12/18/2023 0 Comments Preppy.co.jp 2009 zacc splash![]() At least one of them was probably on campus when the Japanese Take Ivy photographers covered Dartmouth decades ago. Forest Service employees who started out in Dartmouth’s long established and highly regarded forestry program. On a slightly related topic I’ve only recently become aware that several acquaintances – ages ranging from mid-20s to early 70s – in the small, remote Western mountain town where I live are Dartmouth graduates. They wear them for decades as it pleases them and watch in bemusement or annoyance as fashion designers periodically issue clothing “inspired by” some era or activity that the original wearers can instantly spot as the attire of posers. I think there are similar phenomenons among men who like to wear items cued from their military service era, blue collar occupations, various outdoor sports cultures, Western wear and so forth. Likewise, emulating the most culturally specific items of British “country attire” (e.g., “breeks” with knee socks and waistcoats) strikes me as a costuming affectation whereas American outdoor clothing that originated 70-90 years ago (Filson cruisers, rubber leather “Bean boots”, etc.) doesn’t feel that way(to me). The fact that Ivy style periodically comes in and out of style for the general public or for foreigners – since the late ‘70s as a preppy caricature – may be either flattering or downright annoying to American men identify with Ivy styles but, ultimately, it’s irrelevant.īut don’t foreign men have some clothing culture of their own from prior decades with which they can identify? Periodically I’ve seen clothing items from British university traditions advertised for sale that – apart from the striped ties Americans adopted as our own “traditional” attire decades ago – never appeal to me since I don’t identify with the culture from which they came. I think that we appear as nothing more than a quaint affectation to most people. I think men of a certain mindset like to feel a sense of continuity with men from a prior era that they perceive to have been like themselves. This is meaningful not only to those who identify with the Ivy League colleges – which I don’t – but to those who went to other universities, especially Southern and Midwestern ones as many images on this blog attest. My view is that the Ivy look is, for many American men who attended universities, a way of dressing that helps them identify with American university men going back to about, say, the 1920s. I wonder what it means when people costume in clothing not only from a different era than they live in but from a different culture. I think the expression on the guy below says it all. The shots include a veritable checklist of the Ivy-Prep canon: Baracuta jackets knit, rep and bow ties wrinkled oxford-cloth buttondowns club collars university-stripe shirts cardigans duffle coats Fair Isle sweaters argyle socks cable-knit crewnecks desert boots penny loafers longwings engine-turned buckles madras and herringbone. It’s a sign of what’s to come in the photos, which are a kind of cross between modern prep and the Japanese book “Take Ivy,” as seen through the eyes of a European fashion photographer. The splash page features suede tassel loafers and cuffed trousers with no break. You know that’s the case when European artists start getting in on it.Ĭlose Up And Private is a “photo project” (I couldn’t tell if it was a clothing line or an online magazine, and apparently it’s neither) by Danish photographer Sergei Sviatchenko. OK, I think it’s time to accept that this Ivy-is-the-new-preppy thing may be much bigger than we expected. It’s worth a re-look as the artist in question is still at it (we’ll look at his recent work in a future post), and the combination of items in the photos - which include rumpled oxfords, knit tie with cardigan, and pink and green - serves as a perennial guide for the trad novice. ![]() This is one of our first posts categorized under Ivy Trendwatch back in 2009.
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