G. Bruce Boyer gave Ivy Style permission to digitize this chapter from his 1985 book “Elegance.” It is based on an article that originally appeared in the May 1981 issue of Town & Country. Brooks Brothers By G. Bruce Boyer When it phased out its custom tailoring department, the story was carried on the front …
Are you a Japanophile, or just like to brush up on your knowledge of world history? Well earlier this season online retailer Bodega ran a lengthy piece on “ametora,” or American Trad in Japan. What’s helpful about it is that it provides a nice cursory overview of Japan’s gradual opening to Western cultural (and sartorial) …
It is said that the winners get to write the history books. One of the now-official effects of the social upheaval of the 1960s was that young people broke down the oppressive conformity of society, including rigid and unimaginative clothes. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (played by Gregory Peck, above, in the film of …
What are these young men doing to the buttondowned man in center? They’re blowing smoke in his face as way of training him to keep cool during civil rights protests. The 1960 photo comes from a Time/LIFE piece you can find here. Best wishes to everyone on this MLK Day. — CC
In 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Princeton University. Fifty years later, an alumus recalled the visit.
In the spirit of Japanese photo book “Take Ivy,” here are some photographic gifts of Princeton students courtesy of Time/LIFE.
Illustration from a 1959 short story that appeared in Cosmopolitan. Not the short hair of the uptown lady in relation to the downtown gals. The caption reads, “They sprawled about in rapture. The bearded poet read. It was awful, Jim thought.”
Still, perhaps no other 20th-century icon better exemplifies casual American elegance like Fred Astaire. While all Ivy style is American (even when it’s Italian loafers and Scottish sweaters), not all American style is Ivy. Still, few illustrate the crossover better than Astaire. Astaire’s personal style, which he employed in his films whenever possible, was based …
According to The Daily Beast, there’s been a precipitous drop in undergraduate history majors: George Orwell famously forewarned in 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” We shouldn’t be surprised then by some recent, disturbing trends in the study of history. According to a new analysis by …
What were Ivy Leaguers wearing in the fall of 1953? According to Gentry magazine, anything in tawny black. In a fashion spread entitled “Fashions Cum Laude for the Undergraduate,” the uber-elitist magazine (every issue included fabric swatches, and no models were ever used, only genuine gentries) says tawny black is the hot new color. But mixed …
J.C. Leyendecker’s first initials stand for Joseph Christian, but they might as well stand for Joe College. In a career spanning from 1900 until World War II, the American illustrator painted 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, as well as advertisements for products like Kuppenheimer Clothes and Interwoven Socks, that featured Harvard Rowers, Princeton football …
I was in the middle of a long moving process when I decided to go through some boxes and pull out my favorite albums. I soon realized that I hadn’t sat down and really listened to music in quite some time. When I discovered jazz in college, I would finish my classes, return to my dormitory …
Last night Alan Flusser gave a talk here in New York at the National Arts Club as part of its fashion lecture series. The talk was on tweed, and the event was packed. One of the points Flusser made was that Ralph Lauren — maker of (who else?) the “Ivy gang” chinos above — essentially saved …
Traditional Ivy style is rarely exhibited by the most visible Ivy League graduates: politicians. For instance, George W. Bush (Yale, Harvard) and Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard) are never seen wearing sack suits, button down collars, or regimental striped ties. So when and why did establishment Ivy Leaguers abandon the Ivy look? “Goodbye to Wing Tips,” …
As a high school student, interchangeable items are a must. This means a few simple items that can work with everything else I have in my wardrobe. I would say that I have a uniform, which consists of an OCBD in white or blue, a knit or repp tie, khakis or indigo denim, a sweater …
Twenty-fifteen marked the 50th anniversary of William F. Buckley’s failed run for mayor of New York. In the photo above, it looks like WFB is pulling one out of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s playbook, looking artistocratically bored while his opponent speaks. It’s not hard to imagine him closing his eyes and feigning to snore. …
Recently National Review Online asked me to write a style tribute to NR’s founder, William F. Buckley Jr. The piece came out today. By way of snippet: Following the First World War, the male wardrobe modernized, and elements of the Ivy League Look fell into place one by one, creating signifiers that would identify in-group …
We haven’t looked at Miles “Warlord Of The Weejuns” in some time, so here’s a gallery of him during his buttoned-down years. As a finale, there’s a shot of him in a crested blazer I hadn’t seen before. This post was composed to the accompaniment of his 1958 green-oxford album “Milestones.” — CC
What does it take to sing a good folk song? According to Hugh Hefner, “An Ivy League suit and an Eastern accent.” Jazz cats weren’t the only musicians who took to the Brooks Brothers look in the ’50s and ’60s. Here’s Bud & Travis from Hef’s short-lived TV show “Playboy’s Penthouse” circa 1960.