Just heard the glad tidings that we haven't lost the Godfather - He is back on AAATrolls! (Sorry)

Dear Sir - We love your stuff. Come & join the real world of Ivy League? You've done 'Trad' and it worked. Leave that joke now & move on. Don't waste your skill, wit & taste on it any longer. You've earned your spurs - come & join the grown-ups. We appreciate you, the 'Trads' just imitate you.

With respect - David.

Ummmmmm - Why is the Godfather still doing 'Trad' when the joke is now long over?

Surely he knows the truth about 'Trad'?

I want to like the man. He needs to take a bow & move on. C'mon Harry, you're better than this.

Don't let me down.

David

Edit: He's not being paid by the bloke who runs the MB he favours to keep spinning out this crap is he? If not, WTF prolong it all?

Last edited by Miles Away (2006-10-10 10:01:30)

Time was there was Ivy at all prices.
Chris H. has a list of US RTW Ivy companies taken from his outstanding collection of vintage Ivy items. He posted it on AAAT once and got no response.

The Godfather's 'culture' is purely the Godfather's posing. If 'Trad' is his little troll-baby then he's cool and a player. If he thinks he can make the world beleive that 'Trad' is real, then he's a fool.

The boy has talent. This Trad sillyness is such a waste of what he could be doing. Probably he is now just keeping it going to be annoying...
Well... It's a free country...

Ivy for Everyone.

M.

My current Cords are as you describe, Sir. Makes a nice change & adds to the look I think. I'm a fan.

Ahhhhh - The GF! Such a mixed blessing... and yet I can see good in the lad. He has his problems... don't we all?
Why do I worry that he gives the Ivy League look a bad name? Why do I care? Only on the MBs does the silly word Trad exist.

I must get out more... Back to Russell Street, Covent Garden. I must stop working so hard and spending so much time at the computer. I should meet up more with old & new friends & talk Ivy & live life as we once used to... back before we stopped smoking... back when we used to compare Weejuns downstairs in the old Scotts Sandwich Bar... Back when James of New Row was still open selling stripey Nylon watchstraps for our Timexs.

Remember breezing into John's after a good go at Ray's and talking in code to each other? We used to call anything really good 'Boola', based on the Yale song 'Boola-Boola' as sung by Humphrey Bogart in 'Sabrina'... and 'Boola-Boola' was based on 'Bulldog, Bulldog' by Cole Porter...

Striped knit own-label ties from Liberty's on Regent Street were 'Boola'. Arrow BDs from the Savile Row shop were 'Boola'. A shot of Jamesons after a pint of Guinness was 'Boola'. Kevin at Trumpers downstairs in Simpsons used to do our short back and sides on a Saturday morning except for Paddy who went to Blades by New Scotland Yard for a crew cut every fortnight... Such Boola times...

The GF is not Boola. He's no fun. He's a poo.

Miles.

Ivy is just the name I grew up with. I like the London & the Japanese and the old French takes on the American Style...
America used to do it best, though, & still could again...
In Japan they call it Ivy too, Mike. 'Trad' is either American or English. Ivy is specifically American over there.
The common man thing isn't really the point, I don't want to hold up Ivy as a socialist style, my point is that the style was not a snob style in the past. It is just being reinvented as one now.
Which seems a shame.

Boola Boola
Im no Foola
I go to schoola
To make the moola

Boola Boola
Im no foola
I go to schoola
Its Yale

Lemme make the point of this thread clear:

Yes, Ivy was worn by Brahmins, but also it was worn by waiters & mechanics back in the day. Cheaper clothes, same style.

I just want to remind the new fans of the style that RL & OPH are OK but there is more. The style is broader than you might know, or choose to know.

It starts with US copies of English clothes in Brooks & Campus shops etc. It became a mass market look at it's hayday (Ivy for everyone!). Then it dwindled & was replaced in peoples' affections by non-US styles - Mainly Italian.

You need to know the history of any style to really dig it. Ivy may mean nightshirts to you & that's cool, but it means a lot more to many other people. Be open to that.

Enjoy the richness of your chosen style. Celebrate it. Just don't come in at the tail end of it with your version of an old, old look and try to get others to buy that your take is THE take. Live & let Live. I know guys with shirts older than you. Respect other's experience.

You've got your place GF. But that's all you got, just like me. Let's all share & get along. Ivy for everyone! Yes?

Why does it take a Brit. to say this? GF - Didn't your father teach you this stuff? I can't say mine ever did... Bless him... He's as dead now as yours is GF.

Love, respect & understanding from:

Miles Away.

PS - Let me help you. Don't close yourself off so much.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A bit more London Ivy slang (limited to me & my chums) -

We used to call the Ivy-Esq  'Leaguers' (Obviously from Ivy-Leaguers)...

... There was a time when I got called 'The Eager Leaguer'... Well - I was 19... (Imagine that - Me, full of enthusiasm..)

Then, later, I married Mrs Away and got called 'The Beaver Leaguer'...

... Odd because my wife's teeth are perfectly straight and she has no tail...  I have heard her say 'Damn' though...

Who ever knows what people ever really mean?

I'm not always sure that my friends like me that much... Oh the bleating loneliness of it all!

Never mind, eh?

Chin up -

M.

Calvin Trillin has just refered to TNSIL as "Ivy Style" in an article in the New Yorker.  I could pull a Stinky but I'll tell you that XCubbies, who has a lot of good info., posted it over at AAAC.  Good little article.  And worth comparing to the one that I posted (only an excerpted passage though) by Trillin (c. 1970) here in clothing quotations thread.