We’ve been on the topic of buttondowns lately, and even rarer in Tradsville than the piqué is this iteration. Pictured is Tony Curtis in a custom shirt (note monogram) consisting of buttondown collar and French cuffs. We can only assume the stubble was for an acting role. It’s an unusual combination, but more of an odd …
Are you such a clotheshorse that you’ll remember an outfit you saw on a mannequin a year ago? Well I remember browsing the Ralph Lauren Rhinelander mansion last spring and spotting an ensemble that made me stop and scrutinize. It was a gold-buttoned navy blazer paired with a white buttondown, no tie. But upon closer inspection, …
Some things get lost in translation — academic jaron, for example — but not the buttondown shirt. Settle in for a lengthy read courtesy of Nathaniel Weiner, Ph.D. candidate at York University and his paper “Transatlantic Translations of the Button-down Shirt,” which appears in the journal TranscUlturAl. Here’s the article’s opening, as well as relevant …
We bring our Nantucket Reds weekend to a close with an important message from The Onion, who tells us there’s no bluffing when it comes to go-to-hell pants: You’ve either got the stones inside or you don’t. There’s no dipping your toe in the pool, no test drive. You’re either a pirate-pant wearing swashbuckler or just …
A summer memory that always makes me smile was the one morning when I escorted my son on to his school bus. I was standing at the front of the bus when I heard a precious pipsqueak bellow, “That man is wearing pink pants!” As the bus monitors tried to shut him up, he continued to …
Today J. Press (nickname “Squeeze” back in the heyday), unveiled a collaboration with Murray’s Toggery, maker of the iconic Nantucket Reds. “We produced a small group of products that are perfect for Spring/Summer on their own or combined with many of the other warm-weather favorites we both offer,” J. Press executive Robert Squillaro tells Ivy …
According to the February issue of Free & Easy, Japan evidently never saw the 1979 “Are You a Preppie?” poster. It’s always interesting to hear foreigners’ take on American culture. It’s equally interesting to hear tales about guys in other countries trying to copy American style before the Information Age. The Heavy Tweed Jacket blog …
Buying authentic Ivy can be a minefield. You have to be on point for all the staples: Burlington socks, Brooks Brothers shirts, Levi’s Vintage 501s, and of course Bass Weejuns, Of course the Internet has made things much easier, especially for those who don’t live in the USA. In the UK, the go-to shop for …
We’ll wrap up our trio of pocket square-themed posts with an update on this little piece of menswear esoterica from five years ago. While covering the trade shows in New York and meeting up with longtime Ivy Style sponsor R. Hanauer, I spied these clever eyeglass cases that perform the function of a pocket …
Geoffrey Wolff’s novel “The Final Club” has frequently been quoted here for its insightful sartorial observations, including on the importance of understatement in the Ivy wardrobe (contextual understatement, that is, with go-to-hell clothes being another matter entirely). The reason the sack cut became the default jacket style for the Ivy League Look was because it was …
As a follow-up to our tribute to the late Prince Philip and his signature double-breasted blazer, here’s a lengthy feature I did for The Rake back in 2014. It should appeal to all those with a general interest in menswear, as well as all of you now contemplating a DB blazer. Pictured above is Fred …
Years ago the Los Angeles Times asked me to write a story about a new men’s fashion trend that combined English gentleman tailoring with rock and roll style. Though it’s outside the boundaries of Tradsville, I thought it may serve as inspiration for freeing up latent energies, thereby having a therapeutic effect amid the social …
Spring is here, and, while not quite ready to call for my whangee and yellowest shoes like Bertie Wooster, I am getting ready to pack up the woolen tweeds and flannels until fall. Sometime in the next few weeks I will get the summer stuff out of storage at the dry cleaners, and I have been …
It can’t be all doom and gloom regarding Brooks Brothers. So before we get back to bittersweet nostalgia, let’s pay tribute to the company’s great stylistic achievements, such as this post on the red sweater, a rare piece in the trad wardrobe.
Perhaps because I scribe for a living, and know that a piece of writing always benefits from cutting,* I’ve always been a ruthless editor of my own wardrobe. There’s always something that can be discarded for being redundant, having fulfilled its use, or not being quite right. The simple test is to look at an …
Everyone knows the buttondown shirt has been around forever. Well, we can at least trace its popularity to John Brooks (grandson of the firm’s founder) trip to England in 1896. He saw the polo players wearing this style collar, liked it, and started to manufacture it on his return home. The buttondown was particularly popular …
This week Todd Snyder sent out an email headlined “Trad to the Bone,” announcing a new collection of “authentic Indian madras shirts”, a patchwork madras sport coat, and a collaboration with sportswear brand Champion based on a vintage madras blazer. While the use of “trad” by such a mass-market retailer is interesting, the offerings are …
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the movie “Trading Places,” and in anticipation of spring, we revisit this fine essay on the tennis sweater served up by Christopher Sharp. * * * Late fall and winter evenings in 1989-1990 would find me lingering over a cup of coffee in the gothic dining hall that …
This week J. Press “dropped” — as the kids say these days — its new Spring brochure. This is essentially the last surviving hard-copy Ivy League Look “fashion shoot” still being produced, so make sure you get one. And if you haven’t created a collection by now, you probably should. The company known by insiders …