Ivy-Style.com just celebrated its eighth birthday and reached 1,500 posts. That’s a lot of topics, contributors, and readers. We figured it was time to bring everyone and everything together symbolically with our very own Ivy Style Club Tie. The project grew out of Ivy Style’s Facebook group at the suggestion of a member. I came …
For your consideration, a 1966 advertisement for non-iron oxford-cloth buttondowns, presented non-ironically. Convenient for impromtu games of touch football and expanding waistlines due to heavy meals. Happy Thanksgiving fom Ivy Style. Tomorrow our club tie goes on sale! — CC
My grandfather Ted Twardzik passed away last Thursday at the age of 89. As so often happens, his passing unearthed many previously unseen photos of him as a much younger man. Among these, one stuck out in particular: a slightly out-of-focus snapshot of him as a student at the University of Notre Dame circa 1950, …
Ever the imperious editor of my wardrobe, last year I decided to purge a couple of real gems. I had two pairs of grey flannels — one charcoal, one mid-grey — made in Italy for Ralph Lauren. These are the trousers that sell for $350 or more, which I happened to score new with tags …
Last weekend I met G. Bruce Boyer at a menswear event and eagerly asked him what he thought of my new sportcoat. He stroked the fabric, examined the fit, and concluded that it looked great. “Very Princeton 1958,” he said. I can think of no better unofficial endorsement of Ivy Style’s first collaboration than praise …
Our last post was on Warren Beatty’s being named one of GQ’s men of the year for 2016. A perfect excuse to revisit this 2012 post on the book “Hollywood And The Ivy Look,” which includes Beatty, along with many other leading men and character actors who launched their careers during the heyday of the …
GQ has selected Warren Beatty as one of its Men Of The Year for 2016, hailing the return of alpha males and the “original Hollywood playboy.” Beatty directed and stars in the new film “The Rules Don’t Apply,” which is set in Hollywood in 1958. Beatty features in the book “Hollywood And The Ivy Look” …
I remember watching “The Twilight Zone” as a kid on our console RCA TV in the basement, with the now classic theme music still readily playable in my head. I recall one episode in particular in which a young woman has been raped, and her father goes to pick her up from the hospital. They’re …
Today I revisted the golf simulator on the third floor of Brooks’ NYC flagship. It had been closed for a couple of months after severing ties with its previous partner, Golf Manhattan. It’s back up and running with three people who are now employees of Brooks. Stop by and check it out and you might …
There’s the preppy way of doing things, and then there’s every other way. Case in point, above we have a turtleneck worn under a buttondown. Verdict: preppy. Below (from a Valetmag.com feature yesterday), we have a buttondown under a turtleneck. Verdict: something else. Honor your forefathers. Defend tradition. Avoid forced foppery. And finally, go forth …
Today is National Pizza Day, and over the past few years I’ve considered it a personal challenge to come up with an Ivy tie-in every time some silly national day comes up. It didn’t take much grinding and churning of the little grey cells to come up with the notion of taking a quick look …
Ivy Style first ran this post in August 2015. It is being reposted today following the news of Vaughn’s death at the age of 83. * * * Today “The Man From UNCLE” opens. Hollywood, as the cliché goes, is all out of new ideas. That may not be such a bad thing, as there’s …
“The Man In The Brooks Brothers Shirt” in Mary McCarthy’s 1946 short story wore his shirt buttoned down. But in New Haven during the heyday of the Ivy League Look, guys in dirty white bucks often made a different choice. They bought their shirts at Fenn-Feinstein, White’s, Langrock, Arthur M. Rosenberg or J.Press, dissing the …
Many of you are probably feeling blue today, even if you’re not in a blue state. So here’s a little tune called “Harvard Blues,” which was written by a young student named George Frazier, who would go on to become Esquire’s style critic and best pal of Charlie Davidson of The Andover Shop. The song …
The day has finally arrived! Yes Ivy Style readers, it’s your chance to vote on who was America’s preppiest president. Here are the candidates and their qualifications: John F. Kennedy Catholic Choate Harvard Spee Club Swimming Navy Family compound: Hyannis Port, Cape Cod Hobby: sailing Clothier: Chipp Style signatures: sunglasses, no socks, Nantucket Reds George …
Was John F. Kennedy the most Ivy of US presidents, or did the most important man in the country actually encourage American men not to follow the Ivy League Look? That depends on whether you’re talking about President Kennedy the nation’s leader, or Jack Kennedy relaxing among friends and family in Hyannis Port. On assignment …
Continuing on the collar-pin theme, back in February I came across an image that I’m guessing was posted to Ivy’s Facebook group by Marc Chevalier, menswear omnivore and collector of vintage images. It showed Fred Astaire simultaneously wearing a collar pin and buttondown, not with the collar hanging straight and the buttons unused, as in …
What does a pinned collar make you? Why, there’s only one answer: The three-button undarted suit makes you trad, sunglasses worn with a suit make you cool, and the hat makes you retro. Accessorize as you see fit, but once again Ivy Style HQ encourages you to consider adding a pinned collar in your buttondown …
I was hoping to have something really special to share with you guys, but alas fate had other ideas. This summer I was approached by Kamakura Shirts, who wanted to do a video interview with me. I suggested doing it at the famed New York watering hole The Campbell Apartment, and we were able to …