It was the best of times achieving rock-star status during my three trips to Japan in the late ’80s for the annual J. Press convention in Tokyo, a series of blowout bashes organized by the new owner, Onward Kashiyama. On three separate occasions I enjoyed the whimsical and intoxicating power of celebrity with incessant flashbulbs, …
My latest piece for Ralph Lauren Magazine is on the golden age of sailing. By “golden age,” I mean, of course, the five or so years in the late ’80s and early ’90s when sailing captured the popular imagination, receiving its Hollywood exploitation via the 1992 film “Wind” with Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey. The …
An Ivy Style post last month forecasted a new wave of neo-prep on the horizon. More evidence has arrived in the form of two bold new takes on the boldest item in the Ivy universe, patchwork madras. Ralph Lauren is already offering a classic-fit patchwork madras popover this season, but has upped the ante significantly with …
If Robert Squillaro’s nickname isn’t already “Squeeze,” it might just be now. The menswear veteran — who attended New York’s FIT and went straight to work at Brooks Brothers in the twilight years of the mid’-’80s, working his way up to executive level — recently joined the leadership team of Onward Kashiyama, owners of J. …
Hertling USA, that long-time supplier of superb quality and effortless American style, is here to stay if Justin Christenson, Hertling’s CEO, has anything to say about it. Hertling’s supposed closure was reported and discussed widely on menswear blogs like Put This On and Styleforum.net, where the official Epaulet account claimed in February that Hertling was weeks away …
After looking at the year 1969 in the last post, we revisit this 2012 essay on the decade that followed. * * * At the recent “Ivy Style” symposium at the MFIT I had the chance to meet “Reggie Darling,” the man behind one of the more charming blogs written by a fiftysomething nostalgic for …
Tying together our latest posts on The Andover Shop with recent scans from ’70s-era Polo catalogs comes this charmingly hirsute set of images. Frequent comment-leaver “SE” recently posted a set of links — held in moderation so as to be revealed now — to pages from the 1969 Phillips Academy yearbook. The school is based …
Revisiting this post from 2012 devoted to the legendary founder of The Andover Shop. * * * Yesterday menswear omnivore Derek Guy of Die Workwear! and Put This On started a tumblr devoted to the wit and wisdom of menswear legend Charlie Davidson, the octogenarian owner of The Andover Shop. “The Quotable Charlie Davidson,” a …
In the past week, two big newspapers both came out with stories on a pair of the most legendary shops in the history of the Ivy League Look. Yesterday we looked at the New York Times’ piece on Brooks Brothers in the wake of its 200th anniversary, and today we visit a Boston Globe feature …
On Saturday the New York Times ran a major feature on Brooks Brothers, pegged on the brand’s 200th anniversary. It includes an interview with CEO Claudio Del Vecchio. Here’s a sample quote: “Brooks Brothers is a special place,” Mr. Del Vecchio said during an interview in his upper-floor office at the 346 Madison Avenue store, …
Earlier this month was Holocaust Remembrance Day, which inspired Richard Press to pen this new column. * * * Felix Samelson often remarked to me, “I survived the camps because I was lucky, and I was also lucky your grandfather was in New York, not in his New Haven store the day I came for …
Usually the themes of manslaughter, deception, intrigue, and privilege are enough to satisfy even the basest Shakespearian desires of most moviegoers. By wrapping this all in the historical context of the most storied political dynasty of the 20th century, with a sidebar about humankind’s first steps on another planet, you’ve got a recipe for a drama …
Yesterday we bade farewell to Barbara Bush, First Lady of arguably America’s preppiest president. Town & Country has a 61-image gallery of her life in pictures here.
Recently I plowed through a great book entitled “The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide To Chivalry.” It was written in 2004 by Brad Miner, and I was planning to post about it here, since its subject is something I believe many of here would be interested in. Turned out I was able to get …
What was the old Abercrombie & Fitch like, back when it was a sporting goods store (that also sold clothes, pipes, and other gentleman’s necessities) just casting distance from Brooks Brothers? Well here’s a glance via the 1964 movie “Man’s Favorite Sport,” in which Rock Hudson plays a fishing expert at A&F, decked out in …
American shoe brand Sebago — which is named for the second-largest lake in the state of Maine — was quietly acquired by Italy’s BasicNet back in August 2017 for $14.25 million. BasicNet is the owner of such brands as Superga, Kappa and K-Way. Sebago was at one time a brand of The Sebago Moc Company …
As I mentioned here somewhere recently, a couple weeks ago I attended a fashion presentation by Abercrombie & Fitch. Contributing writer Eric Twardzik, who was visiting from Boston, and I were excited to see the venue, which was The Explorers Club. The collection showed the brand returning to its shopping-mall-collegiate-prep roots, which I consider a …
There is a menswear phenomenon that seems to be taking hold more and more over the last two decades or so. Something that seems to mirror a wider phenomenon in American society and, I would suspect, many other places around the world. That is, the lurch toward privileging personal preference and personal comfort over all else. …
Today in 1818 Brooks Brothers opened its doors. Let that sink in for a bit. Two centuries ago. Had it never been founded, would the Ivy League Look have ever been created? Perhaps college men and Eastern Elites would have just dressed like Englishmen. The Ivy Style community is the company’s toughest critics, but I think …