The Ivy trend has officially reached the cash-grab phase: Abercrombie & Fitch — which once sold tweed sportcoats and other authentic Ivy-style items — has released a new collection for teenyboppers entitled “Elements of Ivy.” The web copy reads: “Distinguished from the rest and exceptional by every standard, Elements of Ivy is a collection of …
Digital style omnivore Derek Guy recently spotted a tumblr loosely entitled Rich White People, which consists of a potpourri of vintage photos, contemporary advertising images, movie stills, and snapshots of British royals. It’s all very pleasant on the eyes, and most germane to tradly types are the various vintage Ralph Lauren ads scattered pell-mell among …
Most trads feel more comfortable in pink than they do in black, the verboten hue. But we’re a small portion of the population. For many guys, a pink shirt is something that requires a great deal of deliberation. I recently gave my father a pink shirt; he’s in his sixties and had never worn one. …
This spring/summer season I noticed a plethora of back buttons on the collars of sport shirts at 346 Madison Avenue. It’s one of those small details from the Ivy heyday that it’s easy to laugh off as a trivial furbelow, until you see how immediately noticeable it is. Like everything in menswear, the third collar …
Yesterday The Sartorialist ran a photo of “Take Ivy” author Shiro Itoh and announced the publication next month of “Take 8 Ivy,” which was touted as a sequel to the seminal Japanese book chronicling American collegiate style. I was able to flip through “Take 8 Ivy” here in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. Basically …
A few days ago someone who goes by the sobriquet “Andover Hotchkiss” posted the above image on Ivy Style’s Facebook page. It’s an ad for a book entitled “Prep 101: The Battle of Status and Social Rank,” by Dr. Charles Walker, Jr. and Cedric S. King that is supposedly due out next month. The tome …
They say you don’t get a proper spring in New York, and that certainly seemed the case this year. A stubborn winter was followed by an interlude of gray skies, wind and rain with just a handful of sunny mild days, and now we’re projecting 91 for Memorial Day. So while it’s madras and seersucker …
For the last couple of years, one of the recurring refrains on the trad forums and blogs has been an impatient wish for the Preppy/Ivy/Trad/Americana (PITA) trend to go away so that stubborn fuddy-duddies can go back to being behind the times. Rejoice, gentlemen, for that day is here: Mark McNairy, arguably the leading guru …
Many guys are accustomed to going sockless in warm weather; some even being daredevils and dressing with their bare ankles exposed to frigid temperatures. Style guides, GQ especially, often endorse this particular whim. But even with the continuing trend for bare ankles, there still remains proper, breathable hosiery to cover up with and show some …
Put This On‘s latest video profiles two opposing clothing brands: J. Press, the epitome of tradition, and Thom Browne, the antithesis of it (at least on the surface). The Press segment includes an interview with Jay Walter, who spent 25 years at Brooks Brothers before heading up the made-to-measure department at the New York J. …
Earlier this week Gilt Groupe sponsored an “Ivy Style” flash sale with contemporary fashion pieces about as closely related to the Ivy League Look as my alma mater is to the Ancient Eight. Now rival company Mr. Porter presents an exclusive three-button suit with patch pockets, tapered trousers and “quirky off-centre [sic] single vent.” The …
New in the Brooks Brothers summer catalog are these Wayfarer sunglasses made in collaboration with Ray-Ban. Purists can take heart noting that the novelty styling is on the inside, not the outside. — CC
The grounds of the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum in Paris, is an unlikely place to find a display of preppy clothing and accessories. But that’s where Tommy Hilfiger recently chose to set up shop for Prep World, a new collection in collaboration with “Preppy Handbook” author Lisa Birnbach. Or rather it’s where he …
Lands’ End has released a new pant called the Spring Chino that features double-flap pockets in the rear. It’s a detail I wrote about previously, having spied them in the 1984 prepsloitation flick “Making the Grade”: Curious about the origins of double flaps and how they might fit in the Preppy/Ivy/Trad/Americana pantheon, I asked around. …
The latest issue of Menswear — the consumer magazine put out by trade pub WWD Men’s — features a profile on Brooks Brothers CEO Claudio Del Vecchio, shepherd of the Golden Fleece empire, which will pass $1 billion in sales this year. Fairchild Publications has kindly ungated the story for Ivy Style readers. Old-school types …
The sophistication and sticker shock you’ve come to expect from Ralph Lauren. Gorgeous styling, punitive tariff. Madras is an inexpensive fabric. So is seersucker. Oh look, there’s a $1,200 seersucker jacket too. They used to say only a rich man can afford to wear cheap summertime fabrics. Indeed. Here’s RL’s mid-level madras jacket at $500, …
Over the past few months several menswear colleagues have mentioned that fashion designer Jeffrey Banks, who started his career at Ralph Lauren, was writing a preppy book. Then a couple weeks ago, as I exited the J. Press warehouse sale, I received a phone call from Mr. Banks, who was trying to track down the …
If you’ve enjoyed the history of J. Press and insight on the Ivy League Look from our interview with Richard Press this week, rest assured there’ll be more to come. Richard has offered to share more anecdotes and observations in occasional guest posts for Ivy Style. Stay tuned. He is pictured at a party at …
I started high school in suburban California riding a skateboard and running a music fanzine for which I scored an interview with Metallica, back when Metallica was still accessible to 15-year-olds with fanzines. But change comes rapidly in those years, and by my senior year I was wearing sportcoats to school and listening to classic …