I stopped by J. Press today and salesman Robert-kun was wearing an olive herringbone sportcoat and black turtleneck. I said he looked very jazz-beatnik (he’s a jazz guitarist, after all).
Then I peered across the room and there was a fellow in a beret, and he wasn’t a young hipster.
And so we revisit this 2010 post, now with updated text, on that rare preppy-beatnik crossover with this tribute to Charlie Dalton, aka Nuwanda, the rebellious rich kid in “Dead Poets Society” who has a brief affair with a saxophone and beret.
The Ying and Yang…The preppie beatnik and the Trad Be-Bopper. Be-Boppers and then 50’s-60’s Jazz musicians adapted the style of the Ivy League to be taken seriously. They saw themselves as professionals, and wanted to be treated as professionals. Their appropriation of Ivy attire was a shrewd decision to change how they were perceived in a racially charged time. They could stand on stage playing for white people, but most black musicians could not use the front door to enter the clubs in which they played. Co-opting the the look of the establishment was an unspoken act of defiance against the establishment.
Thanks for reminding us of Charlie Dalton, but doesn’t Mr. Keating, too, deserve an appearance on Ivy Style?
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/060801/142249__deadpoets_l.jpg
John Keating definitely had style:
http://media.dvdtown.com/images/displayimage.php?id=4149
Love your blog!
xoxo
SC
what a fantastic blog!
i love 2 be charlie dalton
For what it’s worth, the turtleneck was navy.
“Chaos screaming, chaos dreaming. Gotta do more, gotta be more!”
I love turtle-necks/polo-necks but they feel uncomfortable these days. Damn aging, I say..
The Ying and Yang…The preppie beatnik and the Trad Be-Bopper. Be-Boppers and then 50’s-60’s Jazz musicians adapted the style of the Ivy League to be taken seriously. They saw themselves as professionals, and wanted to be treated as professionals. Their appropriation of Ivy attire was a shrewd decision to change how they were perceived in a racially charged time. They could stand on stage playing for white people, but most black musicians could not use the front door to enter the clubs in which they played. Co-opting the the look of the establishment was an unspoken act of defiance against the establishment.