Um nicht immer im eigenen Saft zu braten, habe ich heute ein
besonderes Gusto-Stückerl für die treuen Leser meines Blogs - ich freue mich,
Euch an einem Gedankenaustausch teilhaben zu lassen, den ich in der letzten
Woche mit Jimmy Frost Mellor führen konnte.
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| Links: ich selbst; rechts: Jimmy Frost Mellor |
Jimmy Frost Mellor ist der Gründer und Initiator des „Talk Ivy“ – eines eigenen, kleinen Forums innerhalb des Forums zu Bekleidungsthemen „Film Noir Buff“. Er hat sich darüber hinaus einen Namen als Menswear Consultant gemacht, wobei er selbst die Genese vom einstigen „Saturday Boy“ bei „John Simons“ (wir kennen das hierzulande als „Samstags-Job“) zum gefragten Berater für Männerkleidungsfragen so sieht:
The 'Menswear Consultant' thing
still makes me laugh - In reality I just talk about clothes a lot and always
have. The only difference now is that I get to do it for money every so often.
My latest role is as an Archivist, curating a John Simons collection heading
for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Having already built up a reputation
in various ways, online included, the first consultancy gig I did was for the
new brand 'Harry Stedman' when they were toying with the idea of being an Ivy
brand. This was in their very early days and I was approached by their MD to
act as 'creative consultant' on the project working with their designer Becky
Philp. I'd known both their MD and Becky from my previous involvement with the
John Simons marketing team at the launch of John's new shop: I used to write
blurbs and marketing releases for John. Working with Becky was a pure pleasure,
even though I only got my expenses paid (sometimes) on the project, and so a
friend of mine, Chris Lloyd who also works in menswear hit on the idea of
pimping me out to other clothing brands with an Ivy interest too and so it all
started from there. The Stedman project soon lost interest in Ivy but it
launched me on the circuit of being for hire to 'Talk Ivy'. I've advised quite
a few companies now both large and small on what Ivy is and isn't - Talked them
through the details, shown them vintage and modern examples, written little
bits for them. It's nothing but fun for me, turning my former hobby into a kind
of business to sit alongside all the rest I do.
My obsession (not a word that I'm
shy of, although your were very kind to just call me a 'big fan'!) with the Ivy
style came from my obsession with Modern Jazz as a teenager. I was 13 and
encountered this strange new music for the first time and got hooked. Purely by
chance the musicians were wearing Ivy on the album covers - I got lucky, they
could have been wearing anything!
It was a total style experience for
me - Music, clothes, photography, typography all coming together on those
records. I even got haircut ideas from them too! Everything was new and different about them
and somehow all worked together. I loved that.
Das macht ihn zum idealen Ansprechpartner, um auch ein
bisschen die Historie des „Ivy League“- oder auch „Natural Shoulder“-Stils zu beleuchten. Und so fragte ich ihn, wie sich
dieser spezielle Stil in den letzten hundert Jahren entwickelt hat. Was ist die
Essenz des Looks, wie hat er sich über die Jahrzehnte entwickelt und warum ist
„Ivy“ so ein zeitloser „All Time Favourite“ in den Garderoben vieler Männer?
The core of the look is turn of the
20th century Brooks Brothers. They had the style first and were copied by
others. A softness of construction is the hallmark of the style. Shirt collars
and Jacket shoulders are especially soft. I think it's proved to be such a
timeless classic because it works. It's a wardrobe that's always right,
occupying as it does a middle ground of formality and casualness. It avoids
extremes on the whole and so ages better than most fashions. The evolution of the Ivy style is an
interesting one because, although lapels have slimmed down and ballooned up
with fashion, the core style has remained pretty constant. There are off-shoots
of the style too, things like 'Preppy', but you can't call them Ivy League
style and claim them as a part of Ivy's evolution. The Ivy style is the classic
style. It's influenced other things, but those Ivy influenced trends are not 'Ivy
moving on' or anything like that. You can claim them as a part of the family
tree, but you can't say that they are the classic style.
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| Brooks Brothers & Bass Weejuns |
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| "Ivy Atmosphere" |
Ivy League hatte bisher immensen Einfluss auf die Männermode, besonders heute sieht man wieder vermehrt Button Down-Shirts, Chinos, Penny Loafers… diese Kleidungsstücke gehören seit jeher in den Kleidungsschrank des klassisch anspruchsvollen Trägers. Mich persönlich hat immer schon interessiert, ob es einen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen „Ivy“ und der „Mod“-Bewegung der 1960er-Jahre gibt. Genauso überlegenswert erscheint mir die Frage, welchen Einfluss der Stil auf die Mode speziell in Mitteleuropa und Italien der Nachkriegszeit hatte.
The story of Ivy outside America is
remarkably similar everywhere it cropped up. It was absolutely one of the
cultural footprints left by the American GIs after WWII. And again it often
went hand in hand with music. There are endless stories and they're all the
same of the American air force bases across Europe and the new clothes and
music they introduced the local populations to. They had new styles of clothing
and music that post-war Europe was hungry for - Especially if you were young
and forward looking and thinking. It's practically a blueprint for the rebirth
of Modernism after the war. And from Modernism you then get Mod.
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| All that Jazz... |
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| The Who & The Yardbirds |
Wenn man sich alte Filme ansieht, kommt man um den Stil nicht umhin: von „Sabrina“ 1954 über „Breakfast at Tiffany´s“ 1961 bis hin zu „Bullitt“ 1968 - sie alle sind und waren stilgebend für ihr Publikum. Zum Einfluss von Filmen und Zeitschriften und ihre Wirkung als Multiplikatoren für den Ivy League - Stil hat Jim Folgendes parat:
Movies, magazines, the black market
for items from the American air men's PX stores, music - especially album cover
design: They all spread Ivy and they were all popular culture items - Not high
culture. In America Ivy can be worthy and staid but nowhere else I don't think.
It's always going to something different away from it's original associations
with the 'correct wear' for the American Gentleman back home in the US. It's an
aspect of the style that I, and more Americans than you might think, embrace.
Even in America itself when Ivy became a component of popular culture being
worn by film stars and eventually almost everybody it was far removed from its
very 'proper' origins too. The advertising imagery remained the same, but the
clothing was quite simply up for grabs by all at all price and quality points.
If you love the style for itself I think you love that too.
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| Hollywood and the Ivy Look |
Nachdem wir ein gutes Stück zurück in die Ivy-Geschichte geschaut haben, ist eine aktuelle Frage wert, erörtert zu werden: Ist bei all dem klassischen Anspruch der Ivy League Stil trotzdem jung und frisch? Modern oder altmodisch? Die einzig richtige Antwort, der ich voll und ganz zustimme, gibt Jim so:
You can wear Ivy in a fresh OR an
outdated way. I suspect that just boils down to how well you wear it. Maybe it all depends on how fresh or outdated
the wearer is ? You can wear classic Ivy today in a relevant way if you wear it
well. Any classic style is like that. You don't need to add any gimmicks with a
short shelf life to make it count.
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| The roll of the collar... is the most important thing! |
In den vergangenen Jahren hat der so genannte „Preppy“-Stil großen Aufschwung erfahren. Oftmals ist es für viele schwierig, den Unterschied zwischen „Ivy“ und „Preppy“ auszumachen und die Diskussion darüber füllt viele Foren-Stränge. Sind nicht Ralph Lauren, Mark McNairy, Thom Browne und Tommy Hilfiger die Helden moderner amerikanischer Design- und Stilkultur?
Preppy is a later fashion thing. I'll
agree that it's popular and I'll agree with your list of people that some
people like. Hand me a can of petrol and a box of matches and I'd burn the lot
of it down. Modern American style and Classic Ivy are very different. I know
what I like and it's not any 'updated' or 'classics with a twist' business.
Classicism doesn't work that way. Update the classics and you destroy the
timeless aspect of them as you limit them to today. They are no longer classic.
But fashion has always been the
enemy of classicism...
Um von der Theorie in die Praxis zu kommen: wo kauft man nun
am besten ein, wenn man dem „Ivy–Stil“ anheimgefallen ist? Ich weiß von
„O´Connell´s“ in den USA, das aber sehr teuer ist, und natürlich von „John
Simons“ in London, das sich immer als gute Quelle erweist. Seit Neuestem gibt
es hier auch einen Web Shop (ich selbst habe mein Brooks Brothers Hemd noch
„klassisch“ per Telefon bestellt). Meist sucht man doch auch nach günstigeren
Alternativen – wie sieht es hier aus mit beispielsweise „Lands´ End“ oder „LL
Bean“? Sind „Brooks Brothers“ oder „J. Press“ immer noch führend was „Ivy
League“ betrifft?
I'd recommend everybody to shop
around. There very little I would buy from Brooks Brothers or J. Press today.
They've lost it, if you know what Ivy actually is - Here's a clue it's also
called the Natural Shoulder style. Linebacker shoulders don't cut it.
Landsend, LL Bean - Why not? And go
vintage too. Connect with people who are also into Ivy on places like the 'Talk
Ivy' forum on FilmNoirBuff online who have clothes to sell.
Personally I only shop at John
Simons now or wear vintage.
Everybody has to find what suits
them best.
I'm
always happy to exchange thoughts about clothing and
style issues, especially with someone
who, due to his lifelong passion for "Ivy", has acquired a lot of knowledge and overview and – most important- also loves to share these with others. So thank you Jim
for all the insights, your interesting answers
and all the fun!
It's always nice to meet somebody
with an interest in the Ivy League look.
A pleasure to talk to you, Dominik!
Jimmy Frost Mellor, Specialist Ivy
League Menswear Consultant and Archivist, originator of Smoking Cat Vintage
Menswear, originator of various Ivy related things online.
So schließe ich den heutigen Beitrag mit einigen Bildern von
mir selbst im „Ivy League“- oder „Natural Shoulder“-Stil:
