Yesterday we revisited a vintage Esquire cartoon illustrating the snap judgments we make about others upon first seeing them, as well as the importance of wearing the right clothes for the right crowd. Today I realized I had the perfect follow-up sitting in my inbox. It’s a trivial little thing for us clothes-wearing men — …
The French blog Greensleeves to a Ground (run by Fracis Cazal, whom we wrote about here), recently discovered the Flickr album for the Fessenden prep school in West Newton, MA. The album includes the school’s class photos for the past 100 years and is a fascinating look at the rise and fall of the Ivy …
Yesterday I took in a service at Trinity Church here in Newport. It was founded in 1698 and I got to sit in the pew that was used by George Washington. More interesting for us here were the few old WASPy types who were dressed in coat and tie. Each wore a tweed sportcoat (I’d …
RRP has become one of the most entertaining personalities lately in Ivy Style’s Facebook group. Here’s a gallery of some of his outfits and shots around the Los Angeles area (!), with his trademark deadpan jowl-scowl. Reading into his precise state of mind is much of the fun. “Have noticed those who have written about …
As one grows older and presumable wiser, one should come to the realization that everything in the world that evokes a strong reaction — whether positive or negative — is a reflection of something within oneself. One can only be sure that an object or person is not symbolic of something that arouses unconscious feelings …
Here’s a fine example of the value of the library of information we’ve built up over the past 11 years. This morning I awoke to a text message from Ivy Style contributor Trevor Jones, showing me how he’d taken inspiration from our recent “rich and dull” repost. Trevor was too young to pull off the …
Several Ivy-Style readers have left interesting comments recently, mentioning how they’ve been wearing button-downs and Weejuns for 50 years, and stuff like that. Here’s a comment on the Brooks Brothers novel post from a reader who worked at Brooks at the time: I took a year off from college and worked at Brooks from fall …
The rolls of shirt collars are as subtle as the taste of hops in beer and identify their maker just as quickly. Shirtmakers and merchants distinguish their wares by the stitch along the front of a collar, how far from the placket the collar buttons are attached, the collar’s height and shape, and an arcane …
In the 1950s, what I call “shirt jewelry” — i.e., collar pin, tie bar, and cuff links — was taken for granted. A man, regardless of his age, would have worn all three items if he wanted to create an impression. Even young men in high school wore shirt jewelry. The most popular collar style …
Last week I visited Ralph Lauren’s Madison Avenue flagship, known as the Rhinelander, and took some shots of the mannequins. Apologies for photo quality as lighting was exceptionally bright. There were logos galore — the final shot exemplifies the rule that all fashion ends in excess — even in the Purple Label collection. Speaking of …
Yesterday’s post on the LL Bean Norwegian sweater drew a helpful comment from a genuine Norwegian in our Facebook group. Although I’m sitting in a new deadstock sweater from Dale of Norway, the member told us about another storied knitwear brand called Devold. That’s a pretty good nickname for me, as in Da’ ‘Vold, though …
In the 1980s, I would stroll through the oak grove of my small college campus clad in a well worn pair of chinos, cream-colored turtleneck, a pink Brooks oxford and an LL Bean Norwegian Sweater. I was confident in believing I had found the perfect sweater that would be around forever. Boy was I wrong. …
This post from 2013 sheds a different light on the made-in-China issue explored in our last post. * * * James here is holding out my latest sportcoat to wear today. It’s the same one I’m wearing in the previous post, which a reader inquired about. It’s actually this jacket from Brooks Brothers; I’d been …
For years Tradsville has lamented how many classic items are now made overseas, and so, in the wake of the China-NBA story this week, I asked Ivy Style’s Facebook group if anyone had become inspired to engage in a personal embargo on items made in China. Here’s what some members said: Interesting question. However, it …
As a follow-up to our last post, a circa 1950 video on Princeton’s crew team, here’s another vintage gem from the Princeton Campus Life YouTube channel: a 25-minute, professionally shot and scripted orientation film from 1962, dead center of the Ivy heyday. It’s all here: “Princeton” haircuts, stretched-out Shetland sweaters, white socks and no-break trousers, …
Legendary menswear historian G. Bruce Boyer offered this piece to Ivy Style ten years ago. Much has changed since then, most notably that Bill Thomas is no longer at his eponymous label, and presently works for Duck Head. * * * Khakis and jeans are the iconic American work pants, both having been around for …
You should have received your J. Press fall catalog by now, and if you haven’t, give them a call and ask for one. The photo shoot (outtakes of which are featured in this post), as well as the merchandise, represents the growing influence of executive Robert Squillaro, who began his career at Brooks Brothers in …
Back in the heyday there was only one white sock for the college man to wear with his Weejuns: wool ones by Adler. Though the ad above testifies to Adler’s pristine whiteness, it was actually much cooler to bleach them a sickly yellow color. I stumbled across the above image (which you can find on …
The annual Harvard-Yale football game presents one of the best opportunities of the year to put together traditional preppy ensembles and turn out in force. My great-grandfather graduated from Yale in 1916, and I’m the proud owner of several sartorial artifacts from his time in New Haven, among them a pipe, a smoking jacket embroidered …