Holy Ivy-Style

From Steve Getman, perhaps the greatest Ivy Style photo of all time. And from the MIGHTY Anthony Kalamut, a quick laugh:


A Q&A With Bill Thomas, Founder of PennBilt

Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Mitchell for this Q&A. PennBilt has been featured on the site, we welcome them now as an advertiser. Please click through and check out the next step in khakis, and some badass gloves. Recently, I called PennBilt customer service with a question about khakis never expecting to have Bill Thomas


Ivy Notes S3 E1

For those of you who got that message from J. Press that they have gone all digital, fear not. Leave them your address and a paper catalog will be sent. And DO leave them your address. Jacket and Khakis = Duck Head. Shoes = Sperry. Stay tuned for a great series of reviews of over


The Bill Stops Here

I don’t even need to introduce him or his work. The site is here. Bill. Bills Khaki’s. Now, on his own, free form. More in the next few days. But for now, welcome PennBilt to Ivy-Style.



West Coast Ivy Labor Day

FB Group member and #IvyGirl Colleen F. Montoya shared her Labor Day Pot Luck BBQ pictures, as hosted by herself and her husband. Thought you would want to see this. And THAT is West Coast Ivy. Top to bottom:– Earrings handmade by Charlotte Lynn Begay from Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico– RL Polo madras


The More Things Change…

The J. Press Pennant Label brought about a very interesting conversation about evolving Ivy. It’s kind of a moot point, it has already happened, but hopefully this helps the few remaining who are struggling. Ivy started as a fashion innovation. People weren’t wearing loafers with shorts and no socks in the 40’s. Ivy was one



Just Did An Ivy-Style Podcast With G. Bruce Boyer And…

In it, I asked him what he would do differently if he had my job. He said he really enjoyed “service series” where we compare and contrast different offerings in a category. Khakis, jackets, whatever. Boyer says jump, Burton asks how high? So, we are going to do it. I have categories laid out, but


346 Madison Avenue

Editor’s note: The following piece, written by Daniel D. Covell, touched me. When I started at NW Ayer in 1986, Brooks Brothers was aspirational. I would go in not to buy, because I couldn’t, but I would go in to know what to aim for. Not all nostalgia is backward thinking as we have been


A Man Of The Cloth

Editor’s Note: Next week esteemed author and Ivy-Style contributor Daniel D. Covell is publishing a piece here about the closed Brooks flagship store in Manhattan. In research, he spoke to his brother, Rev. Brian Covell, about the Reverend’s own experience working at Brooks. The following are his recollections, and lessons. In the late 1990s, while


Is There Such A Thing As Ivy-Appropriation?

So Mitchell was the first to send me this email he got from a company claiming they were Southern Ivy. I reached out to the company and they have not responded. Over the years I have met with resistance on introducing new items into the canon. We have come a long way on that. But



Back To The Things That Could Be Ivy But Aren’t YET Discussion.

Some great submissions, thought I would organize them here and see if there are any more. Mitchell wrote about the Fun Shirt, but I think that IS in the canon, yeah? Elder Prep suggested cargo pants. This is a great suggestion. Utilitarian. For years they were all I wore in the winter on jobs. And


The A Shirt – A Classic To Be Added To The Canon

Ivy Icon Paul Newman in the A Shirt. Classic Fella sells an A Shirt that I tried, then researched, and now submit for addition. First, the case for addition. Exhibit A Exhibit B Exhibit C – not as Ivy as some but the 2nd best Christmas movie of all time. So the A Shirt is


Meet A Classic Fella

It takes a set of brass —-s to make the decision that Stephen Powell made. (Don’t worry, I am calling back the brass —- joke in a minute.) Some background. Powell was raised in a small town in northern Mississippi by an optometrist father and an accountant mother. The view of the world from this


Poll Question

What’s an innovation (leather loafers without socks) or a product (turquoise inlay belt buckle) that is not part of the canon that you would vote yay on if presented for consideration?


Ivy Notes S2-E9

Received a note for my birthday last week that said that the site “relaxes me.” Was particularly happy about that. That’s a good space to have in an internet designed to make you mad. Been lively here the last couple of days. So I went on the American Bar Associations site to see what the


If P.J. O’Rourke Can Do It…

Max Brewer, who makes a brilliant point, also noted that this is ” USMC M1942 Frogspot Camo. If there is an Ivy Camo, this is it.…” Click here to revisit the Duck Head Camo Chino.