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.

July 29, 2009

Brioni out at J. Press, 1971


From "You're Right - The Inflation is Worse Than They're Telling You" - New York Magazine, 5/14/73:

Clothing costs for fashion-conscious people - especially men - are up sharply, partly because of the determination of a lot of men to march to different drummers, partly because they seem to be buying more kinds of clothes, and partly because the Japanese have gotten turned on to Western-style woolens and have been buying out Australia...Even so, a relatively standard Hickey-Freeman suit that went for $200 in 1969 is now $250 - up 25 percent. And J. Press, a stronghold of traditional fashion, showed an exclusive line made by Brioni until 1971, when the retail price had reached $265 (compared with under $200 for a standard Press suit). Richard Press dropped the Brioni suit because of the rising price; by this time, he says, he would have had to sell the Brioni at $375, an increase of 42 per cent.

[Ed. note: $265 in 1971 is equivalent to $1400 today. The current Pressidentials are priced from $950 to $1100.]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Brioni at J. Press? Heresy!" say the Trads. ;-)

Richard M said...

Who knew? Trad is American, with a slight British accent.

Brooksman said...

If J. Press could sell Brioni, they have no right to criticize Brooks Brothers.