I Miss Rugby

This post from last spring snagged a mention in the comments section on yesterday’s post about the launch of the new RL collection Boathouse, and so we pay it a revisit. Enjoy this and want more content more often? Help Ivy Style reach its goal of 1,000 true fans. * * * After a mild


Rugby Resurrected? Ralph Lauren Launches Boathouse

While fruitlessly searching for no-show socks at the downtown Boston Macy’s Monday, I stepped into a time portal. Or at least I felt that I had. There, hanging from a rack in the store’s little Polo Ralph Lauren section, was a genuine article from Rugby Ralph Lauren. And another beside it, and another beside that… Could


True Fans, Support The Future Of Ivy-Style.com

A decade ago, in 2008, I founded Ivy-Style.com. A couple of years later, I announced the 2.0 version, live from New York. And now on this Independence Day 2018 — 1,800 posts and 50,000 comments later — I’d like to announce the next stage of the site, Ivy Style 3.0. We have reached a crossroads, and


Corpore Sano: Ivy Style Readers On Diet & Exercise

Last week an interesting discussion broke out on Ivy Style’s Facebook group. What do your fellow trads eat, and how do they stay fit? It’s not all squash and gin-and-tonics. Here’s what they do. Chime in and let us know what works for you. * * * Play football/soccer 3-4 times a week and watch


Collective Wisdom: An American In Paris

Collective Wisdom is our new series in which I cleverly redirect questions that land in my inbox to you, the illustrious commentariat, because someone seeking advice should have access to more opinions than just mine. TJ writes: I’m taking the family to Paris in a week. I really wanted to pack clothes that were neutral


Return Of The Shadow

A few weeks ago I received an email from a Bermuda-based clothing brand, and, in light of our current island-based miniseries, now is the perfect opportunity to address it. It’s also a follow-up to my essay on the “bro,” which I thought was posted not so many months ago, but in fact dates from last


Packing For Bermuda, 2018

Today loyal reader BC emailed me to say he’d just returned from Bermuda and rushed to check Ivy Style to see what he’d missed. Coincidentally, our most recent post was on what to pack for a trip to Bermuda — if you were a wealthy Princeton man in 1949, that is. So here are a



Rockin’ The Roll

Random photo discovered on Pinterest. Checked sportcoat, club tie, and blue buttondown with delightful roll. 


Lime Twist: What Go-To-Hell Can Do For You

Whenever we put up a post on the bright colors and crazy patterns of what is known colloquially, or rather Internetically, as go-to-hell, the chorus of curmudgeons always chimes in with cantakerous remarks about how it’s all mere kids’ stuff. There’s no changing the minds of intractable fellows such as this, but for those of


Neighborhood Watch

Our last post was about color, its charming effect on others and how that can open up new possibilities in your own life. And so we follow it up with a man who regularly wore bright colors and who also charmed millions, the late, great Fred Rogers. Last year Ivy-Style contributor Andy Owen wrote a


In Living Color

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with color. You could say there are two archetypal 19th century dandies dueling in my closet: George “Beau” Brummell, the so-called father of modern costume, advocates in favor of a simple palette and elegant restraint, while on the other side is Count Alfred d’Orsay, the “butterfly dandy,” who was


A Magical And Distant Place With Incredible Style

England is just kicking off its first game in the World Cup, and so here’s a bit of belated Blighty Ivy news. In the wake of the new documentary about UK Ivy pioneer John Simons, last month The Guardian ran a lengthy profile, in which the soon-to-be 79-year-old talks about the “magical and distant” place


TDS, Father’s Day Edition

You don’t have to be a staunch supporter of our president to be capable of diagnosing Trump Derangement Syndrome. In fact, a couple of tolerant, level-headed guys were talking about it just the other day. And so today a story caught my eye that immediately made it roll. “I didn’t buy my dad a tie


Live Crew: Rowing Blazers’ NY Pop-Up Opening Party

Last night was the opening party for Rowing Blazers‘ summer pop-up shop. Located in Downtown NYC, founder Jack Carlson secured a much larger space than last summer, and pulled everything together in about a week. As befitting the Downtown location, the party was packed with the young and hip. I spent most of the evening catching


Prepadelic

Hippy Ivy is back, and may be a recurring theme this summer so long as I can keep my tongue planted in cheek without getting a muscle cramp. So last weekend there was fine weather here in NYC, so I went into Central Park for some sunbathing, meditation/contemplation/reading, and of course bikini-watching. Then I made


Miles Off

Recently this photo came on my radar. Taken by Jean Pierre Leloir, it was attributed to the year 1946, making it quite surprising indeed. That’s a full eight years before Miles Davis got decked out in Ivy threads at The Andover Shop, yet here he is in a buttondown. I shared it on Twitter, saying


Collective Wisdom: Shoes For Business Casual

Do you have a clothing conundrum and can think of nothing better (and braver) than calling upon the collective wisdom of the Ivy Style commentariat? Use the contact button above to email your query to the editor. * * * Gentlemen, your sage advice is needed for hapless reader Mr. J, who can’t figure out


Don’t Stop Believing

It’s becoming a Saturday tradition around here for me to share my self-improvement articles and essays. It’s the slowest day of the week, and I realize not everyone feels they need improving. For example, some people have been Internet trolls since the earliest days of the web and still haven’t snapped out of it. Let