Ivy for me is all about mixing dichotomous notions of sloppy AND sharp.  I love a sharp silhouette, with clean lines on the undarted jacket drape and trousers.  But then you have a soft natural shoulder and the sloppy beauty of a nice billowy traditional cut shirt.

Using celebrity examples, ivy can run the gamut from the "sloppiness" of guys like Woody Allen and Perkins to the sharpness of Holden and Poitier and Dick Van Dyke.  You can get in the middle of that spectrum with guys like Warren Beatty or Paul Newman.  I'm just mentally flipping through the pages of HWATIL here.

I say this as someone obviously very invested in selling vintage, and with no qualms about it because it is what I love and what I'm good at, but in my own personal wardrobe what I love about vintage Brooks is that it doesn't look "vintage" in the same way that old Clipper Craft or Cricketeer looks vintage. You can wear it without looking like a 60s reenactor. And for some guys here the die hard mid-century look is the way to go, and for those guys I say "more power to you," it's a look that takes decidation and the right hair the right physique etc. But personally, in my own career and my own look, I've always had one foot in contemporary menswear and I've found that the real beauty of vintage Brooks is that it works well in any context. I buy plenty of new clothes. New Alden, new Levis, new Andover Shop, etc, and with old Brooks there is this overriding classicism that transcends any particular decade. The lapels are never too narrow, the tailored softness and the handwork really doesn't exist these days outside of Italy. Sure you can spend 800 on contemporary Southwick at O'Connell's or wherever and it might look as good as old Brooks but will it look better? Sure, if the simple fact that it is new and not used gives you some satisfaction, then by all means go for it. But I can say from experience that owning some of the best contemporary hand-tailoring from Italy and the US(both MTM and off tge rack) has enhanced, not deminshed, my appreciation of vintage Brooks Brothers. At the time it really was world class. For me, it isn't about the textbook replication of a bygone era, it is about enjoying the accessibility that great tailoring once had and probably wont again.

the real deal from Mr Thin Repp