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 …
Update: part two is up. Scroll down. I’m what’s known as an anomaly: a millennial without social media. It’s been two years since I deleted my accounts across the board and I certainly feel more free to live my own life and spend less time worrying about what my friends are doing every second. It …
The first vintage costume event I went to — way back in 1996 — was the Bay Area’s Gatsby Summer Afternoon. Held at the Dunsmuir House, an estate in the Oakland Hills, the event features music and dancing, vintage cars, and a contest to see who can create the most opulent picnic spread. The event draws …
Here’s an encore of party shots from Thursday’s Boyer-Press event at J. Press. These shots were taken by Raymond Chu, whom I finally met for the first time. Chu has worked for Rugby RL and The Rake, and, as I learned that night, is the nephew of Nautica cofounder David Chu. You’ll see some outfits …
Last night’s J. Press was one of my favorite menswear events in some time, the kind of night where you feel exhausted from conversation. The event was packed, with nearly a hundred RSVPs, virtually all of which seemed to show up at some point. With moderation by Zachary Weiss, G. Bruce Boyer and Richard Press …
These undated LIFE Magazine photos of New York’s Gardiners Island have a kind of Slim Aarons quality to them. Of course, Slim Aarons never photographed the servants.
Yesterday I swung by Ralph Lauren‘s Madison Avenue Rhinelander flagship on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and surreptitiously snapped the latest mannequins (which I believe are technically called “forms”). As always, take what you can use and discard the rest, and if you see any combos you like but they’re too Anglo-Hollywood-Continental, simply apply the …
When we left off before Easter weekend, we took a look at some images from Ralph Lauren‘s archives. Now we’ll continue checking in with RL as we check out some of the items from the spring collection. As neo-prep makes a triumphant comeback (actually, we’ll have to wait and see about the triumphant part), there …
That’s one sharp-looking kid. Happy Easter to everyone.
It’s Good Friday, and if you’re wondering what to wear on Easter, here’s an idea from the pantheon of prep. You might never have tried it. Or you used to wear this combination, but it’s been so long you’ve forgotten about it. It’s a simple formula: conservative suit (pinstriped is ideal) combined with a ribbon …
Once at a conference, as I was chatting with colleagues during a tea break, a fellow attendee came over. “Sorry to bother you,” he said, “but I couldn’t help noticing your tie. Did you go to Harrow school?” “No, I went to Harrods department store,” I replied, and showed him the label. He gave a …
Some undated shots of Martha’s Vineyard from the Life archives.
In the arts and culture, generally things are either cool or beautiful. Marcello Mastroianni in “La Dolce Vita” is cool, while beauty is what happens between 1:18 and 2:59 in the third movement of Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Minor. “Cool” didn’t exist before midcentury, while since then the quaint notion that art should be …
When Marks & Spencer installed elevators in Brooks Brothers’ Madison Avenue flagship, they only went down. Widely acknowledged for monumental mismanaging Brooks, hastening a decline in quality and the isolation of lifelong customers, the UK apparel firm Marks & Spencer eventually sold Brooks Brothers in 2001 after 13 years and hundreds of millions in losses. This …