This is the title of a very nice radio talk by Alistair Cooke from sometime between '51 & '68. It's taken from his collected talks "Talk about America" published in'68. A proper student of Cooke could date this for you properly. I'm just a fan. Probably it's from around '65-'67.
Here Cooke casts his mind back to (when?) sometime before '63? ...
"I well remember the the morning that one of President Kennedy's aides came in wearing a button-down shirt, an item that started in America in the very early thirties as an Ivy League fad. It remained so until a few years ago but was swiftly abandoned when it spread to bond salesmen and airline executives and then to midwesterners, and then to cattle ranchers in convention, and finally to Englishmen...
'For heaven's sake', said Kennedy to his bewildered aide, 'take off that shirt. nobody wears those things any more, except Chester Bowles and Adlai.' "
Miles.
Mr. Cooke is pretty reliable, but it is just his take on the situation.
Edit: &, of course, A.C. is talking about JFK's POV. The guy who wore English bespoke.
Last edited by Miles Away (2006-10-24 06:18:56)
I'm wondering when TNSIL and American Ivy made it to Japan. Looks like the 1960s judging by the VAN and Button-Down-Club websites, that were linked in another topic. Perhaps they adopted the more "democratic" or widespread version?