France: Le Crocodile, 1967

They are known as "alligators" in the U.S. and "crocodiles" in 84 other countries. By any nationality or nomenclature, the French sports shirts, with a familiar-looking reptile embroidered on them, sell exceedingly well. Last year the Paris-based firm of Chemise Lacoste sold 1,700,000 of the shirts, 50% in France and the remainder in the crocodile-alligator world beyond. This month, as Lacoste's factories reopen after a vacation layoff, the order backlog has reached 200,000, and Chemise Lacoste has also gotten an unexpected bonus. Catherine Lacoste, 22-year-old daughter of Founder Rene Lacoste, last month outplayed the pros and, as an amateur, won the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in Hot Springs, Va. "I don't know if it's because my daughter won or not," says Rene Lacoste with a smile, "but everybody seems to want our shirts now."

Complete article:

Time - 9/1/67

Additional images:

Gentry magazine, Summer 1953

Gentry magazine, Summer 1956

Ovid in Ossining

It is the peculiar and original genius of Novelist John Cheever to see his chosen subject—the American middle class entering the second decade of the Affluent Society—as figures in an Ovidian netherworld of demons. Commuterland, derided by cartoonists and deplored by sociologists as the preserve of the dull-spirited status seeker, is given by Cheever's fables the dignity of the classical theater.

All this has escaped attention largely because the U.S. bourgeoisie has not been encouraged to think well of itself; indeed, it has been made accustomed to having its very virtues excoriated by the writing classes. More important, Cheever, like a demiurge disguised in street clothes, has hidden the demonic quality in his work under the conventional natural-shoulder style of the realistic story.

Source:

Ovid in Ossining - Time Magazine - 3/27/64

Goodbye to Wing Tips

In 1972 the corporation-lawyer look—three-piece Yale-gray suits, white shirts and club ties—got a credibility rating of 81%; this year the figure plummeted to 57%. Meanwhile, the mod suit with wide lapels and nipped waist worn over a pastel-patterned shirt zoomed upward in credibility from 28% to 63%.

Goodbye to Wing Tips - Time Magazine - 11/19/73

With Their Socks Off

At Harvard, going sockless is to the "preppy-clubby" set what the armless sweatshirt is to the athletic crowd.

With Their Socks Off - Time Magazine - 11/11/66

The Brick-Red Look

We'll start with an article that shows the national reach of the casual side of the Ivy League Look.

The Brick-Red Look - Time Magazine - 2/7/55

The Look. Because the new single-breasted suits closely resemble those peddled for years to Eastern college students by Brooks Brothers, retailers refer to the new styles as the Ivy League Look.