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 …
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
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, …
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 — 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 …
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 …
“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 …
This post originally ran in 2010 and was Ivy Style’s 200th post. Today we’re up to 1,600. * * * For Ivy-Style’s 200th post, I thought I’d break out something special I’ve been sitting on for awhile. Last year, between Los Angeles and New York, I spent six months in my old environs of the …
Historically, Ivy style has always championed durability and functionality. Nowhere is this truer than in the realm of outerwear, where such weathered classics as the toggle coat and balmacaan remain viable and timeless. However, at certain vivacious moments in the style’s history, discerning collegiate sartorialists have exchanged the reliable for the resplendent, the austere for …
The finale in our series of watch-themed posts, here’s what your fellow Ivy Style readers wear on their wrists, courtesy of our Facebook group.
Ah, the Cartier Tank watch. To many trad aficionados, it is a holy grail, like the perfect set of P3s. To others — those who prefer thrift shop wristwatches selling for less than $50 dangling from brightly colored straps costing less than a fiver — it is little more than a crass display of materialism …
Since the founding of Tradsville (the online community of Preppy-Ivy-Trad-Americana) in 2004 on the Ask Andy forum, getting a Timex Easy Reader, plus an assortment of striped bands, has been a veritable right of passage, as well as a kind of pledge of allegiance. The watch sends a variety of signals, including frugality, the rejection …
While J. Press was busy reopening a proper flagship store in New York, something else was happening in Los Angeles. Jeffery Plankster, a commercial director and host of the jazz radio show that featured me last year, has opened a retail store in LA’s historically most preppy enclave of Pasadena. The store is called The …
“Brooks” (note shortened name and quotation marks) was known and respected in many of the best schools and colleges, according to this ad circa 1940. What else would have been known and respected at the time? The high button stance, with the bottom of the three buttons above the hip pockets, and the top button …
An entertaining comic number about going off to Yale during the heyday, sung to the tune of a Gilbert & Sullivan classic.
In 1965, Esquire jazz and style writer George Frazier wrote this essay for the liner notes of the album “Miles Davis’ Greatest Hits.” The Warlord of the Weejuns By George Frazier I don’t mean to be a bastard about this, but, at the same time, I have no intention of being agreeable just for the …
Sounds like a title for a museum exhibit, doesn’t it? And no, this isn’t Rob Lowe, but an avid Ivy Style reader who might just have missed his calling in Hollywood.
Frequent comment-leaver SE dug up these photos in light of the recent LL Bean post. They show that traditional New England style is — or at least was — youthful rather than stodgy, and that it exports well all around the country. * * * It’s that time of year. Bean boots, corduroys, and Norwegian …
With its first-ever CEO from outside the family, LL Bean has a plan to boost its flat sales and aging demographic: shed its stodgy New England image and become an international brand. That includes tripling ad spending (a cost that will surely be passed down to the consumer), ads that feature greater ethnic diversity. The …