Merry Christmas From Ivy Style Readers
A handful of shots of Ivy Style readers celebrating the holiday in their finery. Merry Christmas to all!
Crewneck Over Club Tie And Other Forms Of Sacrilege
Over the course of nearly ten years, Ivy Style has received some 45,000 comments. According to a reader yesterday, the following is the best — what’s more, it’s the best comment on the entire Internet. I suppose it depends where your interests lie. Nevertheless, this lengthy comment in response to Charlottesville’s essay on the 500th …
Searching For The P In WASP
At some point in the 1980s, I was working in Manhattan and overheard a conversation between two fellows from another borough discussing one of my business associates, whose unlikely given name was Win, possibly short for Winston. “Win? Who knows anybody named Win?” asked the first. The other guy noted that he had discovered this …
Complete The Outfit
Here’s an Ivy Style reader busting out his polo coat with, he admitted, “lapels wide enough to land a plane on.” Note the timeless four-ingredient combo of polo coat, blazer, OCBD and Argyll & Sutherland tie, here rendered as a bow. Now how about what’s unseen: namely belt, trouser, sock and shoe? What should the …
Dateline 1967: A Veritable Time-Lapse Of Dress And Grooming Change On Campus
A reader sent me these three photos illustrating the rapid change in dress and grooming on campus beginning in 1967. These shots are of our friends up north at the University of Alberta, and feature the same club seen over three academic years. Above is the year ’67-’68. Below, ’68-’69: And finally, with barbers and …
Foot Of The Charles: Rowing Blazers Oars Pop-Up Shop Into Boston
As a longtime admirer of Jack Carlson’s “cryptic menswear brand” Rowing Blazers, I felt a pang of injustice when his New York pop-up emerged in October. When would Boston, the seat of the Head of the Charles itself, receive its turn? Turns out I didn’t have to wait too long. At the start of the …
Family Guy: The Richard Press Interview
Today, on the first day of Hanukkah 2017, we revisit one of Ivy Style’s top posts, CC’s 2011 interview with Richard Press, which was reprinted in the book accompanying the MFIT “Ivy Style” exhibit. Chag Sameach! * * * For years Richard Press would leave work at the J. Press store in New York …
Festive Footwear
‘Tis the season for holiday parties, culminating in the biggest one of the year: New Year’s Eve. So if you’re the kind of die-hard insouciant prep who wears his everyday white (or pink) oxford buttondown with black tie, and who can’t bear to be shod in anything but penny loafers, Bass might have just the …
A Handsome Gift Idea
J. Press just got in a pair of wonderful gifts for the Yalie in your life, with a nifty connection to Ivy Style. The artist — Deborah Fowler Greenwood — is the mother of our very own Millennial Fogey DCG! The prints feature the NYC Yale Club as well as mascot Handsome Dan, are part …
The Man Who Brought Ivy To Japan
Since the 1960s, Japan has been an important part of the story of the Ivy League Look, and during a few dark periods the island nation has played an important role in preventing the style from possible extinction. Anyone interested in the Ivy-Japan connection will eventually encounter the name Kensuke Ishizu — perhaps on the …
Golden Years: Sayonara To Old Nassau
Yesterday marked the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and so we revisit this relevant column from Richard Press that originally ran in 2012. * * * Jacobi Press opened his Princeton branch on Nassau Street in the mid-1930s and assigned my father regular checkups on the store. Lou Prager, founder of Chipp in 1947 with another …
Big Bad John
Tomorrow the TV series “The Crown,” which chronicles the life of England’s Queen Elizabeth II, features JFK and Jackie in its new episode. But the British series will be presenting an image of the former president far less flattering than American audiences are accustomed to, according to media reports. Here’s an excerpt from a Q&A …
Money Well Spent: Gentleman Still Wears J. Press Sportcoat He Commissioned in ’65
When Robert Cahill commissioned a custom sportcoat from J. Press in 1965, legendary house tailor Felix Samelson said “This jacket will outlive you.” So far the jacket and the customer are neck-and-neck. Mr. Cahill, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last week at the J. Press store in New York, is some 85 years of …
Standing Athwart History
Shot taken presumably in the ’80s, with the caption indicating that the men had hardly changed their attire since they were students at Harvard circa 1960. Of course, it’s possible then went all shaggy in the ’70s and then returned to their roots during the preppy ’80s. From the book “A Privileged Life.” — CC
Collegiate Grooming Showdown: Vitalis vs. Brylcreem
Princeton, NJ resident Bill Stephenson graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1954 and lived in the Delta Upsilon fraternity house. Herein he shares his thoughts on haircuts and grooming products during the heyday of the Ivy League Look. Back in the day, undergraduates throughout the US looked pretty similar when it came to hairstyles, …
Harvard Vs. Princeton — The Haircut Showdown
What’s an “Ivy League” haircut when there are eight schools, each with its own quirks and distinctions? And so, according to one barber, at least two schools were known for their particular cut. Here’s the Harvard: And here’s the Princeton: And the young man pictured at top getting fitted in New Haven, with what looks …
This Is The Haircut For You
This is the haircut for you — but you probably already knew that. Unless you’ve got a kind of floppy English-schoolboy ‘do, or some post-heyday ’70s length. I just got a short cut last week, and it was the most thorough and fastidious visit to the barbershop in my life. Granted the guy wet-shaved my …
Deerfield Academy Home Movie, 1966
An Ivy Style Facebook group member dug up this fantastic video shot at the prep school Deerfield in 1966, which was only rediscovered last year. It’s a combination of “Take Ivy” and “Dead Poets Society” come to life, with soccer, extensive shots of nature and architecture in the first half, and then tremendous sartorial variations …
Golden Years: Insider Trading And Irish Oys
“Oy, dot muzt be de texxis cab,” was my stage character’s opening line responding to the honking car offstage as the curtain rose on the 1976 Van Dam Theatre production of 1920s vintage classic “Abie’s Irish Rose. ” One of the demands of my leading role as well-to-do immigrant widower Solomon Levy was affecting a …