In keeping with Clarks’ odd colour descriptions for their desert boots here is a new colour for AW 2012/13 - Amber Gold. Tobacco or light snuff by any other description, it’s a classic vintage colour with not too much dye on the crepe sole edges.
So far they’ve called a loden green ‘tobacco’, black green ‘loden’, snuff ‘cola’, the honey suede ‘maple’, the coca cola coloured dark brown is just, well, brown. Let’s not even mention ‘wolf’ that is really the colour of … ‘mices’.
Still at least they’ve inroduced a classic colour this time amongst the many appalling motor home style carpet material and hideous britpop finishes.
I remember buying my first new button down shirt (as opposed to second hand from Flip) from that well stocked shelf. A Sero blue S/S in the spring of 83. A week’s wages.
Funny that in 1981, jackets were a ‘reasonable’ £120 and 31 years later the Keydge jackets are still on £159. Most people today have no concept of how expensive good clothes once were.
Young Proprietors
A charming feature from Men’s Wear trade journal, published on 30 July 1981, very soon after the opening of J.Simons at 2 Russell Street. Nice quote from John : “Ours is an all-American, masculine look but not an extreme macho one. Our customer wants to dress like Anthony Perkins or Robert Redford. He is a man who probably travels a lot and more than likely knows Brooks Brothers. We are also getting a lot of the boys who shopped at (The) Ivy (Shop) and who have become nostalgic for the good old days.”
Dick Van Dyke Wears Boom Years Ivy in ‘Divorce American Style’ 1967
Read on…
‘Traditionally cut jackets have natural shoulders, three buttons’
Ah - words to make the Ivyists pulse race. Of the hundreds of old ads and features from mid-century editions of Esquire that Graham Marsh and I rummaged through when planning The Ivy Look this I think was my favourite. This delights in every detail - fit, colours, shoes and haircuts - all have that soft elegance that is so central to my notion of the Ivy look. The contemporary purists these days lecture on natural fibres and the 3 to 2 roll, yet the impeccable seersucker sported by these dapper chaps is ‘Dacron-cotton’ and the top button is done up on a number of their jackets. This is a minor, but revealing detail, and with Ivy, detail sure matters.
Cut Loose in Career Club Shirts.
(Nice madras surcingle there, too)
Nice ‘non-obvious’ checks and stripes in popover BDs with unlined collars from JSA.
that’s John Simons Apparel for those on the US side of the Atlantic.
No boats here today, but a full-on squall nevertheless.
The Jack Purcell version of the iconic Sperry Topsider CVO
Whatever happened to ‘real’ surcingle belts and what does everyone mess with the details?
Early 60s Glen Plaid Summer Weight Suit by Golden Needle.
The best fitting vintage ivy style jacket I ever found was by Golden Needle a sub-brand of the Manhattan Shirt Company. The moths got that one about 15 years ago, but I couldn’t resist this suit from the always resourceful Newton St Vintage
The trousers may be a tiny bit too short even for traditional highwaters but the jacket will get worn regardless.
It’s that kind of day today. Still we do need rain.