IvyGate Guide to That Ivy League Look
The Ivy League look came about as a result of an odd confluence of factors, the Cold War not excluded, but it exists today for one reason: looking out of place and loving it. A number of trends have ebbed and flowed through campuses throughout the Northeast in recently years—and more problematically through the parts of the country that don't include the Ivy League—wherein kids are wearing coral-colored pants embroidered with little whales and cable knit everything else. Throw in a tweed jacket for guys or a cardigan (worn over-the-shoulders of course) for girls, and it's a trope.
This isn't the place to judge style or taste. But it's the perfect place to judge people. A curious blog found its way into our inbox recently—curious because we thought it was a joke for a solid 2 days—that's focused entirely and specifically on Ivy Style. Forget tips for women, though, because in the good old days, the Ivy League was only for the dudes, the dudes with the money. It's just like this posted poem song, "The Ivy League Look," from Princeton's Triangle Club written in 1957:
Corduroy slacks disgust me
Black leather jackets are vile
Long greasy hair and blue suede shoes
Transform my blood to bile.
If you want everyone to accept you
As a modern American male
You must dress the way the magazines say
They dress at Harvard and Yale
Now, it wouldn't be as interesting if the editors of this blog weren't totally serious. It also would be less hilarious if the founder of the blog hadn't graduated from the University of California-Fullerton. In fact, none of the very short list of editors ever attended an Ivy League school, but they all do live in Cambridge and spend a lot of time watching the Ivy League happen.
Read the poem song in full, see some pictures of fur coats and ugly jackets, or just get some pointers on how to dress after the jump.
To write an IvyGate Guide to That Ivy League Look beyond the stereotypes already mentioned would inevitably be somewhat problematic. Ostensibly, people haven't been dressing like this for nearly half a century, although the J.Crew catalog does a hell of a job at reviving a lot of the classics! Or is it J. Press?
In the interest of tradition, we've selected a pretty choice group of images from the Ivy Style blog that tell the real truth about how people should be dressing in Providence, Hanover, Morningside Heights, Ithaca, Cambridge, Princeton, New Haven, and wherever in Philly the other one is.
1. Tweed, lots of tweed. And evidently, the ugly is new preppy. Although the author says these are one in a million you can definitely find them on men with walkers, and they're usually concealing a colostomy bag.
Somehow, I got hold of one when the owner wasn’t looking. It bears witness to the values of Ivy style: quality, smartness, practicality, longevity, thrift, stability. Custom made in the ‘40s by Langrock, then New Haven’s finest Ivy haberdasher (though more closely associated with Princeton, Langrock was originally founded in New Haven), the jacket’s superbly tailored tweed is hardy enough to deflect cannonballs.
2. Penny Loafers. If you had a pair of these when you were a kid, it was probably because you hated to tie your shoes, and your mom knew it. If you have a pair of these in college, it's probably for the same reasons.
In the shot below there’s great contrast between the formal and informal, as a pinned club collar is played against a sweater, cream socks and loafers:
3. Sweaters. Preferably with giant letters on them or in nonsensical color schemes. It's better if you earned the sweater before you spend several hundred dollars. Buying sweaters without earning them is super community-college.
Before 1894, when Yale adopted its special shade of blue (hex triplet #0F4D92), its school color was green.... Now that [the freshmen are] bulldogs, it’s time to start looking the part. First, a college sweater (1959):
4. Fur Coats. Yeah, I'm not sure why either. But it probably has to do with MONEY! Love money.
Our last two posts revolved around Princeton and the Roaring Twenties. Now we combine the two with images from a Charleston-themed party held at Princeton in 1949. Arriving fashionably late in dad’s coonskin coat:
Because, we like multi-part series so much—we like them more than we do old photos of guys in fur coasts and election day hats—we're thinking about doing a more modern version of all this. Any tips on what people are wearing now? Or not wearing?
Here's the poem song, too. As promised:
Ivy League Look
by Clark Gesner
From the Princeton Triangle Show After A Fashion 1957
© The Triangle Club of Princeton University
Corduroy slacks disgust me
Black leather jackets are vile
Long greasy hair and blue suede shoes
Transform my blood to bile.
If you want everyone to accept you
As a modern American male
You must dress the way the magazines say
They dress at Harvard and Yale
Though you’ve never been to college in your live long life
Never looked beyond the cover of a book
You can convince every chap that
You’re a Phi Beta Kappa
If you’ve gone and got that Ivy League Look
When the weather gets too chilly for Bermuda shorts
Take those red flannel longies off the hook
Just be sure that that trap
Has a button down flap
You’ve got to have that Ivy League Look
Alexander they say tried to conquer the world
With a helmet and a shield to boot
He should have known he would fail
With all that armor and mail
When all he needed was a Brooks Brothers suit
(They’re very stunning!)
If you’ve lost your shirt and everything at poker games
And a burlap bag is all that ain’t been took
Just be sure that that sack has a buckle in back
You’ve got to have that Ivy League Look
With this dashing new style you’ll be tapered and trim
Just a slender as a blushing bride
You’ll be the picture of grace
When you are viewed face to face
And quite invisible when seen from the side
(You’re almost nothing!)
It is crucial that the well dressed man be most precise
And should always dress exactly by the book
For with a two button coat, you’re just a Midwestern goat
With three you’ve got that Ivy League Look
(Won’t play the Rose Bowl)
Just dress the discreet way, the smart Rogers Peet way
You’ve got to have that Ivy League Look
(Just call me tweedy)
I’ve gone and got that Ivy League Look
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March 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
“Ivy League Look” is actually a song. The Triangle Club is a musical comedy group.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Any tips on what people are wearing now? Or not wearing?
one third athletic shorts and a sweatshirt, one tenth to a quarter gray high school math club t-shirt tucked into wranglers and belted, with k-swiss, with large enclaves of bermuda shorts and blazers and the few stragglers who hold on to their hollister tees and jeans of a similar make.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
there is no such thing as university of california fullerton. you’re probably thinking of cal state fullerton.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
It is an actual style with a pretty long history. More than you would ever want to know here: http://askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=41
March 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I just want to make note that the work of Clark Gesner reprinted here is a LYRIC, not a poem. There is a massive difference between the two, as the former is written for the purpose of being sung to a tune and the latter is written to be read on the page. Calling “Ivy League Look” a poem is no more correct than calling “Death of a Salesman” a novel.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
A curious blog found its* way, I think. Derp.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Just so you know that this Clark Gesner was not just a 1-hit wonder, he was the composer for “You’re a Good Man, Charley Brown” as well as numerous other songs for the Triangle Club during his time at Princeton. Regrettably, he died recently and we lost a great talent and a good person.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I realize that it would rob this article of its punchline, but if you had used the photo of the fur-coated Princetonian on the front page this story would have generated way more interest. He’s a complete cliche of how the world sees the Ivy League.
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
The Ivy Style blog is devoted mostly to discussing an older style of clothing that is not fashionable. I don’t read the blog religiously, and find some of the stuff a little silly, but even a cursory review makes clear that the authors aren’t frat boys from South Carolina who wear Vineyard Vines. Fans of Ivy (or “trad”) clothes are part of a very small and fairly obscure subculture, which is slowly dying out.
Anyhow, this makes the blog easy to lampoon. It’s not hard to bash non-conformists from the perspective of conformity. But it’s also not very interesting.
I think the fact that the editors didn’t go to Ivies (and don’t pretend that they did) is kind of nice. They’re not fifth-generation Yalies looking down on the peons who lack their old money pedigree; they’re just people who appreciate an essentially antiquated sartorial style and blog about it. So what if one of them went to an unprestigious state school in California?
Well, easy targets for the snark patrol, I guess. As we all learned in middle school, you’re always less likely to get teased if you like the same stuff as everyone else.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 am
That “older style of clothing that is not fashionable” has far more class than the clothing worn today which makes it impossible to distinguish a college student from an auto mechanic
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 am
Yes. I see that now.
Only aspiring Californian journalists really know about “Ivy” style. I think we have proved that here.
Best -
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
QUOTE: “The guy is an aspiring journalist looking to make his name with blogs like this.”
I don’t see how someone’s motive has anything to do with whether the product is good or not.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Personally, I feel it’s faintly digusting that a so-called ‘Ivy’ blog has contributors named ‘Schneider’, ‘Wasserman’, and ‘Ozer’ in its ranks AND dares to chastise others.
But what do I know, I’m just an Austro-Hungarian chinless wonder who went to Oxford (England, just in case).
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
LOL @ HochJunker. Crawl back to whichever Manchester workhouse you reared your ugly head from you social-climbing poser.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:43 am
Quote: “Crawl back to whichever Manchester workhouse you reared your ugly head from you social-climbing poser.”
There is no proof that the author of the “Ivy-Style” blog has any connection to Manchester.
I’m only posting this comment in the interest of fairness.
Best –
Russ.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:56 am
Well, I guess everyone now has read Christian’s response on his website, and I say all power to you Christian. Maybe he need to get a friend to write it for him, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t obviously upset (very upset) about real ivy leage students making fun of him for not having been one.
The Ivy Style site has been around now since 2008 (or at least since Google let anyone use the old LIFE magazine pics)and therefore is one of the oldest Ivy Style sources of information there is.
And he dresses (now at least) like a grown up.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Low blow, Estes. If some high-ranking figure in the Ivy League publicly snarked about someone else not attending the Ivy League, as you have, I’m sure IvyGate would berate the shit out of him for being elitist. Have a little class.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I hear you, Y11, but don’t quite see that that’s what’s going on here. All Mr. Estes is doing it asking what this blog is.
We all find it kinda lame & I’ve questioned where it comes from (rightly or wrongly). Surely on Ivygate we can look at all things Ivy and try to make sense of them.
– What is the “Ivy-Style” blog all about?
March 24th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
“LOL@”- I bow to your superior knowledge, o garlic-scented son of Yaakov. You obviously know me.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
These guys are just nostalgic for the old school Ivy League and the style/culture it spawned. What’s confusing about that?
March 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
It seems to me that people today dress like children for most of their lives, and have a tendancy to think that only a fetishistic weirdo would ever actually dress like a grown man. I’m 32 years old. I remember being a kid and seeing my dad and his friends dress in real menswear to go to work, wearing casual menswear on the weekends. They looked differently and acted differently than the kids, and the kids were expected to reach this point somewhere around their 18th birthday.
If you want to spend your life in pajamas palying video games and shouting at the t.v. that’s your prerogative. But have some respect for us grown-ups please, kids.
Hell what do I know? I’m just a degenerate Italian, a product of the subhuman Catholic school system.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Giuseppe, are you anaffordablewardrobe.blogspot.com? If so, I LOVE it.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:38 am
“These guys are just nostalgic for the old school Ivy League and the style/culture it spawned. What’s confusing about that?”
- Nothing at all. But the blog is poor because they don’t know their subject and as I’ve said before it’s motivated by a desire to cash-in on the interest in this subject on places like ‘Ask Andy’. Why is the ‘Dandyism’ blogger suddenly doing an ‘Ivy’ blog?
March 25th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
@ Russell Street
Yeah, I bet they are “cashing in” on Ivy style. You sir are delusional.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Russell, I don’t think there’s a full understanding of what these blogs are doing. When you say “they don’t know their subject,” you seem to be implying that their subject is the Ivy League, and that’s not it. Their subject is this Trad style of dress that was, yes, borne largely out of the Ivy League, but it’s surely not confined to it. Plenty of non-Ivy Leaguers love this stuff, and these guys do know what they are talking about. Their articles are interesting, and the photos/old ads/song lyrics/etc. they post are great. And that’s where Ivy-Style is different from “Ask Andy.” The latter is a mess. The Andy forums have some interesting stuff, but the website is not presented in a coherent or navigable form with regular updates, and Ivy-Style fills that void (along with dozens of other Trad blogs.) Oh, and with regards to “Dandyism,” I think that style overlaps a lot with the stuff on “Ivy-Style,” so it makes sense. However, the style on “Ivy-Style” is much more pedestrian and far less creepy than that of “Dandyism.”
In terms of “cashing-in,” that’s what people do. They write books about things. People want to buy an encyclopedia of men’s clothes. Andy sells one. Supply. Demand. There’s nothing to say that this style shouldn’t be capitalized upon. Not an issue.
And with regards to the legitimacy of the style itself, I really love the tamer, more everyday side of the “Ivy-Style” — like that of anaffordablewardrobe.blogspot.com. Right, no one could get away with the fur coat and boater these days, and the salmon-colored blazer is fairly Godawful. However, a reasonable preppy, “Trad” style — tweed, brightly-colored sweaters, blazers, loafers, wingtips, etc. — if it fits well, is polished, mature, and fun. Rare as it is, it is definitely still found on campuses Ivy or otherwise, and it’s nice to see a varsity sweater and seersucker among a sea of gym shorts and sweatshirts.
And like Y11 said, there’s something more to these blogs than just clothes. I think the nostalgia on the blogs and in the style itself is quite charming.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:48 am
What lovely banter!
As the one who ‘trolled’ the author of the ‘Ivy-Style’ blog into doing it in the first place I relish all this hoo-ha (sp?).
I’ve made a study of all this in all its many aspects for the last 31 years & counting now… I even ‘trolled’ Ask Andy About Trad into being in the first place…
And nothing makes me happier than seeing newbies join the debate. Welcome aboard!
Enjoy the show because that is absolutely what it is.
Post often –
Russ. ;)
March 26th, 2009 at 6:26 am
I’m following this comment thread with interest but I am also confused. What pray is a Trade? Is being a Trade like dressing up for the sake of it without attending the school first?
Let’s get some prospective here please I mean. The man who writes Ivy Style is trying to help. Many people do not know what is the ivy styel really and cannot afford to go to school there. If you look at the ivy style you will see Christian is dressed well and understands these things and can explain them to everyone not just people who went to MIT. I think he may own a copy of Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly from the look of things but is that also Trade i ask myself? Probably yes. Is jazz Trade? Maybe.
From all the confusion i know that being a Trade is rough, just ask Andy.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
the pathetic loser Russell street, who was deformed in a car accident and so became an reclusive internet troll says over and over that he “trolled” Ivy-style into existence. he’s obvioiusly really jealous and desperately thinks he should get credit for the great work they do there
March 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
You folks are confused on a basic point:
“Ivy” style refers to the look popular in the 50s and 60s that was marketed under the name “Ivy League,” because it was associated with East Coast university culture.
Today, the term “Ivy” persists as a descriptor, but it has literally nothing to do with the 8 fine schools known as the “Ivy League.” Nothing. It’s an advertising trope that stuck.
No one on these blogs gives a rat’s xxx about what your average Cornell student is wearing to class these days. It’s all about a cut of jacket, a preference for clean lines, certain colorways and patterns. It’s purely about style.
The connection between “Ivy” style and the contemporary Ivy League is nil.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Ahhhhh!
I love the smell of hoo-ha in the morning!
Braunschuh is on the money!
“Sick O’Fanatic” makes me smile… I’d love to sell him a secondhand car one day… Who says I was deformed in a car crash? Who even says I’m an accountant from London?
You are a puppet, boy. Bow to your puppetmaster!
Best –
Russ. ;)
March 29th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Ahhhhh – I love the smell of Hoo-Ha in the morning…
Braunschuh is on the money!
“Sick O’Fantatic” makes me smile – Bow to your puppetmaster, puppet boy!
Best –
Russ. ;)
March 30th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Ooops! That was a bit of a give-away wasn’t it? I did one post & another member of team ‘Russell’ did the other. This is the first time we’ve slipped up like this since ‘04. An historic moment. No harm in telling you that there are currently six ‘Russells’ btw. Origionally there were four. At our peak there were 14 and all with multiple user names. But me? I’m just Jim.
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