Journal

I don’t know why, but ever since I became interested in menswear, Ivy style has fascinated me.

I’m not American, nor have I attended an Ivy League university, yet somehow this enduring style seems to have influenced just about anyone (myself included) who has spent more than five minutes browsing r/malefashionadvice on Reddit. To me, Ivy has always seemed unavoidable, one way or another.

Back in the autumn of 2020, I took my first outfit picture wearing a navy blazer, having spent some time reading menswear blogs and watching rather basic style advice on YouTube. I knew the blazer was an Ivy staple, but I didn’t really know why.

I had started to familiarise myself with the Ivy vocabulary: navy blazers, OCBDs, loafers, desert boots and repp stripe ties. The culture behind it, however, remained something of a mystery to me, and to some extent, it still does.

But perhaps that’s beside the point.

I’ve since read several books on the subject, including Take Ivy, Ametora and Black Ivy. While all three offer fascinating insights into Ivy style and its influence, much of their appeal, at least to me, lies in the clothes themselves. And that’s what interests me most.

Ivy from A to Z

IVY A-Z places even greater emphasis on the clothes and accessories themselves. The concept is exactly what the title suggests: a comprehensive alphabetical guide to distinctly Ivy garments, accessories, activities and brands.

The book is packed with illustrations and photographs, many featuring Max the cat, a rather stylish feline who helps demonstrate the many different aspects of Ivy style. It’s a charming touch that gives the book a personality of its own and makes it considerably more engaging than a straightforward collection of photographs.

The format also makes the book particularly easy to pick up and read. You can work your way through it from beginning to end or simply open it at a random page and learn something about a particular garment, brand or obscure Ivy term.

In that sense, it never really feels as though you’ve finished the book. There’s always a reason to return to it, and often something new to discover.

Rather than attempting to define Ivy style once and for all, the book presents you with the individual pieces of the puzzle. What you choose to do with them is entirely up to you.

More Wardrobe Than History Lesson

If you’re looking for a deep dive into the history and culture surrounding Ivy League style, this probably isn’t the book for you. But then again, the title makes its intentions fairly clear. You can hardly be surprised to open a book called IVY A-Z and discover that it doesn’t contain a dissertation on the cultural significance of Ivy.

For someone primarily interested in the clothes, however, that’s hardly a dealbreaker.

For me, IVY A-Z is exactly what I wanted it to be: a fun, colourful and thoroughly enjoyable book that’s easy to pick up and browse. Its accessibility is precisely what makes it so appealing, and its wealth of small details gives you plenty of reasons to keep coming back.

It might not make me any more of an Ivy Leaguer, but it has certainly deepened my appreciation for the wider Ivy League universe.