Thank you so much for your kind notes.

I am really grateful for the notes and thoughts and prayers.  The internet can be an icky place.  This, at least, isn’t. In the rote, the procedural, you do not witness a lot of love. It tampers, I think, our celebration. You cannot dance to a song you are not hearing. I am in the


Ivy Notes S2 E3

This is really part two from The Amazing Tom’s portfolio. Where do you stand on the buttoned up shirt with no tie thing?  I did it in the 90’s when James Taylor was doing it, I see it making a comeback.  However…   Allen Edmonds is collaborating with Barbour.   The result is what looks like


Ivy Notes S2 E2

Editor’s Note:  The feature image will make sense if you read all the way down to the bottom.  But NO, that is most certainly not my house.  It is, however, Lauren’s flagship store in Paris.   The Amazing Tom has been prolific. Here: First, GQ lists the 17 best rugby shirts for men here. I


J. Press & Fox Flannel

Earlier this week J. Press hosted two events that I was unable to attend, but Laura Arnold took some great photos for me.  The events were in DC and NY, and featured the made to measure work that J. Press is doing with Fox Flannel.   Let’s start with Fox Flannel.     In looking through


アイビースタイル

If you are newer here, and don’t know about Kazuo Hozumi, go here first, then here, then here. (no paywall – everybody feel better?) Illustrated Ivy is out in English. You can buy it here. Or here.   It is called an illustrated map because it unfolds like one, and without spoilers the design is very


If Red Sneakers Are Ivy Does It Matter What I Wear With A Suit?

You may remember my friend Kevin Danyi, who was profiled on the site a few years ago.  Over on the Facebook Group, he posed a question.   Shoe Color, Suits, and Ties Although in this day and age, showing up in something other than flip-flops sets one above the crowd, I thought I’d pose this


A Question About September.

The average temperature at Yale in September of 1955 was 72.5.  I know that from digging it up here.   You have to tread lightly on the question of if it is getting warmer over time, but I will say that here in Bedford yesterday it was 82 and today it is supposed to get to


Red Sneakers Are Ivy

Conformity to such rules and social norms is driven by a desire to gain social acceptance and status (see Cialdini and Goldstein 2004) and avoid negative sanctions such as social disapproval, ridicule, and exclusion (Kruglanski and Webster 1991; Levine 1989; Miller and Anderson 1979; Schachter 1951). In the present research, we propose that under certain


Ivy Notes S2 E1

The Amazing Tom turned me on to this article at Forbes. It is on what to wear to an interview, which came up in the comments on another post the other day.   One of the things that drives me crazy is when my local news station says to dress warmly on cold days and to


How Quality Happens – The Lawrence Trouser Standard

When last we talked about the Lawrence Trouser company, we were talking about the human side – a company of artisan sewers who came to this country with a bird’s eye appreciation of the opportunity and steel determination to look back at country they left from the vantage point of becoming the best at what




The Future Of The Past

I have been spending some time with J. Crew lately, following the new Creative Director Brendon Babenzian, who is taking his turn at reviving a brand with updated Ivy.   I note that the companies who never stepped off Ivy in the first place also never needed to revive anything with updated anything.  Still, Babenzian seems


Woody Springsteen

  James sent me this.  It is Springsteen.  It is not Woody Allen.  You can kinda see his earring, that’ll be our differentiator.  The Boss wears Ivy with an earring.


The WOCBD Starter Kit

(While I marvel at some people’s need to avoid civility whilst expressing a different opinion, let’s try the paywall links, marked as such, and if it works then great – many thanks to those who were able to be civil during this process.  One of the things that I wanted to do with this site


Ivy Notes S1 Last One Of The Season For Real This Time

Sorry, but everyone has been sending in such good stuff, and I don’t want it to get stale. First, a word about linking.   I think the smartest policy is this, but as with Ad Men, I could be wrong.  We don’t link to paywalls because if I were the reader and I followed a link


An Example Of How To Do… Just About Everything.

If you want Ivy bona fides, this is all you need to know.  I walked into the sales offices of St John Bay Rum Company in Ridgefield CT a few minutes early, and asked Rhys Moore for a picture.   He swung around and grabbed a tie, and proceeded to tie it PERFECTLY while holding


Kazuo Hozumi’s Illustrated Ivy… In English

You can learn all about Mr. Hozumi’s extensive career illustrating the elements of Ivy Style here.  In September Mr. Hozumi’s Illustrated Ivy will be released.  From the publisher – Since the 1960s, Kazuo Hozumi has documented the minutiae of Ivy League-style clothing. His  cheerful characters are shown wearing button down shirts, buckle-back chinos, natural shoulder 


Ivy Notes, S1 – Last One Of The Year UPDATED

Yes, there has been a slight downtick in August.  Not of readership, oddly enough, but of verbiage.  I was taking a minute.  But one more week, then we go back to at least four posts a week.  With actual words.  More than 78 of them. Mitchell sent me a few good things to take a