I've only mentioned it around 47 times in the last month so you won't have noticed: IS has a new headman and the content has no connection to that of the past. The chances of the new guy knowing why JS is relevant to the supposed subject of his site are almost non-existent.

On the plus side: he does get guest writers in, some of whom may provide something worth a read.

On the minus side: the new guy is unreadably bad and has almost zero knowledge of or interest in ivy clothing. Why the hell he decided to devote his life to ivy I have no idea but I was in IS FB for quite some time whilst he was running it (before he turfed me out) plus I was FB 'friends' with him (he sent me the request then later unfriended me). I have never seen a photo of him looking ivy. Which wouldn't be a problem if he could write about the subject.

For IS, ivy is over.

With all due humility, it takes a lot of skill, talent and personality. Of course those are qualities that our own Woofboxer also has, but, to be fair, in far smaller quantities than I do, hence he only got a month's ban, even though he posted on there considerably more than I did.

Last edited by Yuca (2021-11-23 16:40:58)

Can anyone make any sense of his gibberish.

The new guy told someone on the FB IS page that a black colour (neck)tie is not ivy. Rather than telling him he was talking complete crap I politely told him that he would be wise to study the topic of ivy clothing further. His response was that he'd written a chapter about ivy clothing for a book. Which I assume is true. Maybe it's even a good chapter (although the chances are slim). Nonetheless he would have been wise to have taken my advice.

'I once had a taxi driver ask me, during my 'intellectual' phase, if I liked Thomas Mann.'

These people need to learn their place. I hope you didn't tip him.

Ah.  Thank you.  I certainly didn't tip him.  Now, had he asked me about Yukio Mishima, Lady Murasaki or Earl Der Biggers I might have considered it.  But euro-trash like Thomas Mann?  Pfffff....

I happen to think the shoe is the most important item. You can be almost fully 'ivyed up' but if you put on the wrong shoe it will be noticed. As you say plenty to choose from and it's not a restrictive problem. I wear desert boots nearly all the time but they generally go with the rest of it
I popped over to IS to see what the fuss was all about and it was the shoes I noticed first. In my opinion there were (mostly) all the right clothes being worn but not necessarily in the right order. But each to their own.

The shoes being the most important part of an outfit (perhaps more so for men) is a widely-held belief that is not exclusive to ivy let alone IS.

Ivy in England displays more, I suppose, in the way of 'discipline'.  There are boundaries that are never - or seldom - crossed.  More Madras shirts will be seen than jackets or shorts.  That's following a tradition.  The bow-tie is rarely seen (too Robin Day).  Even a repp or foulard is sometimes seen as a concession, the more relaxed knitted tie, with its modern jazz associations, being preferred.  The purist will not accept a darted jacket.  The purist will very often not accept pleats (although I have and would and so, I believe, has Mr. Simons from time to time). 
In spite of their reservations in the past, 'Ivy Style' does seem to give more than a nod to Ivy in England.  They were sometimes goaded in the past, in a way that was not constructive. 
My leanings probably remain more 'collegiate' than the average, though I do it in a very different way from fourteen or fifteen years ago, when I wore varsity jackets, letter sweaters and, say, Notre Dame warm-ups.  Now it's a duffle coat, college scarf and my cherished Harvard key-ring. 
I've gone back to feeling a kind of warmth towards 'Take Ivy'. 
Anything else? 
We need a poster like Big Tony back on here: critical but passionate.

'Some of the posts on Ivy Style seem to be streching the term ivy to breaking point. Perhaps it's me being all English, conservative and reserved.'

I'm pretty sure anyone who's into ivy clothing would agree, regardless of where they're from. The new guy running IS put a selfie up (on the site) a few weeks ago that I was tempted to share here and/or on Dressedwell, but in the end I couldn't be bothered. To me it's a car crash (maybe others would say it's ok). And I know from when we were FB 'friends' that the selfies he shares on TI are actually far more ivy than what he wears on a daily basis.

So with someone in charge who is completely clueless there is no hope of any sartorial focus.

It's beginning to look very much like they're trying to turn it into some kind of on line magazine for mythical, recently graduated from Yale or Harvard college kids.

The type of thing that if it existed in printed form would be laid, neatly fanned out on a low table outside the main office. Never to be picked up by the people it's aiming at.

I only ever checked in with the Ivy Style site when it was referenced here. I just did again. Yikes. “I haven’t worn socks since Easter.??    The new editor seemed to be trying so hard. The whole “dogged pursuit of excellence??  thing.  I sense they’re trying to “brand??  the whole enterprise as clubhouse -where Brooklyn Fashion bloggers and paunchy old men can drop in and chat about beard oil, awning stripes and microbreweries.