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 …
Today there’s multiple news in the world of pink, and so we’re revisiting — and reworking — this post that originally ran in 2009. Back then we examined a LIFE Magazine piece from 1955, when the Ivy heyday was just getting started, that all but credited Brooks Brothers with inventing the color pink — at …
A couple of weeks ago I paid a visit to the “global headquarters” of Jack Carlson’s brand Rowing Blazers. As far as headquarters go, this Midtown Manhattan office is quite tiny. On the other hand, it is indeed global, as Carlson is forging connections and collaborations around the world. A world that he’s visited much …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …