Flat fronts & heavy shoes.
Short hair and a streamlined appearance.
It's a hard look, albeit softly constructed, when compared to other style options.
It's very male.
The Boys know the look & love it, although it was never a registered 'Clone' style over here (not sure about in the pre-Preppy US).
The right sort of girl responds to it too (They're on Facebook, they don't touch these forums).
Ivy can be sexy.
... Which takes it back to its roots. It was never an 'old man' style. It was just that the young spunkers who wore it eventually grew old.
Time to claim that aspect of Ivy back.
It's a young, clean, sexy style.
Far more male than 'Preppy'.
It was a style that was made for you to get laid in!
Hello Russel, still keeping everyone on their toes I see
Denise xx
Kingy - I think that you yourself said (and you were there) that the suits & jackets at the Ivy / Squire shop were of very little interest to most.
It was all the other stuff that had the pulling power.
The right shirt with the right shoes.
Im very good thank you Just been taking it easy for a while and enjoying the summer....
BIG steve laughs everytime I tell him you call him that, at 5' 10" I think the camera angle makes him look bigger than he is. Either that or the fact that he's stood next to me and im only 5' 2"
From what I've read - learned? - Ivy style on the campuses and around the haunts of the affluent was supposed to be safely asexual: non-threatening: and that is a look I've worked myself into: the glasses, the jackets, the brogues, the battered leather case. Suits me now I'm middle aged. Some women, however, respond to certain colours: navy, maroon. They also seem to like a seersucker jacket.
...and that 'non-threatening' style can do you a lot of favours....
I suppose this is one way in which the UK 'twist' comes into it - 'subversive' perhaps, 'alien' certainly.
"Flat fronts & heavy shoes.
Short hair and a streamlined appearance.
It's a hard look, albeit softly constructed, when compared to other style options.
It's very male."
I have allways deemed this to be a very male look. clean, sharp, intimidating even.
The few photos I have of my uncle in finest ivy shop regalia circa 69 are in this vein: 842 style, crisp ocbd, tapered trous, heavy wingtips or plains.
emphasis on hair, shirt, shoes. The anglo subcultral influence?
Talking to my dad..But it wasn't worn for fighting but for pulling. your not going to fight it out in your best no?
I can't see this end of things being asexual either..
Certain anecdotal evidence suggests that birds were not a big deal even for some of the pre-RSG mods and that some were even overt homosexuals (see Melly's 'Revolt Into Style') as a way of rebelling against the dilution of the style (around 1962-63?) I don't know because I was still playing with my tin toys at the time.
Fair point, I should have said 'added to their appeal' rather than 'played a significant part'.
I think Russell Street's good friends might have been gay mods to some degree. At least, Paddy mentioned listening to Kim Weston and he has a penchant for suits that suggests 'Top Mod'. 29.
Despite a number of books on the subject, the 50s/60s mod movement has not been properly documented imo.