Welcome to The Ivy League Look

This blog presents a historical view through articles, photographs, reminiscences, and advertisements, of an American style of men's fashion of the mid-20th century known as "The Ivy League Look" or "The Ivy Look."

This blog will not present modern-day iterations of this "look"; it will be shown in its original context as an American style worn during this specific era. Author commentary will be kept to a minimum.

This is not a commercial site and links to commercial sites will not be posted.

May 6, 2009

Wigtown Plaids, Brooks Brothers, 1935

(click to enlarge)

Although not strictly "Ivy," this advertisement is notable for the illustration by Paul Desmond Brown.

Source:

Newsweek - 11/9/35, via The Retro Press blog

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now, if you're able to find and scan an old Huntington Clothiers ad (I believe they appeared in the New Yorker) or a catalog from the same firm, you'll deserve a Nobel Prize, at the very least.

The Look said...

Anon,

Huntington Clothiers (est. 1977) doesn't quite fit into the time period that I've chosen for this blog (although I, too, would like to see scans of old HC catalogs).

From a 2000 article on directmag.com:

Michael Stern, CEO, Huntington Clothiers and Shirtmakers - In 1977, Mike says, "It looked like polyester was going to take over the world. I couldn't find a cotton shirt in all of Columbus, Ohio, a city of over a million people." So he and his wife started a catalog at the kitchen table. "I was a refugee from the advertising business," Mike says, with design and marketing savvy. Hiring out the manufacturing, they ran the operation from home "complete with dogs barking in the background and kids answering the phones."

Mike says he never wanted to be a shopkeeper and knew they would look more substantial if they had a catalog rather than a store "not unlike the Internet business today." Sure it was a risk, he remembers, but "I was average in size, 15-to-16-1/2, and I figured the downside was a lifetime of blue oxford-cloth shirts!"

Anonymous said...

Huntington may not exactly fit your time frame, but, if I remember correctly, they were even more purist, in many ways, than the Brothers Brooks or Jacobi Press, e.g., they never sold garishly striped ties like both BB and JP did and still do.

The Look said...

No doubt about that. Jos. A. Bank was also very traditional for a number of years. I'll see what I can find.