This morning I received some spring shopping email blasts. One suggesting that if I buy shorts spring will come sooner I found a little crass. It’s January 15. That’s just a few weeks since Christmas, when we were bombarded by calls to spend, not to mention all the hoopla over the end-of-year sales. But …
Why are they called loafers? Obviously because they’re for loafing. It’s not exactly a shoe that screams ruthless ambition, is it? No wonder they were embraced so wholeheartedly by college students in the days before meritocracy. This is a shoe for guys so lazy they can’t be bothered to tie laces. The cartoon was recently …
Onward Kashiyama, owner of the J. Press brand, has informed Ivy-Style.com that it has been unable to find a new Manhattan location for the store currently located at Madison Avenue and 47th Street, and will be closing New York retail operations on January 18. J. Press will be forced to lay off the sales staff, …
We segue from Charleston’s Ben Silver to another trad outpost far from the Northeast, this time San Francisco’s Cable Car Clothiers. Founded in 1939, the store has managed to survive the city’s transition from traditional stronghold (in such neighborhoods as Nob Hill and Pacific Heights), to beatnik and hippie haven, and finally dot-com hotbed. It’s …
Happy 2014 from Ivy Style, and let’s get back to business and ring in the new year with a laugh. You may have heard that Esquire has launched a TV network, and from what a colleague tells me who’s already been in a pitch session, they’re not exactly looking for highbrow content. In this clip, …
If the perennially bow-tie-clad Richard Press were ever to decorate a Christmas tree, it would probably come out looking like this. Special thanks to R. Hanauer, whose actual Christmas image this is. They operate bowties.com, where you can find all your menswear-themed ornament needs. — CC
The walls are slated to come tumbling down on the J. Press building in New Haven at 262 York Street. The structurally unsound building is scheduled to be razed next month. The J. Press story began the turn of the century, serendipitously around the corner from the current J. Press quarters, on College Street. JC …
Ed Heald (Dartmouth ’68) may have had to sweat through soccer tryouts to earn the famous sweater that bore the date of his graduation and appears twice in the pages of “Take Ivy,” but now, thanks to a team of entrepreneurial young Ivy Leaguers, a vintage-inspired collegiate sweater can be had with only the exertion …
Of the infinite cultural things that could stand as shorthand for the victory of the lowest-common-denominator across middle-class American culture, one of my favorites is the attire worn for the “Jeopardy!” college tournament. Whether from the most elite and expensive college or a big state school (yes, I’m a living example that sometimes smart guys, …
Last night was annual Brooks Brothers holiday party, where Wynton Marsalis filled 346 Madison with jazz, creating the soft shoulders and hard bop combination that was, as I often point out, the inspiration for this website. I took photos of a number of partygoers, but they all pale in comparison to this shot of a …
This week a new start-up called The Hardy North debuted. Founded by three Cornell grads, the brand offers American-made sweaters in school colors and with the year of the institution’s founding on the back. Says a spokesperson: All the products are made of 100% superfine merino wool that is sourced, sheared, spun, organically dyed, and …
Recently a portion of the MFIT’s “Ivy Style” exhibit was brought to Japan for display at Tokyo’s Isetan department store. Last week museum deputy director Patricia Mears posted a write-up on her trip to Japan to oversee the installation. Here are some highlights: Although the run was only a week long, the buzz surrounding the …
Isn’t there some miracle diet that promises to burn fat while you sleep, so you can ostensibly wake up weighing less than when you went to sleep, without having to do anything except dream about donuts? Now there’s another way to wake up slim. This morning J. Crew sent an email touting slim-fit lounge pants …
Paul Winston has had to clone himself in order to keep up with the sudden demand for his value-priced neckties. Look closely in the photo above and you can see there are three of him taking phone orders. Earlier this week Paul Winston finally got around to putting up an ecommerce site for his wonderful …
Those who can’t get enough of brushed Shetlands should thank Derek at Die, Workwear! who just tweeted about some Scottish-made ones from Norse Projects, a brand definitely under our radar. The specs (especially the fully fashioned sleeve) are compelling: Made in limited numbers for Norse – Regular fit made from 100% Virgin lambswool – Unique …
Brooks Brothers CEO Claudio Del Vecchio talks to Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart” show about the brand’s current business strategy, including the upcoming steakhouse, which he says was inspired by his grandmother’s kitchen. The hosts’ questions are on point, and include asking Del Vecchio if the more fashionable clothing risks alienating “the traditional East Coast customer.” …
Twenty-seven months and 20,000 balls after hitting my first, I finally made a swing on the third floor of Brooks Brothers (in my socks, no less) that the instructor said “could be on television.” Though it happened about six weeks ago, I just now got the video clip, from which these screenshots were taken. Since …
Today on Ivy Style’s Facebook page (which you should follow, by the way, for yet another vehicle for trad camaraderie and debate) a member posted a link to a recently uploaded slideshow of William F. Buckley. Included is the above shot of the family playing football on Thanksgiving weekend in 1971. I thought this one …
You have no idea how tempted I was to create a gift guide consisting entirely of black “Ivy chic” items. But seriously, it should come as no surprise that advertising support is what has enabled me to devote the time necessary to inform and entertain you as we approach our 900th post. So the following …