Over the past several decades, G. Bruce Boyer has distinguished himself as one of the most erudite writers ever to tackle the subject of menswear. Born in 1941, he came of age at the Ivy League Look’s height in popularity. A graduate of Moravian, the fifth-oldest college in the US, Boyer went on to do graduate …
When I was 18, I decided I wanted to be a renaissance man. It was the late ’80s, and I must have learned the term from the magazines GQ or M, The Civilized Man. It wasn’t exactly a concept knocked about in my particular California suburb, nor passed down from my father. I was already …
Actor Tab Hunter died yesterday at the age of 86, prompting a revisit of this 2016 post, updated with new images. Like this post and want more content, more often? Help Ivy Style reach its goal of 1,000 true fans. * * * Tab Hunter was a clean-cut, all-American ’50s dreamboat heartthrob. But when …
England is just kicking off its first game in the World Cup, and so here’s a bit of belated Blighty Ivy news. In the wake of the new documentary about UK Ivy pioneer John Simons, last month The Guardian ran a lengthy profile, in which the soon-to-be 79-year-old talks about the “magical and distant” place …
Yesterday we honored GIs and their great contribution to the Ivy League Look: khakis. One man who exemplified the era (even though he went to college before serving in the war), was John F. Kennedy, who was born 101 years ago today. Here’s a gallery of him wearing khakis, always plain-front, naturally, but never with …
A couple of weeks ago I attended an event at Alan Flusser’s place. Alan — who was clad in, if I recall correctly, a double-breasted shawl-collared tartan dinner jacket, ascot, Belgian Shoes, and black jersey Ralph Lauren athletic pants that looked like formal trousers in the light and the context — told me he’d read my …
If Robert Squillaro’s nickname isn’t already “Squeeze,” it might just be now. The menswear veteran — who attended New York’s FIT and went straight to work at Brooks Brothers in the twilight years of the mid’-’80s, working his way up to executive level — recently joined the leadership team of Onward Kashiyama, owners of J. …
Revisiting this post from 2012 devoted to the legendary founder of The Andover Shop. * * * Yesterday menswear omnivore Derek Guy of Die Workwear! and Put This On started a tumblr devoted to the wit and wisdom of menswear legend Charlie Davidson, the octogenarian owner of The Andover Shop. “The Quotable Charlie Davidson,” a …
Yesterday we bade farewell to Barbara Bush, First Lady of arguably America’s preppiest president. Town & Country has a 61-image gallery of her life in pictures here.
Thursday brought the news that former UN Ambassador John Bolton will be replacing HR McMaster as National Security Adviser. Bolton’s best known for his hawkish foreign policy views and walrus mustache, but a less remarked-upon trait is his penchant for buttondown collars. Bolton appears to be sporting one in every photo that appears on Google, …
Today Troy Patterson, Princeton man and longtime linker to Ivy Style in his work, wrote a piece for The New Yorker on Robert Mueller as style icon, linking to this post from last summer. Writes Patterson: Within the community of men passionate about preppy clothing, there’s a lively conversation around Mueller’s preference for starch in his …
Four years ago today I lost my dear friend Michael Mattis, who unexpectedly died in his sleep at the age of 49. We had met in our mid-twenties through a mutual intellectual and historical interest in style (specifically, the long literary history of dandyism). As we got older we both found our taste in clothing …
There are several bits of news surrounding John Simons, the so-called patron saint of English Ivy (it’s been so long I’m not sure who coined that term; it might have been here). First off, the documentary about him, “A Modernist,” by Jason Jules and Lee Cogswell, is complete and has been getting theatrical screenings in …
Today is Fat Tuesday, and we have a perfectly apropos post courtesy of G. Bruce Boyer. For our continued Black History Month coverage, Mr. Boyer has given Ivy Style an exclusive piece on Fats Domino. Although the artist didn’t get hip to Ivy duds as other musicians did during the heyday, he was a popular …
Midcentury pop crooner Vic Damone has died at the age of 89. He’s pictured here looking every bit the country gentleman in herringbone jacket, tattersall buttondown, vest and pocket square. And here he is doing the title track from the 1957 Cary Grant film “An Affair To Remember.” — CC
Recently menswear historian G. Bruce Boyer was asked to collaborate on a shirt collection with an Italian brand named Marol. The results are now available. The shirt collars are all semi-spread — they’re also priced way, way beyond the budget of most trads. But as Bruce is an old pal of Ivy Style who’s written …
Politics is a dirty business, and people on Twitter can be nasty. Last night, after the State Of The Union address by President @#$%!&, the Democratic response came from a member of one of America’s greatest dynasties: Joe Kennedy III. Reaction on social media to this Kennedy kin was less than kind, and even major …
Richard Press will be giving a talk at J. Press’ New York store next Wednesday evening. Listen to the great raconteur spin tales about the Ivy heyday, imbibe a drink, and mix with your fellow trads. I’ll be there with copies of my new mini-book “The Disengage,” for those unfortunate souls who don’t have one …
Maybe it’s because I’m a photographer myself, maybe it’s because I’m from a town and work at a club which he photographed on multiple occasions, or maybe it’s because I, like anyone else, don’t mind looking at glossy pictures of “attractive people in attractive places doing attractive things” (his words, not mine), but I’ve always …