Happy Birthday Ralph Lauren
Today is the 75th birthday of Ralph Lauren, menswear’s great editor, as Bruce Boyer likes to call him. In his honor, here’s a tight little edit of some of his looks and ventures over the years. — CC
Immodesty Blaze: On Blazers, Rowing, And Well Adjusted Girls
Don’t be fooled by the full-page color photos by FE Castleberry, the write-ups in the likes of Vanity Fair ,and the big launch party at the new Polo flagship. “Rowing Blazers” is a serious book and a thoughtful appreciation of a trad staple, such as the “Henley” blazer by Ben Silver at left. Author Jack …
Portrait Of A Gentleman In The Age of iPhones
Yesterday I popped into Paul Winston‘s place and immediately noticed something different. Paul was wearing a jacket. In all the times I’ve visited him, it’s either been balmy weather or the heater’s been cranked up. But yesterday was cool and crisp outside with no climate-controlling inside, and Paul confessed to feeling a bit chilly. I …
Typecast: John Kerr, Born To Play Ivy Prepsters
Every so often I get these little obsessions. The athletic ones drag out for years, and things like the taste for late 19th-century French chamber music are lifelong. But every so often something cultural piques my interest, and I’ll spend a month or so furiously reading books and watching movies. I think last year’s was …
Knit Picking: The Brooks Brothers Dot-Knit Tie
In the previous post, the discussion broached the subject of knit ties. Fittingly, I had a post ready for that. Above is a new tie at Brooks Brothers which I spied in the store about a week ago. I plan to be wearing it incessantly throughout the season. Black flecked with blue (there are other …
Party Pooper
Chris Hogan of Off The Cuff has just put up an all-you-can eat photo gallery from the “Rowing Blazers” party at the new Polo store. Spot the guy not in the spirit of things. I used to have a Ralph Lauren rowing blazer I’d wear to Gatsby parties back in California, but chose to instead …
Ghosts Of Collegians Past: The Fine & Dandy Shop Collection
Last Friday I had the pleasure of sitting next to man-of-the-moment Jack Carlson (author of “Rowing Blazers” and fresh off his packed party at Polo) at the National Arts Club. We were watching slideshow presentations on preppy and Seven Sisters style from Jeffrey Banks and Rebecca Tuite. Meanwhile, unassuming in a corner of the hall, …
The Blair Stitch Project
The first day of fall corresponded with the first Christmas pitch to hit my inbox. It was from the direct-to-consumer needlepoint accessory purveyor Tucker Blair. Their soft-sell advertisement announced that custom monogramed items need to be order by Tuesday, September 30th, for guaranteed holiday delivery. For those who like to see how things are made, …
Specs In The City
I brought my camera to the “Rowing Blazers” party last night at the new Polo flagship on Fifth Avenue, but the event was so packed taking pictures was too much trouble. That is until a certain bespectacled gentleman passed by, none other than Larry from The Andover Shop, who was down from Cambridge and looking …
Hit The Lode, Jack: The Khaki Kickstarter Campaign
Longtime Ivy Style supporter Jack Donnelly was founded by a young entrepeneur with the crazy dream of making khakis in America. “It’s something I believe in and have sunk my entire life into for the last five years,” says founder Gregg Donnelly. Now he’s heading into stage two of his endeavor with a Kickstarter …
A Trad Among The Radicals
I spent a summer at Cal doing a French intensive. It’s the kind of crash-course where you walk in on the first day and don’t hear a word of English eight hours a day for the next 10 weeks (that’s right, they teach you French in French). By the end of the summer you can …
First To Arrive, Or Last To Leave?
At a party you never want to be the first to arrive nor the last to leave, though someone inevitably must be. Dorm life (which is kind of like an endless party) is no different. This young chap is either an eager beaver at the start of the year, or a sentimental sap waxing contemplative …
Post #1,000: The Ivy League Look Crossword Puzzle
A few weeks short of our sixth anniversary, Ivy-Style.com has reached blog post number 1,000. For your brain-teasing entertainment, we have created a test to see how well you’ve been paying attention for the past 999 posts. Click here for a larger file of the crossword above, drag it to your desktop, enlarge if needed, …
Sharpen Your Pencils
Sharpen your pencils. Or if you’re really bold, use a pen. And get a good night’s sleep. Or pull an all-nighter reading the previous 999 blog posts. You’ll also need access to a printer. Post number 1,000 goes live Monday morning. — CC & CS
James Brown III: LIFE Magazine’s Face Of Ivy, 1954
The name James M. Brown III may not be familiar to you, but every trad web surfer knows his face, the face of an undergraduate of 60 years ago. Brown is pictured above in a shot from LIFE Magazine’s 1954 article “The Ivy Look Heads Across US,” which was much seen when the LIFE archives …
Golden Years: Suiting Up Eli Frosh
Suiting up Eli frosh in the heyday was do or die for New Haven clothiers. Salesmen at J. Press were instructed by my dad Paul Press (front right) to memorize the Yale Freshman Blue Book. He quizzed them daily about dorm addresses, hometowns and secondary schools the book provided. Freshmen lived in seven ancient dormitories …
Important Message: Most Everyone Wears Natural Shoulder
We continue our back-to-school celebrations with another gallery of vintage advertisements from college papers. Most interesting are those from Harvey Ltd. (seen above and below), which catered to the Brown community. “There is a certain style of clothing,” reads the copy in one ad, “which distinguishes the Ivy Leaguer from all other college men.” And …
Back To School With Langrock
Starting today Ivy Style celebrates the back-to-school season. We’ll start over the weekend with vintage ads from college papers welcoming freshmen and telling them where to get correct clothes. And next week you’ll get entertaining reads on the heyday from all of us. — CC, CS & RVP
Trad Or Trim? The Shirt-Fit Reader Poll
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the declining demand for traditional-fit shirts at Brooks Brothers, I think we should take a sampling of the fit preference of Ivy Style readers. It occurred to me, though, that there is likely a correlation between fit preference, age and physique. Therefore, while this is hardly scientific, the …