Such Americans who study this forum now will have to make of this what they can.
The phrase originated with an old John Simons customer.
But... there are contradictions...
A second phrase was 'passing unnoticed'. This is scarcely likely, in the UK, if you're wearing a Madras or even a seersucker jacket.
But I'd lay money on the majority of our posters erring on the side of caution.
So: you choose to underplay your look. It's very calculated, very deliberate, very 'considered'.
The early Modernists, around Soho, were said to be almost invisible.
Are we?
See name tag. I'd happily now take off the Scene part too.
I wouldn't even want other Ivy Style advocates to notice me. When I see people in full on Ivy, it feels too much dress up. Nothing wrong in what they do, I just want to fit in and carry on now. At most a nod and then walk on.
I've become the guy who wouldn't want to be in a club that would have me as a member.
Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2022-02-07 09:41:31)
^ Possibly one of the most thought-provoking posts I've read in quite some time.
I was defined in my own mind as a Mod, Northern Soul advocate, Ivy modernist whatever over the years. I'm well into my 50s now and it is in the past. The trappings of scenes dont feel like they matter. There are new interests and life priorities. It was fun but feels like a different version of me. Good luck to that lad, but I wouldn't hang out with him now. I want to look and feel decent but I don't want that need to impress that came with youth.
Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2022-02-07 10:14:50)
As TRS had said elsewhere, Ivy is a mood. The variety of clothing even a 'limited pallet' individual like myself has at his command ensures these moods can be indulged more or less at whim and according to the seasons. Does any other way of dressing permit this? I would say almost certainly not. That's because most other ways of dressing are a static, unreflective uniform, bland beyond our comprehension. Something appalling has happened during my adult lifetime.
I completely empathise and agree with every word AUS has written.