This post may seem like it’s preaching to the choir, but in any given month about 50% of Ivy Style’s traffic consists of first-time visitors. So this is one is for those who are logging on for the first time. And for all you regulars, here’s something to pass along to your coworkers to help …
A couple of nights ago I attended a cozy media event sponsored by Allen Edmonds. Not much news to report, though there may be some coming: I made two suggestions on shoes they should produce. Afterwards I realized I was just a few blocks away from my favorite source for Levi’s: JC Penney in Herald …
And you thought bit loafers were polarizing? Precocious menswear buff Al Castiel III, a Boston University student spending his summer interning in New York in the Paul Stuart custom department, herein offers an ode to the dainty, delicate footwear specimen known as the Belgian Shoe. * * * Just off the corner of Park Avenue …
I’d just chatted with Alden president Robert Clark a couple of weeks ago at the big menswear trade show here in New York. He didn’t mention this developing news story, but he confirmed it yesterday via email. Apparently following a request from Gucci, Alden is discontinuing its bit loafer. “Gucci did ask us to stop …
I’m pretty confident that my personal style reflects, at least in part, a subset of Eastern dress that could be called Annapolitan Trad. It’s not thrifty, scratchy-wool, down-east Yankee. It’s not pressed khakis and bow-tie ACC tailgating, either. And it’s certainly not Upper East Side Belgian shoes or Prince Albert slippers. But, like those styles, …
Yesterday I stopped by J. Press’ location in the West Village to visit DCG and see the latest displays and merchandise. Let’s have a look. Above, collar pin with fastened buttondown and skull and bones lapel pin. Below, braces and ball cap: And speaking of ball caps, the one on the right spells out “got …
Richard Press recently wrote about his fondness for safari shirts/jackets to wear around New York during the warm months and his septuagenarian years. Here’s some inspiration for creating your own urban adventures in that trad classic, the tan poplin suit (with some olive and stone thrown in for good measure). — CC Member of Andy’s …
Last month saw the DVD release of the rescue film “The Finest Hours.” Upon its theatrical release earlier this year, The New York Times movie reviewer Stephan Holden wrote, “The waterlogged disaster ‘The Finest Hours’ is a moderately gripping whoosh of nostalgia that shamelessly recycles the ’50s cliché of the squeaky-clean all-American hero.” That tepid …
Ratio Clothing, which offers custom-fit shirts made at a certain factory in Garland, North Carolina, yesterday introduced a longer-point buttondown collar option. Named the Fitzgerald model, the collar features points that measure 3.5 inches. Reads the description: We consider ourselves to be OCBD aficionados here at Ratio, and designed our Fitzgerald Button-Down to be the …
Is J. Crew testing the summer waters in contemplation of a return to its preppier roots? The brand’s origins lie in a capitalizing on the preppy ’80s by offering a mail-order version of Ralph Lauren at a lower price. And throughout the ’90s and early aughts J. Crew — like those other Js, Press and …
J. Press has produced a really cool new catalog for summer 2016. Why cool? Because it was produced in Japan and translated into English. That means it really plays up the heritage of the Ivy League Look, as well as offering that ever-curious glimpse into our national style from the point of view of outsiders …
Eight years ago, when I first interviewed Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop about dressing Miles Davis, he used a simple but delightful phrase “my kinda clothes.” The phrase stuck with me and now, after all these years, I’m finally employing it as a new recurring feature. “My Kinda Clothes” will give Ivy Style readers …
When my sister and I were kids, our parents encouraged an appreciation of the great American musicals. They enrolled us in dance classes, and when “The Sound Of Music” would air on TV, it was one of the rare times when they would let us stay up late with school the next day. They also …
GQ has just launched a new magazine called GQ Style, which features an extensive profile on Sid Mashburn. If you don’t know a lot about him, Mashburn worked at Ralph Lauren for a spell and has been considered a tastemaker since opening his eponymous store in Atlanta (it helps that his wife used to work …
Today is National Seersucker Day, which grew out of Seersucker Thursday on Capitol Hill. But while the day’s origins are clear, the beginnings of the fabric itself are somewhat contested. Both Haspel in New Orleans and Brooks Brothers in New York claim to have either introduced or popularized seersucker. This is from Haspel’s website: On …
Today I stumbled across the custom boat shoe program on Sperry Top-Sider’s website. For $120 you get to choose everything, down to the color of laces and outsole and type of eyelet, and they send them in about three weeks. The software is fast and slick for instant gratification, though you’ll need some design skills …
Content Warning: politics, poetry, bowties Everyone should have a bowtie-wearing professor. This figure is deep in our collective unconscious. Looking at old photographs or watching old movies, you’re likely to encounter this wise and genial figure complete with tweed jacket, pipe, and floppy hat. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones comes to mind, as well as …
Remember the scene in Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan” when a character sings the praises of detachable-collar shirts? Well a new Kickstarter campaign aims to make them a reality. Boston-based Al Castiel III, who runs the site Regattas & Repp Ties and who will spend the summer in New York interning in Paul Stuart’s custom department, has …
Back in January, when I learned about what we now call the new/old Brooks Brothers oxford-cloth buttondown, Ivy Style did something unprecedented: we ran two posts in one day. And the next day we did it again. These four posts — the news announcement, followed by analysis pieces by myself, Bruce Boyer, and Dan Greenwood …