Ivy Fashion vs. Ivy Style, 1957

Briefly, fashion is what a person wears. Style is how he (and especially she) wears it. Fashion, at its best, is mode, vogue; at its worst it is fad, craze or rage. Style is class, character, distinction, manner. It is personal, non-transferable, and it can't be bought with money.
...

This "ivy league" business that has sold so well to men in the last year or two is an example. It has been the fashion, may still be. But that sure doesn't mean that every character who wears stove-pipe pants and narrow necktie is in "style." Some, despite the belts on the back of their caps and the charcoal in their flannels, look as if they belonged in the zoot suit. And they can't help that, either. The real "ivy" look is best achieved by wearing a narrow-lapel "natural" coat that you bought in New England in 1946 - when it was not in fashion - and that you have worn ever since, no matter what the fashion experts said about it.

Fashion distinguishes the society as a whole. It is the leveler that tends to make each person look like the next. Style distinguishes the individual, sets him apart and keeps the world mindful of the fact that the individual's individual personality is a precious thing, not to be sacrificed on the altar of absolute conformity.

Source:

Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard - 5/17/57

Stuart's Clothiers, 1960

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Stuart's Clothiers on College Avenue in Ithaca, New York, was opened in 1957. Stuart's was founded by Irv Lewis and his son Stuart ("Stu"), who graduated from college and joined the family's retail clothing business in 1956. They saw a need for an exclusive men's shop near the Cornell campus and Stuart's, according to a 1968 advertisement, featured the "traditional approach and the university trend towards apparel."

Although Stuart's closed shop many years ago, Stu Lewis is still in Ithaca. If you ever find yourself in the market for house in the area, give Stu a call.

The Heartbreak Campaign, 1968

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"In 1968, with the country divided over the war in Vietnam, the Democratic Party struggled to rally behind a candidate. Amid this political turbulence, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, guided by a set of principles and his burning opposition to the war, entered the race. The party establishment reacted with dismay, but his candidacy, coming just five years after the assassination of his brother John F. Kennedy, filled the electorate with hope—a hope that met a violent end just a few months later."

Source:

Vanity Fair and the Google LIFE photo archive (with inspiration from FNB Talk Ivy)

Zoot Sims at Monterey, 1971

(go on...click it)

Source:

Paul Slaughter Photography via JazzWax

Calvin Trillin, The Ivy Look (and GHW Bush)

When I was home during a Yale break, my father would usually insist on taking me for a clothes-shopping expedition that I look back on as something close to a parody of the cultural tensions in store for a Midwestern family that sent a son to a place as removed from our experience as Yale then was. Even if I had gone to the University of Missouri, shopping for clothes would have presented a problem for us. My father was a strong believer in highly shined shoes and carefully folded pocket handkerchiefs; by his standards, I was only sporadically presentable. The outings were doubly complicated by the fact that what was to be called the Ivy Look had not yet made its way across the country, so the clothes for sale in even the best stores in Kansas City simply didn't look much like what people at Yale wore. Somehow, I couldn't get this across to my father. As we drove home from Wolff Brothers and Jack Henry Men's Clothing, having bagged only a single shirt or a pair of trousers I knew I'd never wear, the silence in the car was less comfortable than the silence had been in those drives to the city market.

Source:

Messages From My Father: A Memior, Calvin Trillin, 1997

Alice and Calvin Trillin on their wedding day, 1965 (NY Times)

Bush's Munchies A Preppie Journal: Up From Pork Rinds

By Calvin Trillin

I realize that I was expected to take a stand on pork rinds right away. Last month, when George Bush mentioned his love of pork rinds as an example of why he has been unfairly typed as a rich Eastern preppy, it was my role as a columnist to say something like, "That does it: Anybody who eats pork rinds is a regular guy." Or, if I had remained unimpressed, "Pork rinds served in silver bowls that have been in the family for generations don't count."

Before I discussed the matter, though, I wanted to consult an old college friend of mine who's a rich Eastern preppy. I wanted to find out whether a rich Eastern preppy who was caught eating pork rinds would lose his certification. But my friend, Thatcher Baxter Hatcher, was away on a yachting trip.

I might as well admit that Thatcher Baxter Hatcher is not the only rich Eastern preppy I number among my acquaintances, even though I'm a regular guy who enjoys nothing more than a package of barbecue-flavored corn-nuts washed down with a six-pack of Grain Belt. I know several rich Eastern preppies, all of whom have three last names, and the sort of nickname you might give a hound dog - Brewster Barton (Pudge) Brewton, say, or Thorton Horton (Mutt) Houghton.

But I decided to wait for Thatcher Baxter Hatcher, because he's a particularly authentic example of the type. He has three last names, of course, and a nickname (Tush). He wears pink button-down shirts that he bought in 1954. He talks with his teeth clenched, in an accent most scholars of the American vernacular refer to as Locust Valley Lockjaw. He plays a game called court tennis, which has rules so complicated that you can understand them only if your grandfather understood them.

A long time ago, Thatcher Baxter Hatcher took me to some parties at the fancy clubs he belongs to. I sure didn't see any pork rinds. I would have noticed if there had been any, because, considering the food I was given at those parties, I would have been grateful for the appearance of a package of stale Cheese Doodles.

I discovered that people in a truly fancy club eat food that has no taste at all; I later realized that they associate spices and garlic and schmaltz with just the sort of people they're trying to keep out of the club.

Anyway, as soon as Tush Hatcher returned from his yachting trip, I dropped by to see him at his place in Long Island. He brought a tray of drinks out to the porch, and I was astonished to see that what he brought for us to nibble on was a bowl full of Doritos jalapeno-flavored taco chips.

"I didn't know you folks ate this sort of thing, Tush," I said.

"They're my favorites, except maybe for smokey bacon-flavored potato chips," he said.

"Well, I'm amazed, Tush," I said. "I just assumed that what you would have with a drink was some of those finger sandwiches that taste like balsa wood."

"Then you remember the food at our clubs," Thatcher Baxter Hatcher said. ''Well, boarding school food is even worse, so all of us get hooked on packaged junk. We all ate so many of those little packages of crackers with peanut butter that some people think that's why we can't separate our teeth when we talk."

"I never knew, Tush," I said.

"Beer nuts," he said. "Beef jerky. Corn chips. Cheese-flavored popcorn."

"But surely not pork rinds," I said.

"Oh, sure," Tush said. "Remember Parsons Peyton Perkins?"

"Pork Perkins?"

"Exactly. How do you think he got that name? Eating pork rinds at the St. Paul's School."

I guess George Bush is going to have to come up with something else to eat if he wants to get de-typed. I suggest that he reveal an addiction to Frito Pie, a Texas specialty that's made by pouring chili - canned chili in the absolutely authentic version - into a package of Fritos and shaking vigorously. I'm sure it's safe. Thatcher Baxter Hatcher had never heard of Frito Pie, and when I described it to him he just shuddered.

Source:

Bush's Munchies A Preppie Journal: Up From Pork Rinds (August 18, 1988)

George Peppard, 1961

George Peppard in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

(with the hope that there might be one person that hasn't seen this before; or maybe this one...)

J. Press, 1952

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Button Down Shirts - Full cut, pullover style with wide back panel pleat - unlined collar and cuffs - buttoned down collar points, collar back and pocket flap.

Source:

Gentry Magazine - #5, Holiday Issue 1952, courtesy of DixieRising on The Curriculum

H. Freeman & Son, Naturalaire, 1961

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Source:

Cornell Daily Sun - 11/28/61

Pause for Coke!, 1960

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Pat Conroy: Gant shirts and Weejuns

"Oh we have to. We just have to. We have to make the scene at the Shack. My daddy told me to show you where all the gang hangs out. Jim Don has a new Impala. He packed tomatoes last summer and made enough money for a big down payment. Are those Weejuns you're wearing?" she asked Ben.

"What?" Ben asked.

"Weejuns. Loafers. Everyone at school wears Weejuns."

"No, they're just loafers. I don't know what kind they are."

"That's a Gant shirt, isn't it?"

"It might be. Mom bought it at the PX yesterday."

"No, it's not Gant," she said impatiently. "The PX doesn't sell them and there's no loop at the back."

"It's Ivy League, though," Ben offered. "It's got buttons on the collar."

"That's no big deal."

From:

The Great Santini, Pat Conroy, 1976
______________________________________________

"You guys have got the worst sense of style I've ever seen. Why don't you wise up and buy a couple of Gant shirts. And you're the only two guys at the school who don't wear Weejuns. Man, everyone on the team's got Weejuns."

"I don't like Weejuns," Luke said.

"Yeah, I bet you like those shit-kicking tennis shoes a lot better," he said, laughing as I laced up my shoes. "What kind of shirt is that you're wearing, Tom?"

He pulled back my collar and read the label.

"Belk's." He sneered in disbelief. "A Belk's polo shirt. Jesus Christ. That's embarrassing. I'm nominating you two for Bess Dressed in the Senior Superlatives. You've worn the same pair of khakis for two straight weeks, Tom."

"No, I haven't," I protested. "I've got two pairs of khakis. I alternate them."

"That's pitiful. That's just plain pitiful. Not at all cool. Not fitting the image at all."

From:

The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy, 1986

[Ed. note: Setting is coastal South Carolina (the "Lowcountry"), ca. 1961]

Harley-Davidson, 1967

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Not particularly Ivy, but a nice ad nonetheless.

Source:

LIFE magazine - 5/19/67, via the Retro Press blog

Courteous Treatment, Right Prices, 1908

Source:

Yale Lit. Advertiser, supplement to the Yale Literary Magazine, December 1908

Tiger Rags

A key aspect of student culture that changed with some frequency was personal appearance. Like their college peers elsewhere, young Princetonians were keenly responsive to national fashion trends for both youth and adults, particularly those emanating from New York clothiers, from which many of their fathers took their sartorial cues. But for the first six decades of the last century they also tried to fashion a recognizable "Princeton style," whose distinctiveness some popular magazines were all too ready to certify. In most aspects, however, these various expressions of Tiger fashion were widely shared with - if not borrowed from - other eastern colleges, especially their Big Three competitors in all things. The "Princeton Look" was in reality an "Ivy Look," which in turn was largely traceable to an eastern prep school template. Only when Princeton diversified its student body, when the numerical and social dominance of prep schoolers declined substantially in the 1960s and the attendant "cultural revolution" took adolescent fashion in strange new directions, did Princeton dress drift away from a single stereotype. A partial return to "preppiness" in the late 1970s could not prevent the new-millennial "Princeton Look" from resembling ever so strongly the sartorial heterogeneity of most American campuses.

Source:

The Making of Princeton University, James Axtell, 2006

Mach 3 in a sack suit, Kiplinger, 1959

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Source:

Changing Times, The Kiplinger Magazine, October 1959

Milton Academy, 1960s

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Yale Freshmen, 1964

(click to see uncropped original)

Source:

Google's LIFE photo archive (click link for more related images)

J. Press, 1975

Source:

Heavy Tweed Jacket blog - Trad Shop - J. Press 1975

Gentry Fashions...for the undergraduate, 1952

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The muffler-toque is rather strange, isn't it?

Source:

Gentry Magazine - Issue #4, 1952 (via flickr)

Chipp, 1952

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The Chipp Ready-Cut is designed with soft natural fronts, shoulders without padding and small lapels...all important details of the conservative styling for which we are well-known.

Source:

Gentry Magazine - #5, Holiday Issue 1952, courtesy of DixieRising on The Curriculum

Thoughts?

This blog is now in its fifth month and I've made over 100 posts. Although comments are few and far between, I can see that many of you return on a regular basis. I'm appreciative of the regular readers and to Longwing, Heavy Tweed Jacket, and Ivy Style (edit: and Patrick and Conor) for linking this blog on their sites.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this blog. Do you find it worthwhile? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? Do you have any ideas for new posts? Send an e-mail or comment directly under this post.

Thanks for reading!

The Brooks Brothers Look, 1953

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THE BROOKS BROTHERS LOOK
has been an outstanding tradition
with generations of undergraduates

Source:

Cornell Daily Sun - 10/14/53

Saks - The University Shop Shirts, 1959

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Source:

SI - 10/19/59

Central Harlem and Tweed, 1950s Gang Fashion

Gang styles could be quite surprising, given the class origins of gang members. For example, for a period in the 1950s, African-American gangs in Central Harlem wore gray flannel suits or took to the streets in the "Ivy League look," with Harris tweed sports jackets, narrow dress slacks, dress shirts, and striped ties.
...

While zoot suits shouted defiance of the dominant culture, flannel suits and tweed sports jackets subverted it. These clothes were more subtle in message, serving to confound the expectations of police, parents, and other onlookers. African-American gang members inverted the meaning of gray flannel suits - the foremost symbol of the dominant white culture - simply by having them adorn their black bodies. Instead of merging into what white critics saw as faceless corporate culture, gang members used the suits to make themselves visible, both to their working-class parents and to the dominant culture they defied.

Source:

Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York, Eric C. Schneider, 2001

Ivy League Look is Now Thing of Past, 1958

Fashion Experts Say Ivy League Look Is Now Thing of Past

The California Men's Apparel Club, currently conducting showings for buyers here, says the Ivy League look is a thing of the past. It's retreating to the Eastern campuses whence it came.

"The young executive look is the thing now," a Calmac spokesman said.

What's the difference?

The "young executive" is not so tight or short in the trouser legs.

"More what a young banker would wear," the spokesman observed.

Other trends: Colors are dark. Ties are a little wider and whiter, the three-button sack suit is still tops, materials are lighter in weight and synthetics are king.

Source:

Ocala (Florida) Star Banner - 1/13/58