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smooth and clean. Fabric quality is fundamental<br />
so you must go for 100% cotton, wool and cashmere.<br />
As far as colours are concerned, the best are<br />
bright and cheerful like apple green, pastel pink,<br />
blue, navy blue, white and red expertly matched.<br />
Trousers are free of darts and flat front. Flaps are<br />
almost always there and, according to the era,<br />
trousers were tighter or looser fitting and shorter<br />
or longer over the shoes. Braces are fine but<br />
worked or smooth leather or woven fibre belts<br />
are even better.<br />
year 1910, Savile Row<br />
But how did Ivy style come about? It was a parallel<br />
evolution from the classic modern suit. The nineteenth<br />
and early twentieth century ‘sack’ suit -<br />
with natural shoulders, a smooth, unmarked front<br />
and dartless trousers - moved into the Savile Row<br />
tailors in around 1910. It was the symbol of the<br />
technical revolution which produced the modern<br />
jacket. In the United States, still far off and rural<br />
at the time, fashion arrived late and the old cut<br />
hung on for many years until the advent of the<br />
1920s and 1930s styles, heavy, loose fitting and<br />
severe. New york Brooks Brothers, famous for<br />
their lines, launched jacket and suit ranges called<br />
Sack No. 1. Slim line elegance began to develop<br />
in which men and women were flat stomached<br />
and athletic, forged in competitive activities on<br />
campus. Sack suits were very popular at American<br />
universities which were were getting their supplies<br />
in other temples of Ivy clothing in university<br />
cities such as J.Press, Langrock and The Andover.<br />
The reason for this success depended on the fact<br />
THE BIG APPLE IS STILL<br />
THE CAPITAL OF ivy StylE<br />
AND OF NORTHEASTERN<br />
CULTURE IN A SPECIAL<br />
WAy AS WELL AS<br />
THE HEADQUARTERS<br />
OF BRANDS SUCH AS j. pRESS,<br />
BRookS BRothERS,<br />
dAniEl CREmiEux, RAlph<br />
lAuREn AND kAtE SpAdE.<br />
PREPPy STyLE BEGAN<br />
TO MAKE ITS PRESENCE FELT<br />
IN A BIG WAy FROM THE END<br />
OF THE 1940S AND THE EARLy<br />
1950S AS A DISTINCTIVE,<br />
EXTRAVAGANT AND ORIGINAL<br />
DRESS STyLE IN THE IVy LEAGUE<br />
CAMPUSES. BUT IT WAS ALSO<br />
A WAy OF BEING<br />
UNCONVENTIONAL<br />
AND GOING AGAINST<br />
THE GRAIN. J.pRESS IS<br />
THE QUINTESSENCE OF THIS<br />
STyLE TOGETHER WITH BRookS<br />
BRothERS, BOTH OF WHOM<br />
WERE PREPPy FASHION<br />
PIONEERS WITH SHOPS, EVEN<br />
IN THE 1920S, AT hARvARd,<br />
pRinCEton AND yAlE.<br />
77
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