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<\/a>Mr Press in New York, 2012, picture:\u00a0\u00a9 Rose Callahan<\/p>\nI am currently Featured\u00a0Columnist at ivy-style.com, menswear consultant, until past January, co-curator at\u00a0Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology Ivy Style Exhibit. Lectured at Yale\u00a0University, participate in signings of Yale University Press book, Ivy Style. Regularly\u00a0interviewed and featured in Japanese magazine Free and Easy, other menswear\u00a0blogs and journals, labeled by Tablet Magazine, \u201cthe premier historian of the Ivy Look.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Mr Press with wife Vida at Isle St. Louis, 1998<\/p>\n Prep school graduate of The Loomis School (now called Loomis-Chaffee), Dartmouth\u00a0College, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Master\u2019s Degree from the New York Institute of Technology.\u00a0My wife Vida graduated Smith College in my same year and managed a Park Avenue\u00a0surgeon\u2019s office for many years. Daughter Jennifer inherited Press family genes, was\u00a0host on a popular radio show A Fashionable Life on WGCH, Greenwich, Connecticut.<\/p>\n Mr Press at a J. Press Convention in Tokyo, 1989<\/p>\n Son Benjamin J. Press co-heads DBA-Fortitude Associates, a talent agency in Beverly\u00a0Hills, California. He wore his grandfather\u2019s inherited 1968 tuxedo last year at an Oscar\u00a0party when a Hollywood star, his client, complimented him that, \u201che was the best\u00a0dressed guy there.\u201d The London Daily Mail agreed and headlined him \u201cbest dressed\u201d\u00a0in their report of the event. Vida appeared with me last year at a Yale seminar where I\u00a0was speaking on The Heyday of Ivy. She stole the show answering student questions\u00a0regarding the impact of Ivy Style on her fellow Smithies.<\/p>\n I have no siblings and my parents and immediate family showered and spoiled me\u00a0with undeserved attention. My father and his brother sustained the unremitting love\u00a0for menswear tailoring and furnishings that motivated their father Jacobi founding the\u00a0business bearing his name. I followed the family tradition unswervingly even doodling\u00a0and dreaming about Ivy League culture in my earliest years in school. I grew up in New\u00a0Haven, Connecticut not far from the Yale campus.<\/p>\n Mr Press amid the pastel glory that was the 80s, 1982<\/p>\n I loved and deeply respected my\u00a0grandfather, a vigorous and charismatic man who became a celebrity among legions\u00a0of Yale men and leader in the local community. Many of my earliest days were spent in\u00a0the portals of the J. Press store in New Haven until I went away to boarding school. My grand father proudly introduced me to his customers, many of whom were stars in the Yale\u00a0scene. I studied what was hip and “shoe” among the upper-class and recognized my\u00a0future at J. Press to maintain the ethos of trade exellence originated years ago by my\u00a0beloved grandfather and perpetuated by his sons.\u201d<\/p>\n I assumed the junior reins upon my graduation from Dartmouth after serving six months\u00a0as private the U.S. Army Reserves. I was fortunate, becoming head of the company in\u00a01982 when they were still alive, each becoming Co-Chairman, Emeritus. President and\u00a0CEO was a dream I coveted beyond the cradle.\u00a0My knowledge was ingested as milk from a mother\u2019s breast. During prep school and\u00a0college vacations I worked in the tailor shop labeling cloth bolts, shipping room, even\u00a0occasionally as a bench player on the sales floor.<\/p>\n Mr Press as the dramatic brunette in an off-Broadway production, 1976<\/p>\n I was taught to fit and pin suits and\u00a0learned all areas of the business tutored by personnel and my father. I wrote advertising\u00a0copy, printed price tags and dressed the clothing dummies in the window. There were\u00a0no hidden orifices that were allowed by my father to escape my attention. I remain a\u00a0voracious reader of F.Scott Fitzgerald, John O\u2019Hara, Tom Wolfe, Geoffrey Wolff with\u00a0their keen portrayals of Ivy League characters so illustrative of the defining era.<\/p>\n My own style of dress evolved in the same way J. Press customers thrived enlarging\u00a0the dimensions of their wardrobe. Prep school days I wore tweed sport jackets, cotton\u00a0Oxford button-down shirts, three inch foulard, rep stripe, emblematic, challis wool, Irish\u00a0poplin ties, grey flannel or corduroy trousers, argyle hosiery with garters, weejun loafers\u00a0or dirty white buck shoes. Coats and ties had to be worn to all classes and mandatory\u00a0chapel. Dressier requirements on trips to New York City usually meant a grey\u00a0flannel suit. Dartmouth is a rural campus with less formality than Yale, Princeton or\u00a0Harvard. My uniform was khaki or corduroy pants, usually messed up button-down shirt,\u00a0shetland sweater. I was an ardent skier and often sported turtleneck shirts or sweaters\u00a0to fight the New Hampshire cold, not unlike Finland.<\/p>\n Mr Press (armed with skis) at Dartmouth Winter Carnival, 1956<\/p>\n My “Mad Men” years in New York,\u00a0beginning in the 1960s, featured grey chalk stripe suits with equivalent haberdashery of\u00a0my youth. Summertime in New York meant seersucker, cotton linen, tropical wool chalk\u00a0stripe suits. I favored the Gucci-styled loafer shoes sold by Barrie Ltd. next door to J.\u00a0Press in New Haven. Ready-to-wear clothing of the time was tailored especially for J.\u00a0Press by Franklin Clothes, Linett, Hertling in our natural shoulder, three button model\u00a0with center-hook vent, plain front trousers with twenty inch knee and seventeen inch\u00a0bottom. Trousers were worn cuffed. Today I slob around New York in khakis, OCBD,\u00a0blue blazer, winter turtlenecks, sloppier than I would dare to be in the Heyday when I ran\u00a0a company. I believe a gentleman never discloses either his mistress or his tailor and\u00a0I adhere to that personal requirement regarding where I purchase the contents of my\u00a0closet today.<\/p>\n I have not been associated with J. Press since 1991 therefore any changes that\u00a0have occurred with the company\u2019s product occurred without any help from me. Time\u00a0marches on and I am not averse to change as long as it is intelligently and tastefully\u00a0accomplished. The evolution (or revolution) of J. Press, Brooks Brothers, Paul Stuart,\u00a0Ralph Lauren, other shops of the genre is best told in their profit or loss statements. I\u00a0hope the short length of most of their suits and blazers together with the low rise, length\u00a0and width of their trousers doesn\u2019t suggest a short sale of their stock.<\/p>\n Mr Press (second from left, position not pertaining to political views) with singing group at Loomis School, 1953<\/p>\n A Gershwin song lyric might have well been composed representing my work\u00a0philosophy.”\u2018I\u2019ll build a stairway to Paradise with a new step every day.” I enjoyed\u00a0introducing myself to as many customers as possible and encouraged my managers\u00a0and staff always to be respectful, friendly and professional. The customer profile of\u00a0J. Press included American leaders in all walks from Frank Sinatra to Robert Frost.\u00a0Enough said.<\/p>\n I co-curated the recent Ivy Style Exhibit at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of\u00a0Technology garnering many tours conducted (available on You Tube), talks, seminars\u00a0and signings for a book dedicated to me, Ivy Style, published by Yale University\u00a0Press, featuring an interview conducted by Ivy blog founder Christian Chensvold with\u00a0me. Henry Luce, the oligarch of Time, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated Magazines,\u00a0characterized the twentieth century as the American Century. Culture of that knighted\u00a0era was dominated by the Ivy League and as years pass the public awareness of its\u00a0tragedies and triumphs stand in poignant contrast with the 21st Century of ragged\u00a0decadence in the arts, literature and fashion. Cheap goods with limited shelf life. The Ivy\u00a0League was America\u2019s Land of Oz. Unlike in the Wizard of Oz, the curtain of reality was\u00a0pulled, not by Toto the dog as in the movie, but by Viet Nam, assassination, civil and\u00a0financial disorder. Menswear has been jerking around since and I am optimistic we shall\u00a0see a new sun up in a new sky.<\/p>\n Mr Press’ father Paul Press with one Martin Luther King, Jr., 1961<\/p>\n My appetite for lobster and cherrystone clams remains undiminished together with my\u00a0addiction to literature, history, politics, the New York Yankees, Broadway musicals,\u00a0dogs and the lusty sophistication of New York City. My wife and I treasure the joy\u00a0of our children and grandchildren. When my orthopedic surgeon told me to forget\u00a0skiing, I survived the disappointment with nary a tear. After completing drama school\u00a0evening classes, I performed as an actor in a dozen off-Broadway productions during\u00a0slow seasons at J. Press. I completed the circle producing two plays on Broadway,\u00a0one nominated for a Tony. The wonders of Apple assist my endeavors as Featured\u00a0Columnist for the Ivy Style blog (ivy-style.com<\/a>) and have submitted a manuscript to I wish more men (and women) would learn history, become familiar with at least a\u00a0smattering of the arts. Since we are talking Menswear, young men should find out what\u00a0kind of clothing enhance the quality of their life. What represents sensible economic\u00a0value, well-made, priced fairly, au courant<\/em> enough to endure as a gift for the next\u00a0generation. I mentioned earlier that my son flaunted his grandfather\u2019s forty year old\u00a0wardrobe in Hollywood! Find mentors from times past. The Duke of Windsor was a cad,\u00a0a best dressed one. If you are unable to recognized the sheer genius of his clothes,\u00a0then I am talking into a hat. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, author\u00a0F. Scott Fitzgerald, composers Cole Porter and George Gershwin, movie stars Fred\u00a0Astaire, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, the list goes on and on and every one of them had\u00a0glorious style. Learn from the past. This article is a mere outline. Perhaps many of you\u00a0can digest my Ivy history reading The Golden Years columns of the sidebar at ivy-\u00a0style.com.’<\/p>\n Jacobi Press,\u00a0 the founding father of J. Press, 1908<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nmy literary agent for a book currently titled pre-publication, “Cut From The Cloth: The\u00a0Heyday of Ivy League Style and the Life and Times of One Man and the Family Who\u00a0Made It Happen.” Maybe a Finnish edition [someday]!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n