The Ivy Look Classic American Clothing - An Illustrated Pocket Guide

by Marsh, Graham; Gaul, J.P.

• ISBN13: 9780711231382
• ISBN10: 0711231389
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-01
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

A pictorial celebration of the clothing and accessories that dominated the American male dress code from 1955 to 1965. Democratic, stylish and comfortable, the Ivy Look was the height of cool, worn by presidents and hipsters alike, and its impact and influence can be seen to this day in the clothes of designers such as Ralph Lauren, and in the continuing popularity of classics like the Harrington jacket and Levi's 501s. Digging deep into the vaults, the book combines new illustrations and still life shots of original clothing and accessories with contemporary magazine advertisements, key movie posters and album cover art, and photographs of icons like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Miles Davis to bring the Ivy Look into sharp focus.

Author Biography

Art director, illustrator, and author Graham Marsh has written and art directed many groundbreaking visual books. His illustrations have appeared in magazines, newspapers, and on many CD and album covers, and he has contributed to numerous publications including Country Life and the Financial Times. He lives in London.J.P.GAUL has long had a fascination with American clothing styles of the 1950s and 1960s, a passion nurtured whilst working at J.Simons' legendary clothes shop in central London. A jazz and architecture fan, he is also a regular blogger on all matters sartorial. This is his first book. He lives in North London.

Table of Contents

Contents



FOREWORDPage 12



THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IMPORTEDPage 14



SHOESPage 22

Stop Talking, Start Walking.

These shoes have sole.



SHIRTSPage 48

Button-downs, Tab collars and

the meaning of 16-34.



SUITS AND JACKETSPage 72

Mr Natural. Narrow lapels to go,

hold the double-breasted.



TROUSERSPage 102

Ivy trousers are always flat front -

no matter what the fashion pundits say.



MODSPage 122

London calling. The original Ivy suited

Modernists make the scene.



AN IVY LOOK FOR ALL SEASONSPage 132

Spring forward, Fall back.



CONTINENTAL DRIFTPage 156

From Saint-Germain-des-Pres to

the Via Veneto, the Ivy influence prevails.



HAT CHECKPage 168

Hats guaranteed to give you a head start.



EAST MEETS WESTPage 180

East beats West.



IVY CULTURE AND THE

CREATIVE IMPULSEPage 184

Music, architecture, art and design.



REST AND RECREATIONPage 190

Foreign wheels and a pack of Luckies.



STEVE MCQUEENPage 198

The best-dressed bad boy in Hollywood.



SHOP AROUNDPage 202

Where to find the good stuff. Stores, catalogues

and websites.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPage 206

Excerpts

THE BUTTON DOWN COLLAR

The French novelist Gustave Flaubert once wrote “Be regular and ordinary in your

life, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” Miles

Davis, the embodiment of hip and the coolest man on the planet from the early 1950s

until his death in 1991 certainly subscribed in part to Flaubert’s credo. On the cover of

his 1958 album Milestones Davis subverted a standard issue garment that Joe College

claimed his own by wearing an immaculate green oxford cloth button-down shirt. It

was the Ivy look with attitude.

A host of new, young Hollywood Method actors such as Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Montgomery Clift and the epitome of the Ivy look, Anthony Perkins, also favoured this comfortable, quintessentially American collared shirt. When starring in the Hitchcock movie Psycho, Perkins took care of business at The Bates Motel wearing a corduroy

Ivy League suit, desert boots and a white button-down shirt, he looked as sharp as his mother’s knife.

The button-down shirt had come a long way from its origins on the Polo fields of England, which is where, in 1900, John Brooks, president of Brooks Brothers first saw that polo players had fastened their collars with buttons to keep them from snapping in their faces. Brooks took the idea back to New York where to this day it is the best use a sewing machine has ever been put to. George Frazier, the late, great taste master and columnist for The Boston Globe on the subject of the button-down shirt summed it up this way, “The roll of the collar, that’s the most important thing.”