Another £30 plus picture book.  Not for me.

I’ll be interested to have a look at it, but I wonder how much of it will be history viewed through a 21st century prism. The idea that black men adopted the Ivy look for political reasons, or as some sort of stand against the prevailing order is doubtless true in some instances. But I tend to think that in most cases it was for the normal reasons that young men adopt a style i.e. it was trendy at the time and dressing like that increased your standing within your peer group and your chances with girls.

It would/will be interesting to see if it includes "of the day" thoughts by the wearers or current remarks by survivors. One of those Life mag Watts shots made its way to the NYT review. Whatever context those clothes were worn in at the time, a modern eye is liable to misunderstand. ("history viewed through a 21st century prism" as Woofboxer said above). There's an Instagram page that features a lot of mid-60's t0 1970's American youth culture photos and often the comments are painful. 

But I'll check out the book, looks more than worthwhile.

I'd like to see all the UK Ivyists gathered in one place - perhaps an oversized telephone box.  Oh, I know they exist.  TRS knows they exist - he sometimes sees them out and about.  But I've lost count of the number of times I've mentioned the name of John Simons in retail clothing shops (I mean those that consider themselves slightly 'cutting edge') only to get a blank look and a shake of the head.  Worse, they're incurious.  Then you mention the Harrington and their little faces light up for a moment.  'Peyton Place' must seem an awful long time ago to some kid who was still dribbling milk when Acid House ruled the nation.  Oh well.

I had imagined, and JJ's pretentious waffling in the New York Times confirms it, that this book would be loaded with all the clothing as rebellion/subversion bollocks when I'm sure that in mid-century America these clothes were worn by the vast majority of people across classes, religions and skin colour (it was no cult as it became here) because they wanted to socially conform and aspire. Nice clean clothes that made people look good, feel good and gave you a good chance of being taking seriously. When I got into mod, and then later the Ivy Look, I thought dressing this way was the way everybody should dress - Ivy for the masses. They're simple, well-made clothes - we're talking about democratic clothing here. In the States you had all that pseudo-patrician nonsense that was perpetrated by Chensvold, and over here it was the cool stuff, the sussed elite - Frosty, JJ and Kevin Rowland were part of that way of thinking. Anyhow, The Ivy Look book featured lots of black guys in Ivy, and a few Jews, and a few WASPs. We made no big deal of it. Ivy for all!

The Ivy Look was a well put together book. When I praised it before on this forum Jim got upset with me for some reason. He seemed to think that the book would be used as an how to dress guide for people who weren't clued up enough (sussed?)
I recently dug out my copy and it's still a pleasure to flick through. My wife who worked in retail when the book came out read it and her boss also borrowed the book. Later a couple of nephews have also enjoyed the contents. Lucky the book survived a cull I did 7/8 years ago when most of my library went to charity shops in a dramatic downsizing exercise

Staxfan- Essex girls don't miss a trick mate. HaHa

Everything on this forum is conjecture! This is not science. It's chat, opinion, gossip. Don't try and pretend opinions have to be backed up by extensive empirical evidence. We're not developing vaccines or cures for cancer - we're talking about loafers!

I guess the point that Yuca is making is that we are chatting on a forum about the subject, not publishing a book on it.

I'm just guessing but I doubt the book goes into much detail as to that side of things. I suspect it's mostly photos, with maybe a bio of the subjects and/or a bit of detail about what they're wearing.

All I can say is, I could not get to the end of the interview, even by staggering toward the finishing line.  Some of the photographs were nice: the one of the two rather anxious-looking kids at the top (in beautiful colour).  Interesting shoes.  Also the one of a guy showing a nice low-top (?) boot. 
Where is it Jason Jules has a second home?  Uruguay?  Interesting.

Always thought the photo of Miles Davis in the seersucker suit at Newport jazz festival was way cooler.....

Last edited by colin (2022-01-07 15:17:34)