Welcome, everyone! Dovetailing with the end of Fashion Week, the Museum at FIT will debut their exhibit “Ivy Style,” an exploration of the evolution of menswear that focuses on the hyperfashionable dress of young men of means that emerged from elite college campuses in the early 20th century.
fitnyc.edu

To get us started: How did each of you dress in college? (Be honest.)

I ended up going to college in the south and while there began adopting all the amazing southern preppy staples (we were calling it fratwear) I didn't even know existed. Bean boots, Clarks, pastel colors, seersucker, madras, etc. It was a real transformation and was an eye opening experience for someone such as myself.

If you really want to see, although its small heres a good pic of me from the "college days, second from right" thecoveteur.com

I didn't wear tweed but I did like tennis and now I roll up my pants on the bottom, very college like...

I was a hot mess!!! I thought I was ivy league chic with a bit of punk thrown in. I looked more like Belinda Carlisle of the B52's on a bad day!

At Dartmouth in the Eisenhower fifties, it was khakis and warm up jackets. I dressed like a J. Press dude in the parties in the fraternity basements and my fraternity brothers forgave me my genes.

You've never been a hot mess MaryALice...ever

Richard that sounds fabulous!

I guess fraternity life doesn't ever really change. Dress the part, act the part, play the part.

You boys have it easy! Us college girls had T&A to contend with!

Do any of you still have any pieces of clothing that you wore in college, and if so are they still in rotation?

Dressing that can be challenging especially when the sisters have just sprung and no longer work in your cardi's! :)

But vacations in NYC at 21 or under the clock, ocbd, grey flannels, ancient madder tie and tweak the stiffs with dirty white bucks

I've moved past 99% of what I wore in college outside of a pair of L.L. Bean boots for when it rains and some various pairs of Clarks.

Not sure they even had fraternity's at CSUN, California...does anybody know?

Didn't you see me sitting front row yesterday @DonnaKaran in my cheerleading uniform?!

I dress the same way I did at bennington - for better or worse. My style has never changed.

Hey @L.A.S you might need to metrosexual it up!

I must have some leather pants still hanging around in someones basement from my college years...but not sure i can whip them out now at a fashion show...

Don't get me started on that. I once called metrosexuality "the darkest period in men's clothing ever."

Hi All! I'm here..Amy Levin from CollegeFashionista

And that is why I love you @PeterDavisNYC! #Bananas4Bowties!

Also, I wrote two chapters for Lisa Birnbach's True Prep, the sequel to The Preppy Handbook - so I do see myself as an authority on the subject... :)

I do like cardigans, does that qualify?

@NewYorkObserver I still wear my beat up flannels all the time. I snagged them at vintage stores in Bloomington, IN and can't part ways!

I wish I had some of my gear from college - a mix of prep, punk and Dead Head (the band, not that I was dead in the head) #NotAStoner

@PeterdavisNYC would you say my style is preppy?

But @SartoriallyInc you don't even man jewelry it up once in awhile?

Flannels and plaid are like sunglasses and denim - they are ALWAYS in style. #Iconic

@PeterDavis its truly a college staple that I see at all our campuses around the world!

My Dartmouth Indian bow tie which is current verboten

@SartloriallyInc - I own so many man jewels that I NEVER wear. I like owning them, like art - but like my hands and neck free: @MaryAliceStephenson - how do you handle the jewels?

I've been seeing Ivy league Style influences from my front row view all week! Check the how the cool school did it at @31PhillipLim

I have lots of flannels! whew...I qualify...

PS: Favorite "man jewels"? @CastOfVices and @Miansai and a Rolex (which I do wear daily)...

@maryalicestyle Sure, I have some bracelets and beaded necklaces are huge in menswear right now, but the nonsense perpetuated by metrosexuality and the media during that time was unforgivable. Why create a term for guys, many of whom were straight, that simply liked clothes and dressing? Labels, as they almost always are, are detrimental.

We need to have a flannel party asap @Maryalicestyle @Peterdavisnyc

I LOVE..LOVE..LOVE @Miansai jewelry

Mewelry is the new normal for a lot of guys.

Loads of plaids, stripes, denim and leather and color at the shows. Even at @oscarprgirl the ladies that lunch looked college cool!

Flannel Fashion Night In - with @ScottLipps and @MaryAliceStephenson #PlaidPower

and why not to jewlery for men? I say go for it !!

Lectured at Yale last year. They said they wanted more of the old stuff

Sorry boys..... the only flannel this yummy mummy wears is my boyfriends! xo

@L.A.S - "mewelry" is my new mot du jour. As they tweet: reposting! #ThankYOU

Thats it...FlannelsFashionNightIn FFNI You coined it @PeterdavisNYC , @MaryAliceStyle... you in??

I've also been noticing a ton of leather leggings being worn by students this fall.. not real leather of course but nonetheless

Ivy Style at MFIT has the whole kit and kaboodle--the oldest stuff is still the hottest

@OscarPRGirl - the hot pink (and green) at Oscar's show - pink is the preppy flag colors. LOVED it. And I am using Oscar's show as a reason to get a pink stripe in my hair for fall. Watch out @cmbenz

Richard, we’d love a brief explanation of what the “Ivy Style” exhibit. Any really exciting pieces?

I'll wear #manjewelry if it comes with a 20 year old Harvard frat boy!

@rvpress59 What did you think of J. Press' new York Street line by the Ovadia brothers?

I have to admit I love leather, but avoid fur now...even though all I had was a Margiela jean jacket with a fur collar. Now being worn by a homeless man (keeping warm and stylish in the winter I hope).

J.Press is awesome and their exhibit was a home run. I went to Buckley with the founder's grandson, who of course was a PREP!

@RVpress59 totally agree. OLD IS THE NEW BLACK

You should all follow @ChloeNorgaard Shes my pick for cool hair of the season! @MaryAliceStyle @PeterDavisNYC @Branch

Chloe is followed! Can she help me Manic Panic my dark brown locks. A pop of color for this old dude will brightern up my fall wardrobe.

Close to the heart! My father, Paul Press' sport coat collection goes Mano A Mano with the riffs and trends of Post Modern Prep that's cross stage--every custom stitch tailored with blood, sweat and tears and Boola Boola across the street for authenticity

@rvpress59 love when a man wears his heart on his sleeve!

Please everyone buy "True Prep" - My essay compares boarding schools to rehabs and another one on preppies and...SOCIAL MEDIA (the preps use it to spark affairs...naughty prepsters!)

I love what Rag and Bone is doing...is that considered preppy?

@scottlipps Rag & Bone is 100% not preppy whatsoever.

Rag and Bone is great: preppy with a little Sid and Nancy punk attitude (minus the heroin, pimples and booze bottles).

@scottlipps In fact, barely any fashion, with a capital f, designers do preppy clothing anymore.

.@ScottLipps @Rag_Bone it's the new prep.

When I was in college (Bennington - hippie art camp, NOT Ivy League) - Boho was the preppy way of rebelling. A little hippie with your LL Bean bluchers.

The entrance has F. Scott Fitzgerald excerpts on the wall with tribute to Brooks Brothers and Princeton. Much Brooks archival tradition on the spot and in the hall fitting tribute to Ralph Lauren who notes his original Ivy inspiration.

I love that @Rah_Bone has a store on Madison Avenue in the old Bank of New York where back in the day, my parents cashed actual (paper) checks.

@PeterDavis have you seen the way students dress from @SCAD? They define rebelling through fashion

Could be why I like it @Rag_bone @PeterdavisNYC @SatoriallyInc

Prep influence is everywhere. Just not as literal. Just check out @DerekLam

@CFashionista What is the best-dressed college campus these days?

PS: the new iPhone5 announced in 38 minutes! I want! I want! Channeling Veruca Salt in the goose laying golden eggs room. #WillyWonka

I also like Double RL @RalphLauren but that seems way more vintage then Prep...pls advise...

Prep is like Rock and Roll - it will never go away. Prep is the new punk. See: @BradGoreski for the full-on "lewk"

@NewYorkObserver @SCADdotEDU no questions asked. Those kids are fearless when it comes to fashion.

All this talk about prep when theres an Iphone being announced? My god, @PeterdavisNYC thanks for the heads up!!

yes @Peterdavisnyc yes!

LOVE Double RL @RalphLauren : very haute-vintage. Let's play trade and share @ScottLipps #FashionFriends

I just saw the @parsons560 show #parsonsNYFW and I think prep has gone techno!

Back to Prepsville: The LL Bean store in Maine is the mothership. I went there when I was sent to summer school for being, like usual, a bad, bad boy. I think I was on bonghits when I was shopping... #Confession

Do I need to dress preppy for the @Ladygaga party tomorrow night? Somebody please lend me a @Tomford tux asap Anyone??

The vulgarity in some of the riffs and trends of Post Modern Prep define Justice Potter Stewart's def of pornography: You know it when you see it.

True @MaryAliceStephenson - lots of techno. The crowd at @xobetseyjohnson and #TheBlonds would NOT wear an LL Bean raglan sweater or duck boots.

I am going to @ladygaga party tomorrow too - masquerade? How to dress @Scottipps @MaryAliceStephenson ? Like a disco ball? A #LittleMonster #Help

“Ivy Style” certainly never disappeared, but interest in it peaked in recent years. What caused this mass public interest in peppy menswear? It got to the point where there were so many menswear blogs that a parody was warranted (Lookin’ at you, Lawrence.), and GQ did an oral history of menswear blogging. Why now?
observer.com
gq.com

I barely own a tie PD!...I think I need the "panels" help in lending me a Tom Ford tux!!

One last prep comment: LL Bean duck boots are the crocs of the prep world: so ugly, they are beautiful. Like my favorite film: #Showgirls : so hideous, it's hilarious.

Everything regarding menswear on the Internet as it stands today came out of Americana. Americana clothing (tough, rugged, well made, etc.) made it okay for straight guys to feel like they could get into "fashion."

Rules of the Ivy League Look vs. prep: Good tailoring and fit, most important--intergenerational continuity. Put it in the closet, it looks good next year and years to come

Was it Grunge that made it wane a bit @Newyorkobserver?

Prep is safe but can be twisted to look crazy so it's street style now. The best? #MarkMcNairy @ColeHaan (the neon soled shoes!) @DelToroShoes @BrooksBrothers #BlackFleece @mbastianny

Americana is a blanket term that encompasses a lot of different genres, including prep and ivy.

Finally men and women in America don't have to dumb it down anymore and can have some fun getting dressed for work! #AMEN

The Japanese do the American prep look the best: #UnitedArrows #Beams

What about vintage? That seems to be such a huge focus of what college students are wearing these days.

I dress like a prep who got mugged by a punk rocker (we swapped clothes) and is the spawn of a hippie commune. It's about the MIX.

I found old #HelmutLang (when HELMUT designed the line) pants from his shop on Greene Street and realized, OMFG: these are mid-90s, meaning vintage. I obviously felt very old...

Prep has never gone away @jcrew & @tommyhilfiger just brought it to life again in a mainstream way!

Thats why your my friend PD, punk rock...

Customers don't want to throw money around. Ivy is worth the long term investment and only grows stale if the man wearing it does.

I adore JCrew. @pagesix did an item that all jenna Lyons' models looked like her. How chic. Nerd frames forever!

Love this @tommyhilfiger...

Oh - #ThomBrowne - more preppy with a twisted, warped wonderful POV.

What modern-day celebrity or other public figure embodies Ivy Style?

@RichardEPress - do you know Benji Press? A relation?

@NewYorkObserver @Weezer the band

Best dressed today are Dartmouth and Middlebury because they perfectly reflect the New England feel.

@PharrellWilliams mixes preppy with street style well...so many celebrities are styled so they end up with no personal style...

I cannot think of any single celeb that wears true Ivy style. It's too boring for Hollywood.

Most people can't afford to spend money on what they wear #realitycheck. So it's the @Targetstyle @JCPenney's of the world that are now providing affordable fashion to the college crew!

@L.A.S. What about a writer or politician?

Agreed @LAS - no more James Dean looking celebs. Matt Bomer is pretty Ivy League looking though (and gay and hot!)

@MaryAliceStephenson 100% true! Plus @UrbanOutfitters which is literally on every college campus.

@NewYorkObserver - don't forget #MaisonMargiela for @HandM - not Ivy, but affordable and I want it all (said in Veruca Salt voice).

@peterdavisNYC Just because Matt Bomer is handsome doesn't mean he dresses in the Ivy League style. Bomer wears skinny suits, not tweeds and soft shoulders and club ties.

Chris Matthews IS Ivy Style even though he went to Holy Cross. Maybe Sam Waterston. I'm not young either.

Fun that @ladygaga and @FIT are having parties at the same time: yin yang styles. But @ladygaga did go to Sacred Heart where my sister went. No escaping the UES!

I agree, I think Pharrell is a good example too, good point..

Matt Bomer doesn't wear weird suits. he looks like he could work on Wall Street which is where Ivy League dudes end up, unless they are freaks like me and end up tweeting about clothes (and loving it).

Wait til you see the Velvet Smoking Jackets in the Club Room at Ivy FIT.

Something tells me #Ivy #Preppy #Ivystyle etc are words possibly starting to trend now on @Twitter...

I covet @Pharrell style and @IAmMarkRonson who went to Collegiate in NYC (is there a preppier name for a private, preppy school)? Mark isn't preppy but SO cool!

Pharrell DOES NOT WEAR IVY CLOTHING, guys.

Take a look at DPC's NY Social Diary. Plenty of Ivy Style at the Millbrook Horse Show. The Meadow Club and Bailey's Beach still rocks.

I love @FIT exhibits - they are focused and informative. Sorry, was not a fan of the current Costume Institute show. The Prada fire heels in a museum and their store window? Does not compute.

The guys at @Georgetown seem to the perfect combo on Ivy League style plus a hipster flair

Fashion is about what is RIGHT NOW. Ivy League Style is the most interesting when we see how it is infused into the now. Look at @OfficialRodarte's take on the trend or @PatrikErvell's twist. Even @MichaelBastien does #IVYLEAGUESTYLE in a glamourous way!

Um...google @Pharrell - he is very versed in the prep look as seen through the eyes of a hip hop mogul. Preps can be anyone. Just the way socialites can be hip hop stars, not ladies who lunch from Park Avenue. 2012 is about everyone being everything (Thank heaven!)

I have to sign off! Thanks everyone for a fabulous chat.

@CollegeFashionista probably has a class!

@Satoriallyinc Pharell absolutely gets his Ivy on! Better than most just in a way that infuses street!

I think we are mixing and matching prep and Ivy. These things are different.

I miss boarding school and tweed jackets and cigarettes and getting in trouble. Now I live that life through TV, books and movies. #AdultLiving

another good call @IamMarkRonson very cool guy and preppy chic if I have any say here! @PeterdavisNYC

@Richard, @L.A.S., what is your definition of "Ivy Style"?

and just for the record, I still don't own a tweed jacket... maybe I need to get shopping...

Real "Prep" is hand me downs and LL Bean - it is not even JCrew which came after the preps. If we want to be super specific. But the preppy style is now a part of the fashion vocabulary which it never was. It is not niche anymore.

Howard Dean does Vermont Ivy. The Kennedy grandson who is running for congress in Massachusetts. Scott Brown shows some Ivy. Barney Frank is in the game.

@PeterDavisNYC you can borrow my son :)!

@ScottLipps - I scored a few tweeds recently. I have one for you. I got your back bud, literally.

and @Scottlipps you can borrow my tweed jacket!

Ill be happy to borrow any item of clothing you lend me ! @MaryAliceStyle

Ivy style to me is classic American tailoring and sportswear. Nothing loud, everything understated and relaxed.

My family are all true preps. They wear LL Bean shoes until they fall apart (remember duck taping your bluchers when the soles came undone?!). That is not style, that is a way of life. JCrew et al. are style.

and just for the record, preppy or not, I do like @JCrew

Sorry @LAS but Lilly Pulitzer is true Ivy Stle and nothing is louder and more FUN.

The biggest thing getting lost here, that any viewers of this chat should know, is that Prep does not equal Ivy.

.@peterdavisnyc so right there w/you #daugheroftheamericanrevolution right here! But I never really liked my duck books!

@peterdavisnyc Ivy style is not loud and is not fun. It never was and it never will be. It is sober, worn hard and understated.

Define Ivy vs. Prep. #Confused. I didn't go to an Ivy League school (I broke the trend after 3 generations of Davis' went to Harvard) but I grew up as preppy as they come.

I'm #confused too...

@peterdavisnyc I know you are a huge prep guy, but you are taking that love and projecting it on something that is only tangentially related.

What about green wide whale cords? Those are Ivy and pretty darn loud. #PumpUpTheVolume

These genres are from different time periods.

When do you wear Ivy? Is it a class issue as it was in the Heyday or does the current crisis of economic inequality set the rules?

And pink and green are the almost-official preppy colors - not that somber or staid.

but I did love my @lillypulitzer and @l.a.s I might just be a living #IVYPREP!

The class system is dead in America (again, thank heaven). @JayZ has more cash and clout than a Rockefeller or a DuPont.

@peterdavisnyc Official PREPPY colors maybe, but Ivy Style is about neutrals for the most part

Peter forget yellow--PYG is pink, yellow, green. Gonna wear it at FIT press conference.

I think I need to go shopping after this conversation....

so Ivy Stle is just for Ivy league colleges? I guess I should have put away those bongs in boarding school (where I was given the boot) and gone to harvard like my forefathers...

people we are on a @Newyorkobserver twitter chat @branch this it not a dissertation at Columbia! Can't we have some fun!

Take a look at the ancient madder kerchiefs in the J. Press jackets at MFIT. Today it's a forgotten art.

I'm with you @Maryalicestyle ...lets talk #fashion #fun

@MaryAliceStephenson - let's have a Lilly Pulitzer party in the freezing winter. that is FUN!

@RVPress59 STUNNING and will #inspire! Can't wait!

Ivy style is at least 20 years older than preppy style.

I am with @RVPress59 - can't wait to color crazy my @FIT #IvyLeague style get-up.

The best of Ivy was never just at Ivy. Virginia, Washington and Lee, Trinity, St. Lawrence, Kenyon, Stanford all over USA

.@peterdavisnyc LET IT SNOW and @satoriallyinc I am making you wear @lillyPulitzer too!