I have an appointment (finally) at the passport office in London in around 10 days time, so I'll make a visit to Uniqlo in Regent St looking for some cheap T's for beachwear, the 15 yr old Gap ones are (even for me) too knackered to wear now,
Yesterday a Lands End catalogue arrived, having a flick through it,  some reasonable looking long sleeve shirts, collar roll looked good ( as Alvey mentioned), but they had some sort of tabs on them to button up when the sleeves are rolled up, deal breaker for me,
Robbie - were they the stone/ off-white sta press in '69 ? I had them, they washed up very well, mine were in the bath with stain remover most Sunday mornings to get the beer & rum stains out of them !

In retrospect, I do think 'affluent' is a slightly unfortunate word: 'The Affluent Society': instantly conjuring up images of Ron and Ethel with their new Robin Reliant parked outside the bungalow, tea trolley at the ready, just waiting to watch 'The Black And White Minstrel Show'.  How they must have adored Supermac in '59.  'You've never had it so good, Ron'.  'What do you mean?' mutters Ron, casting a sidelong glance at Ethel.  'I've never had it at all since the night I presented her with a box of Black Magic while we were watching 'Brigadoon'...'

Stax- Yes the stone coloured sta-prest. Rum stains? As a teenager drinking 'rum and black' seemed a rite of passage. I was so sick once it took me thirty years before I could face drinking rum again. I had a bottle in my pocket (present from a friend from the west indies) celebrating the millennium in London.

I hate those tabs on the shirt sleeves

I did mean Lands End. I assume LL means locker loop. There is also a button, but no flap, on the breast pocket.

On an older chap, they tend to be paired with a burgundy harrington and a pork pie hat don't they?

Spendthrift you've reminded me of a guy I spotted in the crowd coming away from football a few weeks ago, not sure how old he was as I didn't get a good look, but he wore a harrington, and a hat ( not sure if it was a pp ), fairly normal , but what I found interesting was he wore ' tailored' trousers which finished above his shoes, a pair of those chunky tassled loafers that (if memory serves me), skinhead types wore around '70, possibly a check shirt (Brutus ?), and what for me finished the skinhead look was his long well trimmed sideburns, certainly not a style I'd have worn even back in the day but I had to admire how ' authentic' his look was,

This is where, I think, many of us part company and divisions arise.  This is mostly in England, although the forum did (years ago) have posters elsewhere (including the USA) where a more 'peanut' type look was favoured (pork pie hats perhaps, airwair, Fred Perry etc.).  It's only marginally 'Ivy League' and nowhere near 'Prep' or 'Trad'.  But, having said that, the chatter and banter often reached a high level, such as, 'Is there such a creature as a 'sussed skinhead'?' (horrible phrase, horrible notion - the answer was a firm 'no').  But Frosty did the forum something of a disservice by tempting in Mods and others who later jumped ship.  Some of them are now to be found elsewhere on the Internet: probably eyeing and buying those Paul Weller jumpers.

Burgundy/Claret/Plumb/Maroon/wine are colours that have always appealed to me. If the Harrington in Burgundy was more exclusive I would like to own one but they seem to be the colour of choice for many 'lads'. (Particularly over West Ham). Jump the Gun shop in Brighton must be doing a good trade in them. At least they are made in UK.

'Talk Ivy', even when I first became involved in around 2008, was never a place for the purist.  I doubt if such a place exists.  Besides, it was always said that the really cool chaps were aloof and uninvolved with online life: quite possibly true then if not so much now. 
The UK/US bickering was always of concern to me, particularly as, although a mere Englishman, my fascination with American cultural strands and strains was developed early and remains unabated.  I still tote my Harvard key-ring with great pride. 
There were once a large number of interesting American posters on here.  Horace now posts infrequently.  Patrick will sometimes pop up, but I guess his new editorial duties keep him busy. 
The 'skinhead'/yoof culture side of it I always found questionable and tedious.  Nothing whatever to do with 'Ivy League' - or, if you prefer, Ivy League. 
I didn't know it as such when I first began taking an interest in Brooks Brothers at the end of the 70s.  I simply wanted to dress like an American.
And still do.

'Mattia' looks like shit: that ragged hem for instance.  I noted that happening on a pair of much-treasured Levis chinos I'd picked up for a fiver in the local Oxfam shop before 'vintage' appeared on their radar.  They got the heave-ho. 
'Cheap clothes'.  The burning question is, were they cheap to begin with, not how much does a worthy cause imagine they can charge the interested or semi-interested punter?  I bought a very decent, English made Aquascutum raincoat for £15 fairly recently.  Some paperwork to do with a local solicitor was still in the right-hand pocket.  Then there was the Paul Stuart raincoat I bought on Ebay for £1.99 back in 2007 or 2008.  Doubtless expensive when new.
Good socks are between £10 and £25 a pair.  Sometimes - as happened last year - a shop like Zebra in Chesterfield will sell smaller sizes of Falke, Burlington and Pantherella at a fiver a time.  I stocked up, but some are of inferior quality.  M&S often turn out to be longer-lasting.

The average charity shop is, needless to say, packed to the rafters with cheap clothing no-one but a tramp would willingly wear.  You can imagine my surprise when, in various unpromising locations, Italian-made shirts that turn up online at fancy prices turn up.  That's just one example.
The problem with charity shops is you have to wander in and out of at least six or eight before anything even vaguely interesting reveals itself.  There is much swearing, gnashing of teeth etc. along the way, especially as many of these shops are staffed by lost souls, well-meaning imbeciles, recently widowed ladies looking for a means of passing the time and teenage girls who have not yet learned to make eye contact.

Do you still get 'professional sellings' scouring charity shops for underpriced bargains?

I think there was a little phase, when eBay really kicked off, when some people saw £ notes and thought they could make money from buying from charity and flipping it on there. To make decent cash you’d have to do it on an industrial scale though. And the charities themselves caught on to it pretty quickly.

I would imagine that if there was a ‘vintage’ shop in town they’d be scouring the charities and there’d be slim pickings left for the rest of us.

I’ve had some very good stuff. Most recently a pair of barely worn Church brogues for £25. Loads of RL and Gant. Not the time of year, but when the cooler weather comes back I’ll be checking the Oxfam site for something similar to JS’s modernist overcoat. It’ll probably end up being Dunn & Co, but one will turn up!

Funnily enough, for me it’s not a money thing. I think there’s some psychological wiring that makes you love or hate some types of shopping. I’ve often said I’ve never been in J Simons. But friendly as I’m sure they are, I really struggle to enjoy that type of shop, whether they’re selling clothes, lampshades or cakes, I just don’t enjoy that one on one experience. So AFS’s motley crew of British Heart Foundation staff suit me down to the ground.

One does little 'scouring'.  It is 'a pretty miserable pastime'.  I tend to focus on places with a decent choice of books and CDs nowadays.  A dull weather activity only.  From now on it'll be plant nurseries and, Pevsner to hand, the local churches and country houses.  Variety, after all, is the spice of life.
To Wollaton yesterday, to see the T.Rex skeleton on loan from the Americans.  Distinctly underwhelming and highly 'interactive'.  Pretty much a waste of £40 plus.  Two adults plus 'chav in the making' five year old grandson.
I was more taken with George the Gorilla.  For saying he was shipped over from Paris in 1878 and has been standing around in Nottingham since 1926 his wedding tackle looked to be in fine shape.