🎥 Ivy League style: the secrets to making it your own – GIMMICK #12

I won't beat around the bush: until someone proves me otherwise, I will consider that Ivy League style is the father of casual chic .

And, in my opinion, casual chic is surely the style best suited to our times: it is easy to find the right pieces to compose it, it does not shock or hardly, it adapts to most everyday situations .

So. These are all reasons to take Ivy League style seriously.

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In this video, I wear:

• An Ofr Paris cap
• Salt Optics glasses
• A Barbarian polo shirt available at Beige Habilleur
• A Levi's jacket

Look 1: the outfit

This is an outfit composed like a good Ivy salad!

There are a lot of style ingredients: the rugby polo shirt, the Oxford shirt under the polo shirt, à la Drake's (not the singer, the brand ), military chinos cut into shorts, desert boots. 

The rugby polo shirt is a symbol of the Ivy because the sport is very present in these universities. Sport, like studies, is a field in which we express our very strong sense of competition.

Polo comes more from England. But cultures are porous. Schools meet in sports tournaments. American students borrow what they like from elsewhere and make it their own. 

This is how the polo shirt takes over the Ivy wardrobe. In the same way that rugby is investing in American universities.

We notice that the shorts were cut with scissors without any other form of care. And if I point this out to you, it's because for me it's another symbol of the Ivy style: spirit of resourcefulness, impetuosity like that which can be just felt with this almost rebellious act.

If you want to accumulate Ivy symbols, it's possible but be careful not to disguise yourself! The tip: it doesn't have to be too clean. Look at the shorts all wrinkled, the boots all dirty. It was worn. It's probably vintage by the way. This is how it should be done.

Look 2: Sunday Ivy

Ethan Newton is Australian. And its brand is Bryceland's & Co.

But Ethan Newton is above all someone who dresses well.

And he shows it here, with a disheveled je ne sais quoi. It's exactly the spirit of the Ivy League.

Typically, this is the kind of outfit that students from the 50s will wear. Without the tie maybe the week. They wear it to go to church on Sunday. 

It is with this type of outfit that casual chic is born. This way of combining formal and casual pieces: 

• Oxford shirt: casual at the time 
• Blazer: a formal one that leans towards casual because it is less formal than a suit 
• Chinos : casual 
• Moccasins: casual for the time. Casual that leans towards dressy . The exact opposite of the blazer. 
• Tie: formal but not the most formal of ties. 

This is the art of the Ivy League. An art of casual clothing. And an art of previously unpublished associations. 

Speaking of something new in an urban way of dressing: let's talk about military chinos ! 

It doesn't really have its place in a university... except that in 1944, there was the GI Bill which financed the university studies of American soldiers. And the soldiers arrive, if I dare say, with their chinos . This is how he enters the Ivy locker room. 

Now let's talk about moccasins! It's also quite unusual to wear them in city outfits. 

They began to be found in 1936 on the Yale campus. The king of them is Bass's Weejun . And it's perhaps the biggest symbol of Ivy League style. The reason for this adoption is that the moccasins can be put on quickly, useful when you are late for quantum physics class.

If students like to be elegant, they want easy elegance. Not dressed to the nines. And that's exactly what Ethan Newton shows us here.

Look 3: the irreverence of the Ivy

Three rooms and lots of Ivy. 

The moccasins of course. And hey we see the socks which are not that invisible. It's not great in my opinion but it's a detail and Henrik Sunde Wilberg is such a magician of the silhouette that I can't take care of it.

The po p-over shirt in chambray, I don't know if we can call it an Ivy but in any case, it's a serious candidate:

• An American collar, therefore buttoned
• The pop-over shape is sporty, a bit like a polo shirt.
• It has pockets, so a not very formal shirt overall.
• The material: chambray. I don't know if they were available on campus. But it's pretty close in register and use to an oxford.

So why not!

The pants now. He is typical. And we're talking about a madras pattern.

The most daring pattern in Ivy League style and perhaps even in pattern history at large !

Its origin is colonial: Madras was a city in India renamed Chennai in 1996. The fabric is made of silk and cotton and was brought back by the British soldiers stationed in India. 

How did he end up in the Ivy League Universities? Good question. American students discovered it during their vacation in the Bahamas in the 1930s. It must be said that the Bahamas were then controlled by the United Kingdom. Eh yes.

To talk about the pattern itself: we know that the Ivy style is synonymous with discretion, temperance, easy colors, ease, nonchalance.

But here we notice that he can also be quite irreverent. Exuberant.

It is the affirmation of the group through clothing. Group strong enough to not care about conventions. It is one of the paths towards the Go-To- Hell Look which led to preppy and its colored pants, its embroidered patterns on the pants etc. 

At that time , wearing madras was asking for trouble. It's the equivalent of young people wearing ripped jeans in 2010. If you want.

Beyond all that, I find that the outfit is very harmonious. Just accept it. Relaxed with his dog and a coffee.

Look 4: the Ivy, then and now

We notice an influx of Ivy symbols that we can borrow: 

First the short, sporty jackets, such as Harrington or Varsity Jacket. It's the jacket of youth. The Harrington was worn by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Elvis Presley and Steve McQueen. It's the jacket of adventure, enthusiasm, movement. 

Here it's more of a bomber jacket it seems. But the idea is there. 

You could very easily imitate the outfit on the left for a cool Sunday for example? Light Harrington jacket, navy t-shirt, 501, sneakers and light socks. Nothing's easier. 

We note that the magnitude was not necessarily a rule. And we observe how this young man in white jeans shows us with conviction.

Beyond that, two things are interesting about him: 

First the sweater with the embroidered letter “P”. Not that his name would be Patrick, but it probably is because we're in Princeton here. Clothes in university colors are worn by students and it becomes cool.

Then white sports socks with moccasins.

When I tell you that moccasins are casual!

It's not a legend, the students wore their mocs with white sports socks. For what ? Because it's pure nonchalance. We get out of bed, we slept in our gym socks because they're comfy and we jump in our Weejuns and run away. That's all. Do not search farther. 

Here are some things to challenge the Ivy Leaguer in you. 

Look 5: Ivy yellow

I really like Sideadjuster 's outfits .

I see a lot of creativity there. A taste for risk. And I think he has that Ivy League spirit of saying, "I'm wearing this, so what?" You are going to do what ? »And I find that very healthy. 

Brief !

It draws a lot of inspiration from the typical American wardrobe. And the Ivy League is no exception. 

The Oxford shirt first and foremost! And then to a lesser extent Levi's 501 and Converse.

Yellow was one of the favorite colors of American students. With blue, white of course and also pink and green. Campus stores like The Shop , and the Gant brand, supplied theirs.

The yellow shirt is very easy to wear. It's an off-white but better. And since many of the colors lean towards yellow, it's perfect. Like for example the orange he wears and the green of his cap. Everything converges towards yellow. 

Even the edging of the jeans...

And if we can't say that Levi's 501s are Ivy, at least they fit into the Americana style and have their place next to an oxford shirt or loafers and rugby polo shirts. And Stéphane plays admirably well with that.

Other videos that might interest you:

🎥 The western shirt: 5 outfits to wear it – Gimmick #10

🎬 Appropriate VINTAGE MILITARY parts – GIMMICK #8

🎬 All the tips for wearing wide pants – Gimmick #3

And also...

🎥 I wear my faded Levi's 501 in 5 ways – Panache S02E01

5 (+1) outfits to wear Converse well – Panache #7

Chinos: 5 outfits to stand out – Panache #4