In 2008 I did an assignment for the late Rugby Ralph Lauren blog about the movie “The Express.” This post became one of the earliest posts on Ivy Style, dating from early October 2008. It’s worth revisiting as the film has likely fallen into obscurity, and while not a masterpiece, it’s worth checking out for …
Earlier in the week I wrote about how we’re all adapting to living in an age of contradiction, and on Friday two items came across my desk today that exemplify the strange case of 21st-century Brooks Brothers. The general public is always behind the times when it comes to fashion, so while Brooks has been …
There’s still much news in Tradsville to catch up on, so here’s a double-shot of your favorite titans of the Old Guard. Earlier this month Troy Patterson, who has linked to Ivy Style several times over the years, attempted to unravel the mysteries of business casual for The New Yorker. The piece ends with J. …
When Timothy Thompson, an 18-year-old from Ashland, Oregon, was chosen by LIFE Magazine to have his first semester at Yale chronicled, a massive challenge lay before him. Not only did he have to adapt to the school academically and socially, he had to do so while a reporter and photographer followed him around campus, capturing …
Last night a TV commentator opined that one of the dominant strains in Western lands at the moment is that the “elites are rising up to overthrow the masses.” Right on cue, humorist and former Harvard Lampoon scribe PJ O’Rourke came out with a piece in the Washington Post this morning arguing that it’s time …
You’ve probably noticed during the past two years of extreme polarization in American life that everyone can agree on one thing: the country is headed in the wrong direction. It’s just that each side of the debate — and increasingly within each side — has a completely different set of reasons. Part of navigating such an …
There’s much news to get caught up on, and we’ll start with a few dispatches from the world of late capitalism. Ralph Lauren released a quarterly report revealing that spring merchandise underperformed. No idea if this comes from the neo-prep department. Check out Put This On for some market analysis. Watered-down, Main Street post-prep brand …
What was it like for a public-school kid from nowhere to go to an Ivy League school during the heyday? Sure, you got to wear cool clothes (once you figured out what they were), but even that was fraught with anxiety. At least it was for Timothy Thompson, whose first semester at Yale was full of …
Vintage clothing dealer Sean Crowley takes a curtain call in this video produced by Matthew Karl Gale, who helped design the Ivy Style club tie and belt.
On a recent Sunday afternoon I found myself standing in the rain, peering anxiously into an unlit storefront that seemed wholly out of place with its otherwise industrial surroundings. I’d brought myself, and the assorted luggage, to Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood on the last day of an NYC trip to seek out Crowley Vintage, arriving at …
Clark Gable is largely remembered as one of the glamorous menswear icons of the 1930s, along with Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and just about every other star from the Golden Age of Hollywood. But as he aged and fashions changed, Gable evolved with the times and shed his double-breasted suits with nipped waists and squared shoulders, …
This morning many of us no doubt awoke to the news that a celebrity died whom we didn’t even know was still living. Actress and singer Doris Day, whose career overlapped almost precisely with the Ivy heyday, has died at the age of 97. I began watching classic movies in my early twenties, and it …
As a follow-up to our last post, which featured a job opening at The Andover Shop, here’s a little night music for your Saturday evening. The Modern Jazz Quartet was one of the jazz acts Andover Shop founder Charlie Davidson said he sold (or gave) some clothes to back in the Ivy heyday. At least as …
Sometimes menswear buying patterns aren’t what you’d expect. Recently Bill Thomas reached out with some interesting observations. Thomas is the founder of Bills Khakis and is currently the brand director at Duck Head. He said, “The market is over 60% five-pocket chino driven at this point and favored by those over 35, while the college and …
Updated May 7, 2019. This is one of our first posts categorized under Ivy Trendwatch back in 2009. It’s worth a re-look as the artist in question is still at it (we’ll look at his recent work in a future post), and the combination of items in the photos — which include rumpled oxfords, knit …
It had been a long time since I’d watched a Cary Grant film, as his oeuvre doesn’t contain much set in the Middle Ages, Ancient Greece, or prehistoric times. But this weekend I watched “The Bishop’s Wife” from 1947, and in it Grant wears a noteworthy outfit. Then again, I suppose the point is that everything …
In 1964, Jack Lemmon starred in “Good Neighbor Sam,” playing a wholesome family man who works in San Francisco at — what else? — an advertising agency. He commutes over the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County, which I too did for a while. I shudder to think what the bridge toll is now. Lemmon is weary …
Loyal reader Mawuli Grant Agbefe reached out this week offering to write a piece on dressing in Chicago when it’s not supposed to be winter, but isn’t exactly spring yet. He was advised to write the piece quickly, before the weather turned, and he did. * * * This week I faced the dilemma of dressing …
Before he moved on to soul and R&B, bassist Johnnie Pate was a solid link in the jazz-campus connection. Exactly which campus is a bit misleading. In the midst of the Ivy heyday, anything collegiate became synonymous with “Ivy League,” hence the above album’s title despite the fact that the photos were taken at the …