Tradified

Ivy Notes S1 E15

Before I forget, Jay Butler is running 15% off the entire site today. Famous for the bit loafer, they do a great penny loafer too, belts, etc. My impression after wearing the bit loafers and the penny loafers is that everything Jay Butler sells is worth more than you pay for it. And the owner


Duncan Forbes Eats With His Fists (and you should too)

We put this off as long as we could.  It is April 15, the day things come due.  You have two months before the Memorial Day, shorts, and no excuse for the extra layer you think is hiding things.  There are slimming silhouettes (Flouser Sack Suit comment notwithstanding) but that only works in air conditioning.








If Ivy And Covid Had A Baby

Thanks again to the amazing Tom for sending me an article from Bloomberg by Max Berlinger this week about what is happening, somewhat disturbingly, to custom clothes.  The gist of the article is (it’s a paywall and we don’t link paywalls anymore) is that… A 2022 forecast from personal-styling service Stitch Fix found that half


Poison Ivy, The Madras And Clearing Up Some New England Confusion

There are things that New Englanders are very specific about, and New York not being in New England is amongst them.  They’d be correct.  New England was first defined by John Smith in 1616, but I think he meant New England as in, “Everything I can see from here is New England.”  And before you


Ivy Notes S1 E14

P.J. O’Rourke and I were not friends other than online, but I was going back over my emails when it dawned on me that P.J. O’Rourke is the Father of Degage. Exhibit A Exhibit B   Exhibit C I am loving Bruce Boyer’s work on music, and the playlists are doing well.   I did see


Question Marc

Editor’s Note:  Our first round of questions for Marc Chevalier, whose Ivy History cred stands up with anyone’s.  As always, you can email me questions or just put them in the comments.   And that last question, we already voted, the quarter zip is in.  🙂 Q:  Are there other types of collars, other than the


Ivy Notes S1 E12 – Chipp Off The Old Block

Alright man, look.  In various professional capacities over the years, I have had to write funny for money.  My brief to my divorce attorney was both hilarious and ultimately economical.   I have punched up scripts (a godawful project I couldn’t finish, it was written by an actor, a REAL actor, who should REALLY act.  He


The Victor Besnard WOCBD Review

Editor’s Note: There were some questions about sleeve length and measurement here. For a guide on how to measure shirts and convert between European and American measuring, Mr. Bresnard published this piece. From his email response to me this morning: “I have noticed that Americans measure sleeves differently than Europeans. We measure from the top


J. Press Spring 2022 Book & Einstein’s Block Theory

“The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”  – Albert Einstein Einstein and J. Press are both… pretty Ivy.  In his theory of General Relativity Einstein submits that there really is no past, present and future.   J. Press’s Spring Book is an exhibit thereof.   You can check it out here.


Ivy Notes S1-E6

Uniqlo has a navy blazer out that was brought to my attention from Jakob in an email.  You can check it out here.  Jakob wrote: To my admittedly novice eye for Ivy, it looks like this checks most of the boxes for the ideal Navy Blazer: sack-cut, undarted, swell stitching, patch pockets, and even brass


Presidential Valets

My favorite story about presidential valets (grammar note before you get your blood pressure up, “presidential” is only capitalized when it is part of a formal title, like the name of an event, like Presidential Inauguration – it is not a proper noun unto itself so in this usage, small p – which reminds me,


P.J. O’Rourke – An Ivy Icon

“Seriousness is stupidity sent to college.” – P.J. O’Rourke Out my window this morning are trees shedding snow.  In Bedford we are three inches deep but it is already starting to warm.  Today will be in the mid 40’s.  The trees will shake the snow the way a dog shakes the rain. You get to