I'm not sure an Ivy jacket means it'll be short? You probably just need a long fitting, by most standards a boom period Sack is quite long fitting.

Interesting questions, interesting that Jeff G should talk about a culture. There seems to be a definite inclination and not just on this forum, to assign a culture to wearing the Ivy look. More so than other clothing looks which have often just been about liking a particular type of music. In the USA Ivy is clearly associated with its origins in an East Coast social set and the Great Eight, people over there accept that and are quite comfortable with it. A few of the Ivy Style crowd like to go a bit further and consider that wearing Ivy clothing confers some noblesse oblige wrapped up in an ‘Ivy lifestyle’ with notions of honour and tradition – all from putting on a natural shoulder jacket apparently.

Here in the UK and Europe some like to link it with wider interests in jazz, art, modern architecture and the wider societal preoccupation with the past, which itself stems from pessimism about the present and future. Certainly, many people who frequent John Simons seem to share common interests in these things, or aspects of them. I can’t deny that some of it hasn’t rubbed off on me although I’m a long way from being scholarly in these matters. In old posts here there is frequent mention of being ‘sussed’ or ‘in the know’ and these qualities are still referenced now, we all secretly like feelings of exclusivity or knowing something that others don’t.

I can’t help but feel that many of these ideas stem from clothing forums, but I can't imagine that Jeff G spent much time looking at them.

Do people wear the look just because they like the look or do they also feel that they are buying into something deeper?

'Do people wear the look just because they like the look or do they also feel that they are buying into something deeper?'

I strongly suspect that the former is far more common than the latter. Anywhere in the world. The days when a UK ivy wearer was highly likely to be expressing their love of 1950s and 60s jazz via their wardrobe are long over. Most ivyists do have a love of jazz and an interest in the 50s and 60s, but our passions are far wider than that.

Even in the US I suspect wearing proper ivy clothing takes too much effort for anyone who doesn't actually like the clothes themselves and is instead just looking to show their membership of some sort of section of society.

Last edited by Yuca (2021-11-16 10:08:45)

'The culture'...  hmm...  just finished a meal of Italian-style pork chops with potatoes and macaroni...  glass of red...  Spent part of yesterday afternoon listening to Miles, today listening to Blossom Dearie and Billy Taylor...  then digging little home-movies of Manhattan streets...  Scandinavian and Czech art glass on the surfaces around me...  German pottery...  Alvar Aalto plywood...  Yes, wider than the USA...