Ivy League (clothes)

Ivy League is a style of men's dress, popular during the late 1950s in the Northeastern United States, and said to have originated on college campuses, particularly those of the Ivy League. It was the predecessor to the preppy style of dress.

Ivy League clothing is derived from the casual attire worn by the British and American upper classes during the 1920s, for sporting pursuits such as golf, polo, sailing, rugby football, hunting, and tennis. Typical summer attire for this time included navy two button blazers with gold buttons, striped college blazers, Ascot ties, cable knit tank tops, Oxford shirts, Breton striped shirts, and wingtip shoes. For fall, trendsetters such as the Duke of Windsor combined the latest American fashions with traditional British country clothing such as brogue boots, Argyll socks and jumpers, and tweed cloth sportcoats, Irish walking hats and plus fours in houndstooth, herringbone, or the Prince of Wales check popularized by Edward VII of England.

During the mid to late 1950s, many young college guys adopted the Ivy League look due to its association with the upper classes at leisure. The clothing stores J. Press and Brooks Brothers represented perhaps the quintessential Ivy League dress manner, the former with two of its four locations found at Harvard and Yale universities (the Princeton branch closed in 1942). The Ivy League style was epitomized by the sack suit, which is defined as being a 3-to-2 (3 buttons with the top button "rolled" back to reveal only two usable buttons) blazer without darts and a single "hooked" vent. The pants were typically cuffed and without pleats. It was also characterized by the use of natural fabrics, shirts with button-down collars, and penny loafers. In suits, the Ivy League style was promoted by clothier Brooks Brothers and included natural shoulder single-breasted suit jackets. In 1957 and 1958, about 70% of all suits sold were in the "Ivy League" style.

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