I won’t tell you where I was. Well, ok, I will. I was at a church, sitting on a committee in a library, waiting for the meeting to start. I saved the mail from the church for that meeting, and so I was opening it at a conference table. I pulled the knife my daughter …
A good impression can be the start of a changed life. 100’s of charities in the US provide second hand clothes for people starting over who have job interviews but no clothes to wear to them. Let’s help. Every year thousands of people try to start their lives over. I am not going to waste …
Here is my friend Heedan Chung on Ivy: “To me, Ivy means honoring continuity, sharing remembrance of the past, and facing an ever changing life with quiet authenticity. I don’t know of any other way to live. It transcends ancestral origin, race, ethnicity. But as far as the styling that is associated with Ivy, …
A few notes, make of them what you will. First, a word about the dialogue in the profile of Evan and about editing comments in general. I made a note in a comment on that profile, because the comment was stupid. Really stupid. There is a way to constructively criticize, and that lifts us all …
If you are a member of the Facebook Group (and if you are not, you should be) then you know Evan Everhart. If you have posted, you definitely know Evan. There are various iterations. The definitive Ivy Expert (we write each other a lot, and I tell him all the time he has forgotten more …
The Wall Street Journal has piled on and it is safe to say now that we can stop posting articles about the comeback of “formal style” and just be grateful that the pendulum swung our way. Here’s their article, if you care to read it. Articles by yours truly and others to the contrary, …
Here’s the article in the October issue of The Rake. We have gone from Chensvold’s literary death sentence of the necktie to Boyer’s plea for clemency to a user’s manual. What are we to make of this? I reviewed Christian Chensvold’s book here, and in reflecting now on that review I realize that the …
I have worn a Columbia ballcap to Columbia before with predictable results. I have now worn Duck Head khakis to a cigar room on Madison Avenue, and gotten unpredictable results. If you are from parts south you might be more familiar with Duck Head. The company has everything we love here, including starting as a …
Well well well. It does seem that our sails are catching some wind, yes? The flurry of Prep Is Coming Back (damn with the Prep thing but we can get to that too) articles that line up with our jam is gratifying. I could review one a day, but this one is particularly good and …
Book reviews are so predictable. They start in one of two ways – either with the author’s take on the subject and then a segue into the book (if you want my take on the subject read WASPS by John Burton – KIDDING there is no book like that) or with a quote from the …
I promise cigars. But here is a close up of the guy to the left of JFK. This photo is credited as being at Hyannis. Ok, I will get back to the central thesis. But no promises that we don’t circle back. A number of events coalesced. First, I have a huge day on Monday …
An ill-mannered impeccably Ivy-dressed person is… … … an ill-mannered person. I shouldn’t have to sell you on the idea of wearing Ivy rather than Ivy wearing you, and that the difference between Ivy as cosplay and Ivy as wardrobe isn’t the Ivy, it’s the person wearing it, right? I am a product of …
The problem with picking a strong lead image for an article is that since a picture is worth a thousand words one has to start in the middle of the piece to avoid repeating one’s self. Since not everybody is a visual learner, here: the death of the necktie has been predicted almost as …
My favorite Rodney Dangerfield joke has nothing to do with the rules about madras and white bucks and Labor Day, which the rest of this article will be full of. Here’s the joke. “I asked my wife, Honey, how come you never make any noise when you have an orgasm? And she says, how would …
I have received a lot of inquiries about the J Press catalog I reviewed and when to expect it in the mail. It went out at the end of last week. But please make sure you are signed up by going here: The J Press Website where a pop up happens and you can sign …
On the Ivy Style Facebook group, we started a playlist of songs that were Ivy for one reason or another. Click here for the playlist as currently constituted. The reasons varied. The artist dressed Ivy. It was jazz. The artist attended an Ivy school. It reminds one of an experience one had at an Ivy …
J. Press is Ivy’s North Star, and the catalog, which you can see if you click here, strikes the perfect balance between letting us know North is still North and inviting a new audience. We’ll take a quick tour here, but really, go look for yourself. J. Press has not only stayed true to its …
Ted Danson stood on the shoulders of giants, too. Before Sam, there was only one celebrity bartender, and his name was Jerry Thomas. If you want to understand the structural roots of the Old Fashioned, you start with this guy: I have had chapters in my life where I was a bon vivant, but they …
Is a home run. Why a home run? He rolled the cuffs, and no socks. Kidding. Kinda. Michael Bastian and Brooks Brothers gave the first look yesterday, less of a collection and more of a message, and it is a brilliant one. And I was the first one out of the gate screeching that tee …