Do I feel Ivy Part Two starting to take shape here?

I'm hoping!

Last edited by Alex Roest (2009-12-31 10:20:41)

More 'adult' & serious, is it fair to say?  A step up.

Ian Strachan had previously worked for John Stephens on Carnaby Street before he was to manage the Brewer Street Squire Shop and then The Ivy Shop. He left John Stephens without ever looking back. The lack of quality is what he remembers most about those early John Stephens days.

Aljazz - more questions I'm afraid.

Re. your trousers in these photos, in particular the parts obscured in the photos:
were they hipster? (if not, what sort of rise?)
what were the pockets like?
any other details?

I have a reason for this curiosity; I have had 2 pairs of trousers made recently, both the same fit (different cloth), I fancy a change for the next pair but I lack inspiration.

Thanks for the help.

Last edited by Yuca (2010-01-01 06:50:44)

A shade more vintage Paddy I found this afternoon:

"Hello Alex and I thank you for your continued interest. Few others know or care as far as I can see. You needed contacts and more than that you needed family. Before we flew to New York we recieved clothing catalogues and items of clothing from our cousins. At first New York came to us more than we came to New York. To wear real American IL in London would have taken a millionaire without the right connections. Hatton garden and the diamond trade is the secret behind this. Out of all the trades the Diamond trade brought in the most money and opened the world up to us at the same time. An uncle would bring a shirt. A cousin would bring a jacket. In return you sent them home with English items and there is another part of the story:- In America they wanted English items and not American."


"It is a pleasure for me to write to you and I welcome your sincere interest. I am not looking at the forum at all now. Whatever I write for you is yours to use as you please. I am impressed that you want to tell this story in the first place.
I have read your other articles on the forum and recognise a lot of the other types of people who also shopped at the Ivy shop. They were younger than us and "mixed and matched" a lot more than we did. We went for a unified appearance which is why we moved on to the American shops as they filled the gaps that the Ivy shop left.
IL was the style of our counsins in America and we did envy them. The war has a lot to do with this. Some family members came to London or Manchester and some went to New York. Those who stayed at home were murdered leaving only a handfull in Paris. The war cast a long shadow on our lives. You kept your head down and you worked. I was only born in 1950 but for me the war was still a reality at home but forgotten when you ventured to central London and America to us was all that we wanted. The freedom and the style. The lack of restrictions. Which is why the clothes and the music became emblems for us. They were a way of rising up after the bad years. We took our lives back and we moved on and IL was all about moving on and joining the world. It was a style for everybody as America was a country for everybody.
Please feel very free to ask more Alex."

"Maroon and bottle green are very IL colours along with navy, olive green and all the different greys . Everything is one step back with IL, You make the foreground dull to draw attention to the background. If you know your art history you know where this comes from. It's that trick of drawing the eye into what you want people to see. Look at a painting and notice what you see:- The best pull you into the frame with them, They are all depth and no surface. A bad painting is the other way around and so with clothes. THAT is the IL trick. Making a show of there not being any obvious show."

"All menswear hangs from the shoulders and from the waist and so the importance of getting both right is the foundation of everything. The rise of the trousers and the position of the waistband is an especially overlooked area. The fact that clothing "hangs" is not much discussed either. Think of the cloaks which came before our jackets and you see the roots of all this in modern menswear. The jacket is a hanging garment and has to be cut as such."

Just read the article now. Good job, Alex. It's a valuable summary for those of us who often have no idea what you UK/Euro Ivy fans are talking about!

Strong work Alex, your essay is almost as pared down as the style itself. Wonderful to see the original input here as well, especially Paddy's contributions.

Last edited by Alex Roest (2010-01-02 04:44:48)