re learning — all of us. Including the execs at Onward. Eh?
Which is to say. I can empathize, JB: there are comments that are flatly, well, wrong. But since most of what’s shared here amounts opinion and opinions about opinions (Wedding Crashers isn’t even in the top 10; at least two Monty Python’s, This Is Spinal Tap, Animal House, and Airplane! claim the top tier).
But —but!— we get the hyperbole (mostly); you write for a living. We’re getting used to it. Opinions about opinions and such.
* thank you, Pollock, for ‘TNSIL’: http://www.ivy-style.com/southern-gentleman.html
** Hickey Freeman
Good lord man. Spinal Tap?
How about replacing “funniest” with “my favorite?” That draws a discussion in which everyone’s opinion matters instead of generating an argument in which an opinion is somehow a fact. And isn’t a discussion more Ivy than an argument?
Plus, you’re just dead wrong about Wedding Crashers. It’s Blazing Saddles of course. Or Dr. Strangelove. Or Being There. Or Young Frankenstein. Or, for chrissakes, Animal House.
PS Happy frickin’ Monday to you too!
… because people seriously arguing about what is the funniest movie is… funny.
…because Will Ferrel ordering mom to make him a meatloaf sandwiches is the only part that made me guffaw (I don’t really like him).
…SOME people argue about the funniest movie but OTHERS know you learn more about funny movies and each other by comparing opinions.
“Do you like gladiator movies?”
How did you not laugh at “You shut your mouth when you talk to me” and “lock it up”?
I don’t remember them. I probably snickered.
I guffawed at:
Where are the white women?
I was going to make espresso.
Do you speak Jive?
I like to watch.
Does your dog bite?
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
All funny movies, those. Belong in the genre, but Wedding Crashers is untouchable. There is a Zero Point Zero every 2 minutes.
Or a couple of The Pink Panthers, Raising Arizona, Airplane, Terms of Endearment…
“Good lord man. Spinal Tap?“
I laughed out loud at this.
While turning up the volume — to 11.
To be fair, it has been a long time for me and Spinal Tap. Out of respect, I will watch it again.
Spinal Tap of course.
“That’s beautiful melody. What’s it called?”
“Suck My Love Pump.”
Ok, I have to admit, that is a pretty good one.
How about the Stonehenge Fiasco! Laughed out loud at that one! You can google “Spinal Tap – The Stonehenge Fiasco” and the first result is the video clip.
I agree Wedding Crashers was great, but so was Spinal Tap.
I would agree WC was more Ivy than ST 🙂
In 1976 my Southern Baptist girlfriend laughed hard watching Blazing Saddles. Afterwards she told me that I should not have taken her to that kind of movie. Northern girls are more fun.
Hickey Freeman is now producing a fair amount of output in Canada.
Oh man. Do I have stories. That is so perfectly…
Ok. I’ll see your “funniest movie ever” vote for Wedding Crashers and raise you one …
Dodgeball!
@ SE, @ The Amazing Tom,
Ever since BB finally self-destructed, SE has been eluding to HF. And now The Amazing Tom does as well.
I’ve looked at HF on line occasionally for close to 20 years now, and I see nothing to indicate that they have any interest in Ivy Style. The same goes for HSM.
What do you gents know that we need to know? HF has been a reputable brand for a long time, but it is purely mainstream…bland. I’ve been wondering since SE mentioned HF a few years ago, why doesn’t HF introduce an ORTHODOX IVY line, MTM, good cloth, etc., available at department stores, and corner the market?
I think it’s supposed to be HF replacing Southwick as a maker of sack suits for J.Press or O’Connells.
One of the most Ivy-dressed characters in a comedy is Dean Ulich from Revenge of the Nerds.
Hardbopper,
Thank the Lord “bland” Ivy (white OCBDs, chinos, navy knit ties, navy blazers, etc.) survives in spite of adolescent Ivy.
I am looking forward to more Women’s Ivy content. The pieces that Zoe did were great, especially the illustrations.
Big Lebowski, Office Space, Stepbrothers, Caddyshack, Holy Grail/Life of Brian, BapoleN Dynamite, Blazing Saddles, Animal House, Anchorman, The Jerk, Tropic Thunder, Withnail and I, … I’ve missed plenty, but all top Wedding Crashers IMHO, which is still absolutely hilarious.
I seem to remember Zoe Burnett contributing some women’s ivy pieces for the site that were well written and well received. Are there any plans to bring her back as a regular contributor?
We are out of Corn Flakes,
F U
“My daddy says I’m the best kisser in town.”