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#1 2021-09-16 09:51:57

A Fine Sadness
Member
Posts: 3009

Those First Ivy Items...

Aside from my cherished Brooks shirts, brought back from the USA, it was probably an off-white cream zip-up jacket bought from Affleck's Palace in Manchester when that place was a bit grubby and cheap.  I think I paid about £7 for it.  A bird crapped on it in Victoria coach station and I never felt quite the same about it after that.  I did not know it was 'Ivy League'.  I'd never heard of the expression.  Just knew it was American, like the Levis that began turning up in short-lived unit in my home town around 1990.  They also sold warm-up jackets and those Reyn Spooner-type shirts.

 

#2 2021-09-16 16:55:10

Tworussellstreet
Member
Posts: 599

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

Bass Weejuns. Black. Penny. Bought from a trendy shop in Manchester called Aspecto (how 80s!) in 1985. Loved them so much. I'd seen them in that Robert Elms' article in The Sunday Times and knew they were the real deal. But to smell them, to touch them, was genuinely intoxicating. Then to see ads from them in old copies of Esquire.. well, it was like cracking The Da Vinci Code, or finding The Turin Shroud, it all connected, I was part of a tradition, an almost secretive, half-forgotten code.

 

#3 2021-09-17 02:15:08

A Fine Sadness
Member
Posts: 3009

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

Sometimes wish I'd stuck around in Madchester and not tried defying Thomas Wolfe's assertion that you can never go home again.  There was always something happening, always something to do.  Lusting after Greta Schacci in 'Heat And Dust' at the old Aaben cinema.  Jackson Pollock at the Whitworth (the attendant sidling up to me and whispering in my ear, 'Crap, innit?).  Smoked salmon sandwiches for lunch, Peter O'Toole in 'Man And Superman' during the afternoon.  A quid to get in.  I did the odd trip to London (overnight) and one to Liverpool (hitched down, caught the coach back).  I was 20-21.  Life seemed full of promise.  But Salford was grim and violent so I went back home.

I've probably spelled the divine Greta's name wrongly.

 

#4 2021-09-17 07:16:46

RobbieB
Member
Posts: 2219

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

Bass Weejuns. Burgundy. Penny. Bought from the Squire shop. I also bought a bottle green Harrington (baracuta). The label said made in England and I thought that JS had turned me over because surely Rodney in Peyton Place had a made IN USA jacket.


'I am a closet optimist' Leonard Cohen.

 

#5 2021-09-19 06:18:35

A Fine Sadness
Member
Posts: 3009

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

I had a similar experience buying trousers that said 'Made In The EU'.  Not even 'Made In France' or 'Made In Italy'.

 

#6 2021-09-19 11:21:15

Nelly’s walked over
New member
Posts: 4

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

Back penny bass. purchased too small due to skinny feet and slipping. Heal grips never worked. The end result being the pointy bass affect and years of foot disorders. Which is a shame. Mr Simons foot stretching machine has a lot to answer for.

 

#7 2021-09-19 12:51:20

RobbieB
Member
Posts: 2219

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

I once bought a pair of Bass Weejun tassel loafers from JS. They were obviously too small for me but somehow, before I knew it , I was handing money over for a pair of shoes that didn't fit. He was a bloody good salesman.


'I am a closet optimist' Leonard Cohen.

 

#8 2021-09-20 02:59:07

A Fine Sadness
Member
Posts: 3009

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

And what of those chaps who used to buy their shoes half a size too large?  What was the answer to that?  Thicker socks?

 

#9 2021-10-03 14:34:59

slimmm67
Member
Posts: 112

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

I live in the USA, so had Ivy adjacent gear as a lad, button downs, Hush Puppies, one pic shows me about age 4 in a 60's tweed blazer but my working class parents weren't thinking in a context of ivy, probably just what were thought of as "nice clothes". And they were! There are photos of my father, an auto mechanic, dressed in ocbds, white levis, tie, loafers, etc. As far as purchasing on my own, probably levi 519 cords in the 1970's or stocking up on 60's Towncraft bd's at thrifts in the early/mid 80's. Other brands too but for some reason Towncraft were much more prevalent than Sears, Brent, Career Club, etc.

 

#10 2021-10-19 10:40:16

Runninggeez
Member
Posts: 689

Re: Those First Ivy Items...

Can't remember if it was a pair of Weejuns which were £39.99 or a burgundy Catalina La Paz Windcheater/Harrington style jacket which would've been around the same price. Both pieces bought from Harrington in Guildford around 1981.

 

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