J. Press sent out a mailer today introducing its new spring items. It’s business-as-usual with the main brand — for better or worse. The jacket above looks straight from a vintage catalog. Tough to tell what the shoulders are like, however, without in-person inspection. But certainly what you’re most interested in, you anonymous hate-reading snarkers, …
Ralph Lauren’s fall collection just went up online and is full of the very items we’ve been discussing lately. OK, we haven’t been discussing three-piece suits lately, but we’ve got a piece on vests coming up soon.
We received a message from Beckett Simonon, a shoe company that launched in 2012, touting its new collection of shoes atimed at the budget-conscious guy who still wants quality. The shoes, which are made in India, feature Goodyear-welt construction, a durable manufacturing process associated with shoes priced much higher. Here’s an extract from the company’s …
We’re finally catching up with some news items of the past few weeks. First up is Grailed.com, “a marketplace for buying and selling preowned high-end menswear.” It was recently launched by class of 2013 Yale grad Arun Gupta, who tells us he spent much time at J. Press. In an email Gupta explained the business …
Why are they called loafers? Obviously because they’re for loafing. It’s not exactly a shoe that screams ruthless ambition, is it? No wonder they were embraced so wholeheartedly by college students in the days before meritocracy. This is a shoe for guys so lazy they can’t be bothered to tie laces. The cartoon was recently …
Onward Kashiyama, owner of the J. Press brand, has informed Ivy-Style.com that it has been unable to find a new Manhattan location for the store currently located at Madison Avenue and 47th Street, and will be closing New York retail operations on January 18. J. Press will be forced to lay off the sales staff, …
We segue from Charleston’s Ben Silver to another trad outpost far from the Northeast, this time San Francisco’s Cable Car Clothiers. Founded in 1939, the store has managed to survive the city’s transition from traditional stronghold (in such neighborhoods as Nob Hill and Pacific Heights), to beatnik and hippie haven, and finally dot-com hotbed. It’s …
Happy 2014 from Ivy Style, and let’s get back to business and ring in the new year with a laugh. You may have heard that Esquire has launched a TV network, and from what a colleague tells me who’s already been in a pitch session, they’re not exactly looking for highbrow content. In this clip, …
Of the infinite cultural things that could stand as shorthand for the victory of the lowest-common-denominator across middle-class American culture, one of my favorites is the attire worn for the “Jeopardy!” college tournament. Whether from the most elite and expensive college or a big state school (yes, I’m a living example that sometimes smart guys, …
Last night was annual Brooks Brothers holiday party, where Wynton Marsalis filled 346 Madison with jazz, creating the soft shoulders and hard bop combination that was, as I often point out, the inspiration for this website. I took photos of a number of partygoers, but they all pale in comparison to this shot of a …
Isn’t there some miracle diet that promises to burn fat while you sleep, so you can ostensibly wake up weighing less than when you went to sleep, without having to do anything except dream about donuts? Now there’s another way to wake up slim. This morning J. Crew sent an email touting slim-fit lounge pants …
Brooks Brothers CEO Claudio Del Vecchio talks to Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart” show about the brand’s current business strategy, including the upcoming steakhouse, which he says was inspired by his grandmother’s kitchen. The hosts’ questions are on point, and include asking Del Vecchio if the more fashionable clothing risks alienating “the traditional East Coast customer.” …
You have no idea how tempted I was to create a gift guide consisting entirely of black “Ivy chic” items. But seriously, it should come as no surprise that advertising support is what has enabled me to devote the time necessary to inform and entertain you as we approach our 900th post. So the following …
Although the tie above is from Chipp, this year I’d like to state how thankful I am for Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop. Notoriously reticent and press shy, if Charlie hadn’t agreed to talk to me about dressing Miles Davis some five and a half years ago, and made it all sound so cool …
Recently an email sent by an Emory University student to his fraternity brothers telling them they were badly dressed made national news. Well it’s about time someone took them to task.
There are multiple meanings in the headline above. For starters, there’s the coming winter weather, which will require coats like the one pictured above, which is coming to a retailer near you. It’s a toggle coat in rugby stripes and is either brilliant or monstrous, depending on whether or not you take your whisky straight. …
In last month’s issue of GQ, the magazine managed to twice make an assertion that puzzled us here in Tradsville: namely, that a buttondown-collared shirt is not a dress shirt. The first instance occurs in question-and-answer format in Glenn O’Brien’s “Style Guy” column: Most of my dress shirts are buttondown- collar oxfords, but I recently …
Bass has returned to the state of Maine — indirectly, at least. Though it no longer operates a factory there, it has contracted with Rancourt & Co. to produce a new limited-edition “Made In Maine” shoe called the Fenmore Weejun. The beefroll-styled shoe, which is priced at $275, comes in four colors. Tan and loden …
Allen Edmonds has just contacted Ivy-Style.com with the news that it is being acquired by a private equity firm, with the announcement set to hit the newswire shortly. Those who’ve had their hearts broken at the acquisition of quintessential American brands by foreign companies will be pleased to hear that the new owners are American, …