I am not an Ivy native. The university I attended is surrounded by endless wind rumpled prairies. The time I spent there was informed by the rise of The Flaming Lips, R.E.M. and Public Enemy. I reference pop culture because it is where I got my clothing education. What I learned, what pop taught me, …
John Helmer III knew what he wanted to do from an early age. “It was a little bit destiny,” he told me with a waggish grin when I visited his store in Downtown Portland on a recent summer morning. “My dad remodeled the store the year I was born, 1956. They put me out in …
While working around the house on a weekend afternoon, you may find yourself in a white t-shirt with an old beater oxford over it, perhaps untucked. But you likely wouldn’t throw on a sportcoat — or orphaned suit jacket — over the tee-and-oxford combo and actually go somewhere. Or would you? When the above photo …
Some months ago we ran a photo of a striped sportcoat. Either that or I mentioned finding them cool. Whichever it was, I remember several readers chiming in to say that this was a faux pas, that stripes only belong on suits, and that a striped sportcoat was destined to look like an orphaned suit. …
Add French-back boxer shorts to the long list of traditional favorites Brooks Brothers is phasing out. These non-elastic, button-front, and adjustable button-back shorts had their origins in the 1920s and ‘30s, when men left behind their long johns for the more modern and cooler boxers. Button versions vied with elasticized waists during the Depression, and World …
There are plenty of embroidered shorts out there, but little tennis rackets or crossed golf clubs are a bit mundane. But there’s one pair that seems like it was made just for me. After all, how many other surfing Weejun-wearers could there be? If you can’t quite figure out the motif, here it is on a t-shirt: …
Some years ago, Brooks Brothers Before Bankruptcy — henceforth referred to as BBBB or B4 — sent out an email blast with a cool outfit to try the next time you dress up. Check out the guy on the right. Ignore the tight dark trousers and non-kosher jacket and note the very heyday feel: white …
The beau ideal, at least for some. Dark and muted and ready for charcoal tropical worsteds. But who made it and when? The original link no longer works, but you can find out in the comments below.
As lockdowns lift and men begin making their way back to the office, the press is scrambling to figure out how they’re likely to dress. Will they stay in slob mode forever, or would a dash of formality feel rejuvenating? The compromise, obviously, is to pick up where the Dad Style trend left off. The pandemic …
Recently I learned of someone who purchased four identical shirts from Mercer & Sons. His belief, in ordering the beautiful stack of shirts in the James Bond tattersall pattern, which arrived crisply-wrapped and topped with the customary personal note from David and Serena Mercer, was that when one finds something you really like, it makes …
Over the weekend this tweet achieved moderate virality on Twitter. It’s a beau geste by a young man who donned a suit to wear to the hospital where his sister was giving birth, amusing his family and defying social norms with a daring act of counter-subversion. The young man seems to be channeling a combination …
Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the beginning of summer and the wearing of one of its signature fabrics. And so Ivy Style is pleased to introduce The Original Madras Trading Company, a third-generation maker and weaver with offices in New York and Chennai, India, the city formerly known as Madras that gave the distinctive checked …
From Alan Flusser before retirement: three buttons, contrast buttonhole stitching, double vents, hacking pockets and ticket pocket. Plus horizontal striped shirt, to complete the Gekko-in-the-Hamptons look.
Madras season is officially open, and what better way to declare it than with patch madras shorts. Surely you agree?
I have been enjoying this website immensely since I discovered it a few months ago, and it has really stirred up memories for me. I attended a small boarding school in rural Maine from 1955 to 1960, on account of being held back a year after a small incident with the headmaster’s daughter in my …
As the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. That certainly applies to menswear brands. But just because smaller ones may disappear without registering a thud, that doesn’t mean starting one is any easier. Yet Philadelphia-based Junior’s managed to establish itself as a new independent classic menswear retailer, and did so while launching …
I’ve seen every masculine change in fashion from the “drape shape with the reet pleat” zoot suit of the WW II years to the latest “New Bohemian” look from Dries Van Noten, and the way I dress is still imprisoned by the years of my youth. But my appreciation of style is not, so I …
When the forecast reaches 60 degrees in Boston, you may be blinded by the sunlight reflecting off of my fellow citygoers’ legs, which haven’t seen the light of day in months. I too am guilty of chomping at the bit to wear anything other than cords and wool stockings by the end of March, and …
The month of May means madras season for some parts of the country at least. And if you’re somewhere that’s still chilly, consider flying first-class — at least in your imagination — to a land of eternal sunshine in these premium shorts from Country Club Prep, which are priced at a cool $120, or enough …