Buckle-Back Flannels and Cordovan Loafers, 1954
This advertisement depicts the classic fall combo of gray flannels and penny loafers, with the added details of cordovan leather and buckle on the back. The ad ran in Gentry magazine in 1954.
Brooks To Outfit Both Sides In Civil War II
As American democracy comes to a close and citizens prepare to act out the pantomime of “voting” with a choice between Communism on the one side and Fascism on the other, historic American menswear brand Brooks Brothers is ensuring that no matter what the outcome it will end up on the right side of history. …
The Last Man On Earth Wears Ivy Style
Can the sack suit surivive? Well in one cinematic tale — which was made during the Ivy heyday — it’s the last garment mankind will wear in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. It wouldn’t be Halloween without a shot of Vincent Price, and below you’ll find the full version of his 1964 movie “The …
On Professorial Style
Several years ago I called my brother for his advice about which ties would work best with different outfits. I was a graduate student preparing for one of my first academic conferences and wanted to make a good impression on the scholars I would meet. My brother, a lawyer, patiently answered several of my questions …
The Original Desert Boot
Recently I played golf for the first time in Newport, and having lost my golf shoes in the move from NYC, played in desert boots. A good enough excuse to revisit this post we did back in 2011 honoring the death of the death of Nathan Clark, great-grandson of the founder of English shoe company …
The Enigmatic Artist Known As gnosssh
gnosssh is an enigma. The world of preppy-style artists on Instagram isn’t huge, so it wasn’t long after I started exploring that area that @gnosssh made its way into my recommended accounts to follow. However, the account lists no name, bio or website, follows zero other accounts, and shares no images of who might be …
Andy Warhol In Brooks — And Chrome
Around the corner from me at the Newport Art Museum, there’s a new Andy Warhol exhibit that opened last month. It’s a good enough excuse to revisit this post from nearly a decade ago when a chrome statue of the artist was revealed in New York. The Times provided the following quote about Warhol’s conventional …
Do-It-Yourself Ivy, 1965
Back in the heyday, if you couldn’t afford to shop at the right stores and mom was handy with a needle and thread, you could get your very own homemade Ivy League jacket for a fraction of the cost, as these images from a 1965 McCall’s pattern book show. It’s possible the in-crowd might not even …
Introducing New Series The Trad Life
On the first of this month, founder Christian Chensvold announced the completion of 12 years of running Ivy Style and his “retirement,” or so he’d like to think, from the natural-shouldered mafia of Tradsville. His announcement led to new alignments and plans for the next 12 years of Ivy Style, and today we are pleased …
Golden Years: From Richard P.’s Ivy Bookshelf
“Your wedding day will be the second happiest day after you beat Yale,” Coach told the team in the locker room at Harvard Stadium before The Game. John Phillips’ novel “The Second Happiest Day” may not be great literature, but if you want to experience the heyday of Ivy at Harvard, go find this book. …
The Button-Down Mind Set
GQ’s Style Guy advice column once had the following curious exchange apropos of our collar of choice. A reader asked columnist Glenn O’Brien the following: I heard somebody refer to a button-down-collar oxford shirt as “middle-management” the other day. I always thought the oxford was the great American shirt. Have I been sending the wrong …
Style Over Substance: The Decline Of Preppy Values
In 2012, Susan Cheever, the daughter of legendary WASPdom chronicler John Cheever and a celebrated author in her own right, wrote a piece for Newsweek entitled “Gin Without The Tonic.” The URL of the digital version explains the theme a little less cryptically: https://www.newsweek.com/how-modern-preppies-got-style-forgot-values-64473 The theme of Cheever’s essay — that the uber-rich of today are …
Sartorial Confessions Of An English Professor
I like to teach the essays that the poet Donald Hall wrote in his eighties, beautiful, moving and often funny reflections on literature, aging, and mortality. Before leaving academia, Hall worked as an English professor at the University of Michigan. One summer he retrieved his mail at the department, dressed (as he recounts) in “plastic …
News Roundup: End Of An Era, And The Beginning Of A New One
Big development here at Ivy-Style.com to announce soon. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of the latest news from Tradsville. Above is a reader snapshot of the tragedy of 346 Madison Avenue. Black was never a trad color, except for funerals. It’s impossible not to feels one’s metaphoric sack suit turn from navy to …
Oh What a Knight: Hardwick Ads Of The ’60s
“Oh what a night,” goes the Four Seasons tune, “late December back in ’63….” Well about that time, Tennessee-based Hardwick was selling its natural-shouldered clothing to the masses in a series of chivalrous print ads. According to this one, your “natural shouldered presence” will earn approval from a “damsel”: Hardwick was in the clothing business, but they …
Golden Years: Ivy, Preppy, Japan And The MFIT
We recently posted about the differences between Ivy and preppy, which remains a perennial topic. So much so that I’m speaking to an author later this week about this very topic. Here are Richard Press’ views from 2012. No idea whether his thoughts have changed, but this post is worth revisiting for this photo alone. …
My ’50s Childhood
This week for reasons unknown, though perhaps related to a fine bottle of California Zinfandel, I sat down and watched the movie “Grease.” The movie was released in 1978 when I was eight years old, and as my sister and I were both in dancing class, my parents took us to this clever addition to the …
Olympics, You Know: Walk Don’t Run, 1966
This year the Olympic games were to be held in Tokyo, but they’re on hold until next year due to the pandemic. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the last time the Games were held in Japan, which produced a movie germane to the topic of Ivy League Style. “It’s the Olympics, you …
The Corona Closet
Last week, after a Zoom call for work, I noticed that my closet door was ajar. This is in my home office where I keep my casual clothes, whereas my suits and dress shirts are in the closet adjacent to our bedroom. Usually, the casual closet is accessed only on weekends, but during Covid, I …