You nailed it, Liam.
It's because he was an Irish-Catholic Democrat who understood the look well enough to rub elbows with WASP Republicans; this was a big deal at the time. I suppose that's more toward American aspirational Ivy than the overseas cool look... Ivy for Everyone?
Last edited by katon (2012-01-09 17:34:35)
A lot of romantic myths about JFK. Most of the candid shots and "home" movies are professionally shot publicity. He was held together by steroids and corsets. He did good, especially for Civil Rights, but his legacy has entered the realm of myth.
He didn't dig jazz, snubbing Ellington in a humiliating and public way. It was left to bad-guy Nixon to honour this great of American music, recognising Ellington as "his generation" at the Whitehouse event in his honour back in 1970.
JFK's jowels are interesting too, very typical of the Desperate Dan steroids look. I recognise because my father had the same, who took steroids for fifteen years.
He never wore hats, because this accentuated this detail: a bloated look across the face.
Didn't he have Cushings or something? He wasn't really a well chap.
http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g35.htm
Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2012-01-10 01:26:09)
Why should he like jazz?
Hepcat, this is starting to sound like the discourse terror you got from blogs like Ivy Style etc...
"If one likes the Ivy look, they also have to be crazy about college life, frat boy songs and have to share what someone might term WASP values or old money attitudes or you would have to defend the political interests of the establishment"...
Let#s at least pretend we#re different over here. Of course, I like jazz, too, but that#s not my point....
JFK had style. When he went to the White House Ivy Style moved in with him. He was soaked in that culture. Sorry, if that sounds vague. He had the great looks that made him the Ivy poster boy president.
Of course, his trademark style is a "deviation" or at least "variation" of the prototypical Ivy Look as represented by the Brooks #1 and its countless copies/variations from J.Press to all the little Boom Years makers and merchants...
Over here we are purists, we are not dogmatical.
He looks great in his suits and sportscoats as well as in his casual attire.
Carpu, Ivy Style is not only about the marketing/tailoring term for suits and sportscoats, it refers to various casual clothes, some of which even originated on the Continent. That was the point of the Marsh/Gaul books. Or one of the points... It wasn't an argumentative text. The points are made through pictures...
The so-called GTH look is just one manifestation. It's not that Ivy Style equals lobster pants. Don't get fooled by the clowns!
Had he lived, and maybe served two terms, history would judge him differently. The more I read about him, the more I feel sympathy for him. But I don't think he was very likeable as a human being. Bobby and Teddy were almost certainly worse - although Bobby was a late, naive convert to the issue of 'Civil Rights'. JFK - and then Johnson - needed the support of Southern Democrats.
The clothes are kind of hit and miss. 'Esquire' did a good piece on JFKs style: generally restrained. He, McQueen (gasp!) and a handful of others have become 'Ivy icons', in the sense that the majority admire - even worship - their style: hence the 'Bullitt' jacket etc. Thank heaven, then, for 'Hollywood And The Ivy Look, with its pictures of Rock Hudson, Jeffrey Hunter and Bill Cosby. Time now, perhaps, for pictures of unfamous people wearing suits, ties and big shoes, just going about their business.
Not a bad idea!
Another interesting thing would be a book with apparel arts illustrations depicting natural shoulder style, Ivy adverts of all sorts and maybe some catalogue scans....
I agree with Carpu. There is an IvyGent cult worship of Democrats on here. JFK was a serial philanderer who cheated on Jackie. Those happy family pictures make me puke. He was just another lying, cheating politician.
There might be a cult about certain "icons" here, but I think there's no bias towards either side of the political spectrum here.
Maybe? (Does that sound like Jimbo? A little bit.)
I might be deluded, though, and as a German I'm not qualified to talk in the name of this British dominated forum...
Sounds reactionary to some, I guess...
But Johnny has a point.
"Political songs", "protest songs", "social critical singer songwriters" ...usually just cheap Agit-prop stuff...
As someone else said:
All political art is bad art.
All good art is political....
Someone still finds it amusing to have the paranoic mass-murderer Stalin as their avatar. Perhaps we really should redress the balance with Hitler or even General Pinochet. No? This forum leans firmly to the left. I was grateful to Patrick for defending the Tea Party a little bit last year. Close down alternative channels of thought at your own peril.
Maybe...
I'm not sure, though, if you can judge about or estimate the proportions of political opinions in an ever-changing message board by the Avatars used...
And anyway, this forum is probably not remotely representative of the UK Ivy fans out there...
Is it?
It always amused me the way Bobbikins turned on The Mob.
Myth-making is a dangerous occupation. Churchill lied consistently about the effectiveness of British tanks. Truman lied about the decision-making that lay behind using the A-bombs on Japan. Johnson probably lied about Tonkin. With the Kennedy family, though, it was somehow different. 'Saint Jack'. Fascinating, too, how so many English women still have a crush on Bill Clinton.