As a child in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I was about as far from the Ivy League schools of the Northeast as one could get. The San Fernando Valley, where I spent my childhood in the 1970s, was very blue collar at its core. Most of my friends’ parents and neighbors worked in the …
If you’re already planning on a new overcoat for this season, you might want to slim down. That is, with the cut of the coat. That’s according to this vintage advertisement from Hickey Freeman, which advocates “comfort and natural lines” with “lapels narrow to emphasize smartness.” Finally, “shoulders are normal,” because abnormal shoulders are so …
While clearing out Ivy Style headquarters I came across an amusing clipping in a box of ephemera. It’s a letter to the editor that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1994, when I was 24 and was publishing anything I could, anywhere I could. It’s in response to a columnist who had written about …
Update: Well that wasn’t much of an absence. The camp moc is back already, and looks pretty much the same, which could be good or bad. It could have been reintroduced with great fanfare, made in the US, and triple the price. * * * After being alerted by an Ivy Style reader, …
It may be too soon to wear one, but in case this vintage ad inspires, you can start shopping now. The ad appeared in Cornell’s student newspaper in 1955, suggesting that even Ivy Leaguers wanted to make sure they got the authentic Ivy model.
Update: We have a winner, and it is Robert Staehling. Please email me, sir, at your convenience. * * * Back in April we ran an interview with Ken Yamamoto, the man behind Japan’s Boston Tailor. Yamamoto-san has kindly donated a superb piece of craftsmanship for one lucky winner who can wear a size 38 …
We interviewed Benton Nilson back in April. Now he takes on our regular series My Kinda Clothes, which is named for a delightful little phrase used by Charlie of The Andover Shop. If you’d like to write about your own personal style, use the email contact button above. * * * In my eyes, motif …
There’s still time to take advantage of the Labor Day sale at Oak Street Bootmakers, one of the sponsors that puts the wind in the Ivy Style sails. Oak Street makes its shoes in Chicago, and offers such trad classics as beefroll penny loafers, bit loafers, boat shoes, camp mocs, and chukka boots. Head over …
The following is a sponsored post from Haspel. * * * It may be the last semi-official day of summer, but as Haspel likes to say, it’s always seersucker season somewhere. It’s no surprise they’d say that, given that seersucker has been their business for over a century. So for those of you who have no …
This weekend marks the end of summer, and therefore the end of white-bucks season Unless you’re Pat Boone, who, like college men in the ’30s, wore his year-round. His above collection is from 1959. Go here for a CBS News slideshow on the clean cut idol, who in mid-life made a heavy metal album.
Looking back on this 2009 post by old friend Michael Mattis, which touches on the timeless themes of trad clothes and “no hard sell” because the stuff sells itself. * * * If some places never change, it’s because they never need to. They have reached a pitch, if not of perfection, then at least …
In 1969 the old-boy network at America’s most stylish university was broken with the admission of female students. The fellow above is clearly pleased with the change. Not only in the student body (and what a body it is), but with campus fashion. Sartorially speaking, the pivotal year of change — 1967 — was two years …
Like things buried in your closet that you didn’t know you had, I keep finding drafts of old posts that apparently never published or became deactivated for some reason. This one goes all the way back to 2012 and includes the following video clip from Japanese TV. And while you’re in a Kamakura mood, head …
Unless you are reading Ivy Style under the impression that you will learn something about the various species of the evergreen climbing plants that include Hedera helix and Parthenocissus quinquefolia, you probably do not need telling that, sartorially, the world is in a race to the bottom. Ivy Style readers and their fellow travelers are …
This selection of vintage Bass Weejun ads comprised one of Ivy-Style’s earliest posts. Check out this next one from the pivotal year of 1967: Weejuns and wingtips juxtaposed to sandals and flower-power graphics. Post updated with a few new images, including a couple of snazzy loafer-clad guys. — CC
Last month Mad Magazine announced it would cease publication after 67 years. No surprise: humor is dead. Here’s a piece from the olden days, when Mad sought fit to spoof the advertising men of Madison Avenue.
Earlier this year I had a buttondown shirt made for me at a Sid Mashburn trunk show in Boston. Pleased with its quality, I reached out to the Mashburn team for details about their shirt offerings, both MTO and ready-to-wear. I received the answers I was looking for (it’s an unfused collar with 3¼” points), but …
I found this post sitting on Ivy Style’s server, never published. The only note is that it dates from a 1933 issue of Apparel Arts. * * * The word “collegiate,” now seldom used in speaking of college men, is altogether foreign to its famous meaning of some eight years ago, when the raccoon coat, …
Sperry is ready for fall with a new collection hearkening back to those Ivy Varsity days. I like the pictures and the vibes even if I don’t love this collection. Sperry for life, though! I’m still getting nice mileage from one of their summer boat shoes. Images, logos and mascots are memorable and a useful …