Contributing writer Christopher Sharp takes us on an epic journey through the 20th century, charting how madras went from obscure resort wear to a national craze during the “guaranteed-to-bleed” days of the Ivy heyday. * * * If I were to create an Ivy-inspired urban myth, I would spin a tale of how the first …
Here’s a long-overdue look at Dierdre Clemente’s book “Dress Casual,” which credits — or blames — college students for the concept of informal clothing. It’s a must for every serious student of the history of fashion and culture, and you can order it on Amazon here. * * * Exposure to the world of tailored …
Despite the fact that you’re supposed to be learning to think for yourself, college has always been a conformist environment. Those with an excess of individuality may be respected, but are rarely popular. And even during the heyday of the Ivy League Look, not every student was a perfect example of the style. What became codified …
How cool was it to dress Ivy during the heyday? Cool enough for the El Capris, an African American doo-wop band from Pittsburgh, to cut a B-side called “Ivy League Clean” in 1958. The song failed to chart, however, and the band became just another forgotten doo-wop band whose name starts with “El.” That is …
Last week we ran a photo from 1954, the dawn of the Ivy heyday. The post was entitled “The Ideal” and featured tennis player Vic Seixas wearing a J. Press sportcoat for a Sports Illustrated clothing spread. Now, as promised, is the rest of the article. The piece is entitled “The Not So Odd Jacket” …
In 1947, a letter from the Student Tailor Shop gave official notice to Princeton’s incoming class of ’51 that the university required its own wardrobe. “The style of clothing worn around the campus,” it read, “is different from that sold in metropolitan centers and home town stores.” From four-button suits and detachable-collar shirts in the …
Ivy Style recently received a dispatch from scholar Deirdre Clemente, who is busy doing groundbreaking research on the history of college students as consumers. In fact, she said her career might be made if she can get a paper into a certain scholarly journal. When they say academia is publish or perish, they’re not kidding. …
In 1993, five-odd years under new owners Marks & Spencer, now widely agreed to have veered the brand drastically off course, Brooks Brothers took out a six-page advertorial in The Atlantic Monthly celebrating its 175 years in business. Literary heavyweight George Plimpton was hired to write the text, which combines history with everyday goings-on at …
The San Francisco Chronicle recently chose a very intersting piece to run from its archives. The paper chose a 50-year-old piece brimming with anecdotes about the buttondown collar. It opens like this: The late Jack Kennedy looked up from his desk in the White House on a day in 1963. One of his aides had …
A reader sent in the following passage on changes in dress at Harvard in the ’60s. It comes from the book “Coming Apart: A Memoir of the Harvard Wars of 1969,” by Roger Rosenblatt. Click here for a 1997 lecture on the topic by Mr. Rosenblatt. * * * It is odd to remember, but …
Today, on the long Fourth Of July weekend, I went looking for something to repost from Ivy Style’s first summer in 2009. I found this, which seemed apropos for everyone celebrating sockless. * * * This is the second in our efforts to digitize the work of G. Bruce Boyer, whose many fine articles on …
James Kraus, who’s been featured on Ivy Style previously for his book “Jet Age Cooking For The Bachelor Gourmet,” recently read Helen Gurley Brown’s 1962 best-seller, because that’s the sort of thing you read when you’re into vintage bachelorhood. He spied this interesting passage from a chapter called “Shopping In Men’s Departments” and forwarded …
Yes, there was a time when GQ would run an eight-page story about Harvard’s most exclusive final club, The Porcellian. Not to boar you, but I don’t think this story would fly today. We’ll stop hamming and leave you with this fascinating tail. — CS & CC
A couple of weeks ago we put out a call for anecdotes about the transition years of the late 1960s, when the Ivy League Look rapidly went from smart and current to formal and outmoded. Here are the first few reader responses, and if you have one of your own, please email it to christian@ivy-style.com. …
Here’s another great find by comment-leaver and Facebook group member “Carmelo,” from the Esquire archives. In this case, the March, 1950, issue, in the pre-dawn of the heyday. The copy reads: Let the acrobats have hourglass waistlines. And leave the bulking shoulder pads on the football field. For city and campus alike, naturalness is the …
In the spirit of all the students presently packing up for their first semester at college, Ivy Style has the pleasure of presenting a piece of student homework. I say pleasure because getting to write about The Andover Shop and J. Press is certainly a lot more fun than having to take a remedial math course. The …
This post originally ran in February of 2009. This morning a member of our Facebook group posted a video of the song, which went up on YouTube a couple of years ago (and has only been seen 500 times since). It has been added below. We did a jazz post yesterday. This one’s for Squeeze. Give …
Speaking of trad in Japan, the latest issue of Ralph Lauren Magazine has a feature about the Japanese publication Free & Easy. (It’s not by me, though I’ll have a quasi-relevant story coming out soon). Writes Josh Peskowitz: Each issue is organized to explore one aspect of the Free & Easy canon. These themes repeat periodically. Three …
Christopher Sharp presents this swan song of ’80s prepdom from the January 1990 issue of M Magazine, a post that originally ran on Ivy Style in July of 2009. In keeping with the neurotic WASP theme, the scans were taken at a self-consciously nonchalant angle. * * * I’ve had this magazine for almost 20 …