For myself: Golden Bear and Buzz Rickson stand out. I also never really took to deck jackets or anything of that nature.
Raw denim.
Red Wings.
Any type of footwear with a strap or buckle.
Add Willis&Geiger to that list.
It might have appealed to me back in the early 80s, same as Golden Bear.
I was working in J.Simons when a truckload of coach jackets arrived from the States. Everyone went bonkers for them, but I wasn't impressed, and looked like a complete tit in one. John also once got hold of some very rare white USA Weejuns and seemed baffled when I scoffed at the notion of wearing them. The Small Faces had poisoned my notion of white footwear, though JS looked great in his with his little chubby tanned legs. The Burberry Trench 21 I once thought the essence of ugliness but can now perhaps grasp its appeal.
Admission: I did, on a couple of memorable (?) occasions, wear a coach jacket. I also did not look too excellent.
I'm pretty certain I'd have turned the white Weejuns down flat, but I arsed about in white bucks for a while before deciding Dexter dirty looked infinitely better, being low-key a la Kenny Lovegrove (JS A-Z: K is for Kenny and Keydge). I now wear the Walk Over version, quite often with a navy polo shirt and jeans. Kenny, where art thou?
Of course there are people who disdain the entire Shetland crew neck, college scarf and Gloverall look between late October and early April: a definitely kosher Ivy look in my humble opinion: especially when wearing Bill Evans or Bobby Peston-type specs.
I used to love Shetlands but now think they make me look like a Mormon. Still love my old Duffle, now 33 years old, and college scarf.
I can't quite get my head around Paraboots, as part of that french/british look. Other items just don't translate to a British take on ivy - even if you wanted them to, which I don't - like bow ties. There's definitely a more-or-less subtle class politics to what travels well across the pond. Blazers with gold buttons would be a less extreme version of that (change those buttons out for pewter or something neutral!). Cable knit jumpers.
Paraboot for me can be filed under 'Aspects Of Ivy I've Tried But Didn't Get On Terribly Well With'.
Like Robert Bruce knitwear.
Certain things in the Ivy cannon simply don't suit me.
A Harrington jacket for example.Makes me look top heavy.
I also remember them being worn by skinheads in the Eighties.
Funny how in the Eighties white loafers were popular. I owned a few. Worn without socks. They just feel a bit garish now.
There are also: 'Aspects Of Ivy I'd Like To Have Done Better/Mastered': the knitted tie being one of them. But I kept on botching it.
Story of my life really.
White Sperry Topsiders a la Tom "Selleck" Magnum, although I actually bought a pair in Kermit Green, which when I realised I'd made a big mistake I sold on to a mate 2 weeks later.
Went back and bought the classic brown.
Why the botch of the knitted tie AFS? Seemed simple. Start with black and wear with navy or grey suit and white or blue shirt. You need the right width and knot. And length. But live this.
I’d say i never went too much in the madras seersucker or pincord. This was more prep perhaps. But was always drawn to move conservative understated. No yellow. Rarely a red tie. Was never good at prep casual in any sense.
Obviously some of British ivy had very non American elements to it. Or to my mind, some strange mixing of high and low that you didn’t see in USA.
Horace, I'd agree with much of your last post. British (English/London - certain parts of) 'Ivy' has a peculiar history all of its own. It would take a poster like TRS to explain it away. But there was always 'cross-pollination' (plus the fact that young teenagers wearing, say, tasselled loafers circa 1971 probably had little if any idea of what it was all about. But, heavens above, Oxford bags were being worn here).