This weekend a minor kerfuffle erupted on Twitter. Although completely common in the apparel industry, the David and Goliath story hit close to home for those with preppy tastes and sensibilities, who also tend to be the same people who lament the decline in domestic manufacturing and steep rise in offshore production. Newport-based Kiel James …
March Madras carries on, but now it’s back to madness — mad as in “Mad Men,” which returns to TV this Sunday night after a 17-month hiatus. The setting is now 1965, so the clock is ticking in the closets of these Ivy-clad* Madison Avenue guys. Pictured above is a still from the new season …
If you can’t get enough of our “Golden Years” columnist Richard Press, former president of J. Press and grandson of Jacobi, then you’re in luck. A little coaxing was all it took for him to start tweeting and the septuagenarian says he’s already addicted. Richard will be sharing terse anecdotes, words of wisdom, style tips, …
This is Ivy Style’s 1,000th post x .50. In honor of the occasion, I bribed longtime friend and colleague Michael Mattis, who’s been at my side since I first started blogging on style in 2004, to write some moderately kind words. This was the best he could do. — CC I must confess I have …
March Madras continues with this updated post with two more sartorial jump balls. In the first, J. Press squares off against Gant. Wearing an almost blinding uniform, J. Press offers a traditional madras sportcoat priced at $495. But shouldn’t this guy have graduated by now? In contrast to Press’ perennial classic, Gant offers classic-with-a-twist. Its …
Perhaps this post should be called “Coming Repulsions,” either because you believe that tampering with the 1978 classic — which is set at a college fraternity house in 1962 — is sacrilege, or, like me, you were eight years old when it came out and when you saw it later you didn’t think it was …
“I want a funky multicultural world with everyone in no socks and Weejuns grooving along to Jimmy McGriff. It’s a new hippydom based on proper shoulder line, half an inch of oxford cloth at the cuff and real selvedge 501s.” — Toffeeman Image by Alex Grant.
Though Brooks Brothers is the definitive Ivy League clothier and Princeton arguably the most stylish campus back in the day (which gets Charlie Davidson’s vote? Yale — and Charlie works in Harvard Square), the company has never operated a store in Princeton — until now. Brooks has just signed a lease in Palmer Square and …
This edition of Ivy Trendwatch is focused on the United Kingdom, where there are several news items worth mentioning. First off is the February issue of Esquire UK, which carries this article on “Hollywood and the Ivy Look” (the article evidently has an accompanying fashion shoot; if someone can scan and send to us it …
Yesterday I rode up to the sixth floor at 346 Madison Avenue for a preview of Brooks’ next season. The spokesmen admitted the company hasn’t been playing up their heritage quite as well as it could, and the fall 2012 collection full of clever self-referencing.
The Ivy Trendwatch and prep-for-the-masses have been hit with a massive setback as JC Penney has finally pulled the plug on its disastrous budget-prep collection American Living, created in partnership with Ralph Lauren. When the collection launched in 2008, I was living in Los Angeles and went to the department store to have a look. …
J. Press (or “J. Squeeze,” for old-school guys in-the-know) is finally getting into the heritage and slim-fit game with its new 110th anniversary collection. Here’s the skinny: Svelte guys will now be able to get a pocket-flap oxford in a more streamlined cut. How streamlined? I asked J. Press’ general manager for specs, but he’s …
Last weekend I met up with Ivy Style contributors Zachary DeLuca and Jason Marshall for two of the smaller menswear trade shows. The highlight was a long session with Crittenden Rawlings, a longtime business associate of my girlfriend’s. “Critt,” as he’s known by friends and colleagues, is a menswear industry veteran who came out of …
Time fo a Tradsville news roundup. First up is Rugby, which currently has buckle-back chinos on sale for forty bucks. We’ve previously written about these several times (most recently in Christopher Sharp’s piece on the h.i.s. brand, which has been largely credited with the buckle trend circa 1955), and I’ll admit to an inexplicable hankering …
Hollywood’s status as an epicenter of impeccable sartorial taste is long gone, but there was at least one guest at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards who gave a nod to the well tailored days of yore. That man was talent agent Ben Press, son of former J. Press president and Ivy Style columnist Richard Press. Company …
This weekend I received an email from Brooks Brothers with a surprisingly terse subject line. No long-winded winter sale announcements, such as “plus free shipping on orders over $200.” This one simply said “Be Radical.” Was Brooks introducing a line of X-Games-inspired athleticwear? I opened the message and found that the mailer was a plug …
On Thursday evening writer-director Whit Stillman, auteur of the Preppydämmerung film “Metropolitan,” will host a screening at “online movie theater” Constellation.tv. Through online chat the fillmmaker will answer viewer questions and will also present the trailer from his upcoming movie “Damsels In Distress.” The viewing costs $3.99 and the Wall Street Journal has this handy …
The Daily Mail recently reported on Franklin & Marshall — no, not the liberal arts college founded in Lancaster, PA in 1787, the Italian fashion brand. Seems a couple of designers found an old college t-shirt, and, without bothering to research its origins, decided it would make a cool name for a logo-driven sportswear brand. …
Last night Brooks Brothers held its annual Christmas party, which benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, at its Madison Avenue flagship. My third year in attendance (but my first one in brown flannels), the event seemed larger than usual and there was revelry on every floor. I took a few snapshots of guys who …