Personally "I'm a hopelessly committed student to the New England/Mid-Atlantic Trad I learned long ago".
But you don't have to be!
Yrs,
Slave to the Weejun.
Just thought of Kerouac in his (maybe) Brooks Bros. suit with a kinda Jazzy tie (Huge Paisley) :
http://27.media.tumblr.com/AhHLjGs1Vqrx0qf1Oj2AfMTfo1_500.gif
If we start in on 'Is XYZ Ivy?' we could all end up like the Trads!
No, seriously:
When the (Modern) Jazz scene adopted the Ivy League look, they changed the notion about what was considered a "jazzy look"...
Of course, not everyone would have changed his look completely, but in most cases it would have been a clear break.
Here's some information about the earlier "American style in London" (as sold by Cecil Gee and his imitators) before Ivy became hip, and about youth culture (Spivs/Teds) before the "Mod era":
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/uploads/docs/Horn%20chapter%205.pdf
http://forums.filmnoirbuff.com/viewtopic.php?id=6137
I think we've also mentioned something about that crossover in the thread about "Hampton Hawes' collar"...
Mr B (Eckstine) collars, hand printed wide ties, DB suits with pin stripes etc...
Kerouac was more into work wear - its documented he had one suit, a Brooks that he bought for interviews at the time of the publishing of On The Road. He didn't really wear Ivy.
He was an outsider, a classic drop out and was at university on a football scholarship. And on graduation day, he was outside the hallowed halls of academia, ostracised and drinking sweet wine. He was never part of any East coast establishment.
There's a perception that the Beats belong to modern and cool jazz. And although Chet Baker gets an honourable mention in the Dulouz Legend, the original Beats were pure 1940's bebop.
Kerouac sports this suit on the Steve Allen show back in 1959:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCF6hgEfto
They would work well with 'Continental Cut' undarted (sack?) suits, a 40's-ish vibe. Good on nights out, less a work look.
They do appeal to my inner ham, I must admit!
Some astonishingly fantastic ties to be had by Polo it has to be said, vastly underated.
They scream "retro" because they sport a pattern reminiscent of a relatively short stylistic period.
I don't have many ties but I prefer them to be either puzzlingly conservative, or to almost disappear.
^And isn't that the spirit of Ivy, conservative and yet timelessly, classicaly cool.