Special Announcement: Are You The One To Take Over The Andover Shop?

This is a special sponsored post by the parties representing the sale of The Andover Shop, who hope to find a sympathetic and enthusiastic buyer through the audience of Ivy-Style.com.  * * * With a heavy heart, the founders of men’s clothing emporium The Andover Shop, announce the business is for sale. The partners, both


Library Chic

It’s not often that J. Press snags a mention in the New York Times, especially in a fashion context. But it did recently when the gentleman above was profiled and said he had just been shopping at Squeeze. It was part of a piece on stylish personae spied at the antiquarian book fair held at


A Post About Nothing: George Costanza, Style Icon

What to say about George Costanza? Everyone knows him. No one was supposed to like him, but somehow, we’ve all seemed to find a soft spot for him in our hearts. When thinking about the character from the ’90s hit TV sitcom “Seinfeld” (the so-called “show about nothing”), one typically thinks of him creating some


TV Guide: Former VAN Employee On Ivy Inspiration In The ’60s And ’70s

Today we feature a special contribution. Fumio Adachi presently lives in the US, but in the 1960s worked in Japan at VAN Jac, the pioneering Japanese Ivy brand. Herein he shares some memories about where his team got their inspiration. * * * In our generation, when we were middle teenagers, it was more than


One Word: Plastics — An Appreciation Of The Swatch Watch

Frugality and restraint are qualities that are admired in the world of traditional menswear, but may seem perplexing to those not in the know. For example, why does Prince Charles insist on wearing a Barbour jacket so tattered and threadbare when he could easily buy a closet full of them? Simply speaking, it is a


I Mustache You A Question: Where Do You Get Your Shirts?

Thursday brought the news that former UN Ambassador John Bolton will be replacing HR McMaster as National Security Adviser. Bolton’s best known for his hawkish foreign policy views and walrus mustache, but a less remarked-upon trait is his penchant for buttondown collars. Bolton appears to be sporting one in every photo that appears on Google,



The Main Street Ivy Executive

If you can’t become an executive with an Ivy degree, perhaps you can with an Ivy League suit (after all, fake it till you make it, right?) This image was snapped by contributing writer Eric Twardzik; he found it on the wall of an independent menswear shop called Giblee’s in Danvers, MA. Glad to know


Live Poets Society: Chens v. Boyer On World Poetry Day

Today is World Poetry Day, and since much of the East Coast is housebound from the snow storm, what better excuse to light the candles, pour some tea (or cognac) and enjoy some rhyming verse by Ivy Style’s founder Christian Chensvold and special correspondent G. Bruce Boyer. Both men studied English in college (Boyer even


Cataloging The Good Life: Polo Ralph Lauren, Spring 1977

Last week we posted that neo-prep is back at Ralph Lauren. Today we journey back 40 years ago, when the brand was first beginning to stage lavish fantasy shoots done on location. These would reach their apex in the mid to late ’80s with, for example, 20-page ad narrative spreads in magazines such as Architectural


Fakin’ It

As today is Sunday, it seems the ideal day to share something that concerns not just looking you best, but feeling it and acting it. And sometimes acting your best means you need to start play-acting it until you actually get there. Last month I announced that anyone out there struggling with the challenges of



Ralph Lauren Spring 2018: The Return Of Neo-Prep

Four-and-a-half years ago, our erstwhile columnist The Millennial Fogey mused on the uncertain future of neo-prep. Well, fashion life cycles are pretty short these days, and I think we can say it’s back. I’m a bit biased when it comes to Ralph Lauren. They’re my longest running client, as I’ve written for their online magazine


Another World

Yesterday Stephen Hawking left us for another world. In honor of his passing, we revisit this amazing photo from his college days that we ran last spring. * * * Today we take a trip to England, the country that gave us the blueprint for America’s universities and the raw materials for the Ivy League


American Psycho

Evidently there’s a day for everything. Today is Alfred Hitchcock Day, and so we raise a toast to actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in Hitch’s 1960 film “Psycho.” Perkins, who’s appeared on Ivy Style several times before, showed that a tall, lanky man can still look great in sack suits and blousy buttondowns. You’d probably,


Dateline ’67: Madras, Seersucker And The Rising Sunshine

Although it’s 2018 and no longer the dubious 50th anniversary of the fall of the Ivy League Look, we can still continue our Dateline ’67 series. This one comes not from the twilight of the Ivy heyday in America, but from the dawning, rising sun of Japan. Tokyo-based W. David Marx tweeted out this vintage


Preppy + Hippie = Prippie: A Futile And Stupid Film Review

While struck down by a cold last month, I watched “A Futile and Stupid Gesture,” the new Netflix-produced film about the tragic rise and fall of National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney, played by Will Forte. Of course there never would have been a National Lampoon without Harvard Lampoon, and one of the film’s first scenes


Battle Of The Bulge: Special Counsel Mueller And His Odd Collar Roll — Updated

Today Troy Patterson, Princeton man and longtime linker to Ivy Style in his work, wrote a piece for The New Yorker on Robert Mueller as style icon, linking to this post from last summer. Writes Patterson: Within the community of men passionate about preppy clothing, there’s a lively conversation around Mueller’s preference for starch in his


Everything New Is Old Again! The Spring/Summer 2018 J. Press Brochure

If you’re reading this, it’s highly likely you’ve already received the new J. Press brochure in the mail. If not, contact the store by phone or email and ask for one, because it’s terrific. In the meantime, you can check out a PDF right here. The brochure features graphics taken from heyday-era catalogs, the much-improved shoulder