Repp ties is the technical term. The only item I can think of that is highly popular with most US ivy fans yet rarely finds popularity with UK natural shoulder adherents. Personally I don't think I've ever worn one. Even when I wore ties 5 days a week for work.

The Repp, I think, looks a little unyielding.  I don't much like a striped tie anyway.  They remind me far too much of school.

Grammar school, 1971.  One of the last in Derbyshire to pass the Eleven Plus.  Much good it did me.  My friend failed and now works with a multi-million pound budget, exporting UPVC windows to Belgium.  His single O-Level has stood him in better stead than my degree and teacher training certificate.
He has a dicky heart, though.

I know what I think of him.  As you said yourself, a CUNextTuesday.

‘I know what I think of him.  As you said yourself, a CUNextTuesday.’

Well we are agreed on that at least.

Last edited by Kingston1an (2022-01-15 10:19:40)

Plus my hair stylist lady had shoulder surgery and is just now taking appointents for February. So there is nothing I can do about my REO Speedwagon hair. That is the final straw, the last indignity to be endured before my 60th birthday in late Feb.

Yes I am in a Horrible Ivy mood hahaha

Last edited by Patrick (2022-01-15 10:20:10)

It's so much more than just clothes.

Yuca, is right about taking influences from the past. But where does the past become the present, !988? We probably all have a view on this one.

From this forum I've picked up lots ideas on music, film, books, art. It really has been an education. More often than not there's a connection rather than just being random thoughts. It has also reinforced my views on a certain synchronicity between Ivy clothes/wearers and their interests.

As for pubs, the only time I'm in them is to eat. I keep a Sawdays Country Pub guide in the car.
I drink wine the majority of the time and unfortunately the average British pub takes the mickey on both selection and price.

Wine. Gin. Whiskey. All drinks I won’t buy in pubs now. Only leaves pints doesn’t it.

I must admit I’m not quite getting 2RS’s point re pubs. I don’t visit them often, but enjoy it when I do. For a fairly unsociable bloke I’ve managed to pick up more than a few good mates. And it’s good to meet up with them and have a moan or a laugh and maybe one too many. It wouldn’t be on the cards to pop round for a coffee and have a good natter.

I don’t think I’d ever dress in smart ivy to go down the pub. It would be wholly inappropriate. But I don’t have to. Isn’t there a part in the Ivy Style book that’s just a pair of Levi’s and a Lacoste polo? - ‘No point in overcomplicating’. Do I dress Ivy if I go to a Wetherspoons? Well yes. Because most of my clothes are Ivy (to an arguable extent). There’s no ‘back up wardrobe’ for when I’m forced to mix with normal people.

‘Perpetual Stimulation’ I love that. It’s bang on for me. I hope I’m always learning. I wonder if most of the ex members of TI simply achieved a wardrobe of Ivy Nirvana and wandered off to fixate on something else? Hope I never reach that point.

I can't see a problem dressing smart to go to a pub, it was good enough for our forefathers some of which may have worked 40 plus hours a week down a pit or in a factory but would dress up Saturday nights to go the club or pub. My own father a social weekend drinker would always go out in a Jacket, shirt and tie. Myself, it's invariably freshly laundered denim and button down, polished loafers/Brogues and a cashmere or Shetland knit, swap the BD and knitwear for a Lacoste polo or Madras BD during the warmer months.

Another state of mind that unites us is (at least to some degree) a conscious rejection of the mass market and the 'mindset' that accompanies it. 
I enjoyed the fact that, however many years ago, I would have to catch an early train to London to shop at Russell Street; that what I 'desired' was unavailable except in that one modestly sized shop.  Hence - I'm sorry to say - my disappointment at seeing Failsworth caps in a shop in Chesterfield.  (No: I apologise: this sounds overly snobbish: I did buy Paraboot from a shop there).  But, in spite of all this talk about 'democratization', Ivy League dressing can no longer be about that phase in our post-war history.  If we're not careful, the entire concept will become meaningless: just hairy fools drinking beer whilst modelling Jake's shirts.

That's all right.  One of my former students, not an accomplished historian, is a Chelsea supporter.  Derby County?  We all have our cross to bear.  They last fielded a good time around the time our grammar school became a comprehensive.  People in Derby talk about BC and AD - Before Clough and After Docherty.

You can get unlimited coffee(or tea) in Spoons for around £1. Since covid you are told to use a fresh cup for each refill. Probably not for the coffee connoisseur. It is out of a machine for a start.

But there are characters that come in and sit next to the electrical socket and basically want free Wi-fi.

I dont understand the coffee thing. I could not work out why the coffee places were still busy after the end of the working day. I thought they were for people killing time between business appointments. They look rather boring. Everybody looking at phones or tablets. Not much laughter.