Sinatra, Matthau and some West Coast Ivy

  EDITOR’S NOTE:  On the Facebook Group we are exclusively clothes oriented, but we also find the history fascinating.  If you don’t know about WaterhollowTweed, it is a very small, eclectic online shop that offers a few Ivy Grail finds a week at very reasonable prices. The purveyor, James Taylor (every time he comments on



Ok, we were right. Now what?

  The Wall Street Journal has piled on and it is safe to say now that we can stop posting articles about the comeback of “formal style” and just be grateful that the pendulum swung our way.  Here’s their article, if you care to read it. Articles by yours truly and others to the contrary,


Chensvold & Boyer & The Tie

  Here’s the article in the October issue of The Rake. We have gone from Chensvold’s literary death sentence of the necktie to Boyer’s plea for clemency to a user’s manual.  What are we to make of this? I reviewed Christian Chensvold’s book here, and in reflecting now on that review I realize that the


Member Profile – Maura McMahon On Distributing Lifestyle

In Hyde Park, NY, of all places, on the banks of the Hudson River, one of the most prestigious private universities in the country offers up one of the most aggressive and well-regarded educations available, the offspring of which is masters of their majors.  Celebrity masters and non-celebrity masters alike, industry seeks graduates of this


Evolving Tradition.

When I got the gig, I set out to meet the existing advertisers.  Had coffee with some, went to the offices of others, the stores of even others.  Started with a few emails, then phone calls, you know the drill. Ivy has the potential to be a stereotype.  The boss’s son taking over the company


The Proper Retail Approach – Be A Helpful Example.

I like pens and I go into town (that is what you call it when you take the train to Manhattan from where I am) about twice a week.   There is a non-Staples pen store a few blocks outside Grand Central, I had a few dollars in my pocket from the last Evening With James



The Best Dressed News Anchor Isn’t A News Anchor.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Please, for the love of god.  This is a piece about Ivy dressed news anchors, or the lack thereof.  I get you don’t like one side or the other.  We are talking clothes here.  Get it? – JB Walter Cronkite is still America’s most influential news anchor according to the polling done by


Two Guys Who Write About Ivy Walk Into A Bar

Well well well.  It does seem that our sails are catching some wind, yes?  The flurry of Prep Is Coming Back (damn with the Prep thing but we can get to that too) articles that line up with our jam is gratifying.  I could review one a day, but this one is particularly good and


Flusser on Lauren

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Nathaniel Means was kind enough to offer up this review of Alan Flusser’s book on Ralph Lauren.  It’s a thought and reaction-provoking review, and if you haven’t read through the book, you should.  I revisited the book itself in preparation for this article, and here is what I was left with.  First, it


A Primer.

Editor’s Note:  ALL of the illustrations in this article were done by the author, ZG Burnett.  – JB By and large, the Ivy closet was the first gender-neutral safe space. Since the founding of the Seven Sisters, students were snapping up their brothers’ and boyfriends’ clothes to wear in the secluded comfort of the quad.



Whisky Means “Water Of Life”

There are more than one kind of whisky, but then there isn’t.  Scotch Whisky is Whisky.  There is Irish Whiskey if one cannot get one’s hands on Scotch Whisky.   Scotch Whisky is made, or given to us by the Gods, I dunno, from malted barley.  Irish Whiskey is a blend, made from malted and unmalted


In 1868 sneakers were called Felonies.

Editor’s Note:  Old School sent me a collection of essays from old Land’s End catalogs… and they are fantastic.  We’ll feature some of them – there’s an essay on ironing your own shirt (the male author says, “You may call me a pantywaist but…”) (I have to tell you, I had no idea pantywaist was


WASPS by Michael Knox Beran

Book reviews are so predictable.  They start in one of two ways – either with the author’s take on the subject and then a segue into the book (if you want my take on the subject read WASPS by John Burton – KIDDING there is no book like that) or with a quote from the



From the loins of the Ivy League…

Recently, JB posted an Ivy Style Playlist on Spotify, and there was a discussion in the Ivy Style community about music tangentially related to the Ivy League. Be it that the artist attended an Ivy, dressed Ivy, or had some sort of connection to Ivy. If we’re judging by those standards, Vampire Weekend is gold-caliber.