300 quid's worth? At the prices you pay that must have been enough to fill a large house.
A pair of white bucks went AWOL. I managed to buy a pair from elsewhere in time and even went to the trouble of dirtying the laces.
I do like a bargain.
Bit of a tiff going on at the moment between him (an American, I guess) who can't spell for toffee-apples and one of our own posters. The former does not pay attention to 'Talk Ivy' so can't possibly comment on this, that and t'other. He might, in truth, be better off grabbing himself a Websters' or OED and brushing up on his writing style.
I've never owned a pair of bucks, white or otherwise. I have considered it. I wouldn't go for white if I did as I have an aversion to white shoes.
White bucks look great with a cotton seersucker suit and not too bad with dark jeans or cords. But I came to prefer dirty bucks, with that excellent red brick sole, and was grieved when my old Dexter finally wore out and had to be binned. They'd stood in the window at Russell Street and were sun-marked so I got them at a knocked-down price on one of my buying expeditions. I'm pretty sure Ken Lovegrove used to wear his with a navy pocket polo and jeans.
I have, to my deep chagrin, reached my 'guest viewing' limit on that forum for today. I was rather enjoying myself, interspersing visits there with reading up on Malevich, Tatlin and the other Russian Constructivists and eating pastrami with horseradish on toasted wholemeal bread. The spat was just brewing nicely and I hope to catch up with the latest over the next day or two.
None of that 'guest viewing' nonsense over here, needless to say!
I have just visited Dressedwell and was surprised by how many negative comments there were on just the one topic. Some of them were just downright rude.
What surprised me the most was that on a forum about clothing why people feel the need to be discourteous. I really don't see the point.
I don't understand why people want to visit a forum like Talk Ivy with the intention of mocking either the content or the members.
I had a look over at Dressedwell and was also surprised at the tone of the messages. I don't see the point either although I was guilty of posting critical messages on this site, once upon a time, when a couple of posters photos did stretch the limits of the Ivy look.
It can be first - no, third - rate entertainment whilst drinking a cup of instant coffee (double-stirred, I might add - very Ivy). This new poster has a lot to say for himself and has been butting heads with their old Bongo Player (who is more than capable of standing his ground. The other fellow, who is a semi-literate chucklehead, may as well call it quits).
On the other hand I was interested in what he had to say on the subject of certain Ivy items rarely finding their way into the UK wardrobe: loud check jackets and the majority (if not all) of GTH bits and pieces. I have experimented. They almost always fail to work except in a rather light-hearted manner. I treated myself to an OS Madras newsboy cap before Christmas, fancying it might make me look like a whitebread Monk. It doesn't. Of course it doesn't. I knew all along it wouldn't and paid $40 just to find out.
Is it all through diffidence? I don't believe so. Back in the old days on here, the Ivy-Prep-Trad wars raged. I never gave much of a stuff. But instinct tells me - just as when I'm buying an item of Finnish glass - whether I'm right or not. Simple, humble, well-made. You can't go too far wrong. Can you?
I had a look over at Dressedwell and was also surprised at the tone of the messages.
I think we all have Robbie, I had a peek just to see what all the fuss was about.
(For what it's worth - and I'm doubtless repeating myself - JFMs gay Jewish 'mentor' spoke of Ivy League dressing as 'a display of a lack of display'. People would (sometimes) look you over without being at all certain as to what they might be seeing. I think Paddy and Jim Stone favoured conservative, undarted Brooks suits. They spent a lot of money on their clothes. I never heard anything about GTH or vaguely preppie items until they retired. Paddy took the trouble to discuss with me how to wear an item of knitwear so that the viewer examined your face and not the item of clothing. That was, more or less, relegated to 'the background'.
A lovely reference to 'Bloggs' - as in 'Joe'.
Posters are still priming and firing the Ivy 'cannon'.
It was Barking P who mentioned GTH etc. Apologies.
I also had a nose over there. As always I'm at a loss to understand how grown men can get so worked up over a style that they have no interest in. Have lost interest in. Or have limited knowledge of. I know nothing about heavy metal music or fashion. I don't choose to create a thread with the sole intent of poking fun at those that do. It's not my business.
There's that one chap who kind of started off having a go at defending Ivy League Style, but only within the context of old american Ivy schools, and unbelievably, choosing to use photos of holocaust deniers as part of his argument. He's not able to comprehend that yes, that is where the strongest influence has it's roots, putting aside the original's misguided, often uninformed and much overly romanticised idea of how The British dressed and acted (creating something great in the process. No doubt), but it has grown and evolved in the UK to include many more influences and styles. (Not least a lot of what we'd loosley call 'continental').
In fact I would argue that over here, and although in very small numbers, if that counts for anything, many of us have been confident enough to completely jettison a fair amount of what a lot of the uninformed would percieve as original, american, Ivy League Style.
In among his last few posts I think he let himself down by admitting his admiration for the sloane/country squire look. A style which most right minded Brits, whether interested in 'The Look' or not, would be very dismissive of.
He, and a lot of them over there on DW, seem to be under the impression that we're engaged in some kind of cosplay exersise, and feel compelled to point and have a giggle at where we're going wrong. They're completely on the wrong track. Which is ironic given that they've named that thread 'The trainwreck'.
Last edited by Spendthrift (2022-01-27 04:34:13)
Mix it up, Spendthrift: that's the name of the game. I rejected a fair amount of traditional American style years ago (around the time Big Tony was still posting on here), although my interest in/romance with collegiate Ivy in some of its manifestations has never wholly abated. I aroused Tony's ire by rejecting brass buttons on a blazer in favour of a duller metal (before rejecting the blazer altogether). My interest in 'continental' style, however, waned around the time I parted with my Keydge jackets and Weston loafers.
I should very much like TwoRussellStreet to outline the 'cross-pollination' approach of the shops he worked in (and bought from), but I know his time is limited.
Prince Andrew is a 'grubby little breast'. Just had to share that one. Thanks, DW!
The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack is very misunderstood.
And before anyone gets up on their high horse let me quickly put it into context.
By the time it was released in '78 a number of the key non Bee Gee songs were already a couple of years old. Dance music at the time was evolving at a really fast pace, With the notable exception of the Open Sesame and K-Jee a number of the songs were more akin to early Seventies pop-soul than what was actually being currently produced.
If you don't believe me compare Hi-Tension by Hi-Tension from the UK or Charles Earland's Let the music play from the USA to the Bee Gees stuff. This is what was really being played across London, the Home Counties and the certain progressive Northern clubs.
Yvonne Ellimans "If I can't have you" was actually big on the Northern Soul scene but that has been conveniently forgotten by the revivalists
The soundtrack helped revitalise the careers of number of artists who would of gone out of fashion like the Tavares or boost sales for artists like Kool. It also created a surge in interest in contemporary black music that subsequently made getting hold of things a lot easier. It opened the door for a very brief moment to more black artists getting air play.
The problem with the album is really that it was dated before it released and to many represents the worst of disco. The associations with white suits, pointing fingures skywards and Grannies learning to "disco" sit alongside it.
In the States you also had the Disco Sucks movement who mass destroyed records at sports stadiums. I recently saw a documentary on this. For many it was an opportunity to lump soul and R&B records by black artists into the same bin. It had racist overtones.
It isn't a classic in the same mold of What's Going On or Harvest for the World but it should be viewed as a fun time capsule into a crazy moment in time.
A good question
https://www.dressedwell.net/threads/ivy-where-from-here.10276/#post-298822
Well you certainly won't find it amongst the assembled intelligentsia of 'Dressed Well'.
Alvey - a friend of a late friend use to visit the US in the 70's - 90's buying up soul & R&B vinyl and shipping back to the UK, on entering US record stores he was often told ' the disco shit' is out back, he use to hyperventilate over some of the rare stuff soul & R&B he found amongst the ' disco shit' for just a few bucks , I understood he did very well out of it,
TwoRussellStreet said:
"Well you certainly won't find ( the answer to ' Ivy Where From Here') amongst the assembled intelligentsia of 'Dressed Well'."
Well come on over and enlighten, TRS. The bouncer might frisk you at the door, but once you are in, you can backdrop and spin all you like.
Can it really hurt?