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.

March 26, 2012

Our Lightweight Cotton Sweater, 1979

(click to enlarge)

Source:

The New Yorker - 9/10/79

COTTON SWEATERS are now basics in many warm-weather wardrobes. But such was not always the case, since traditions, even woolen ones, die hard in men's dressing. Perhaps the turning point came eight years ago, when Brooks Brothers, that bulwark of sartorial propriety, introduced a cotton, cable-stitched, V-neck sweater. It was an instant success and ''is now the bulk of our sweater business for the spring and summer,'' says Peter G. Newman, vice president and merchandise manager for furnishings.

Success was slower in coming for Ron Chereskin, the award-winning men's-wear designer. ''In 1977, I was told that men would not understand cotton sweaters,'' he says. ''Today, my cotton-sweater business does about $10 million at wholesale annually.''

Source:

New York Times Magazine - 5/12/85

2 comments:

notanymore said...

Hrm... 79 seems pretty recent for this blog.

katon said...

True. I thought it might be nice to have a few more "end of Ivy" tags. The introduction of cotton copies of old Ivy League staples seemed like a notable point in the time line.