Drake’s
The Harvard Blues: A Note on Jazz and Ivy League Style
George Frazier III was a legend in his time (1911 – 1974). He was a first-class journalist – with columns in Esquire, The Boston Globe, and Down Beat —, a man of great style, and a lover of sports, literature, and jazz. He is said to have befriended many jazz musicians when they were down on their luck.
A graduate of Harvard, he once wrote some song lyrics he called “Harvard Blues”, and got his friend Count Basie to set them to music. This was in 1941, and the song was recorded by the Count Basie band, with the help of jazz impresario John Hammond at Columbia Records. Actually Basie recorded the song again in 1944, both times the lyrics were sung by the great blues shouter Jimmy Rushing. The first stanza goes:
I wear Brooks clothes and white shoes all the time,
I wear Brooks clothes and white shoes all the time.
Get three “C”’s, a “D”, and think checks from home sublime.
Brooks Brothers clothes and white shoes, known as “white bucks”, were standard wardrobe on college campuses then. Frazier was a particular aficionado of the Brooks Brothers button down shirt with its gentle roll of affected nonchalance. Not coincidentally, Frazier was also a friend of Charlie Davidson, founder of The Andover Shop at Harvard, the quintessential campus shop. Davidson dressed many of the great jazz musicians who went on the become stars at The Newport Jazz Festival such as Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
All images courtesy of www.ivy-style.com
Red white and blue
Fit for a Diamond Jubilee
Handkerchiefs just arrived at Clifford Street, will be available online from next week.
On the shop floor
Special warp exclusive shirting, shantung and knitted silk, Ash and Whangee handled umbrellas.
Raymond Chandler…
He wore a bluish-gray suit with an almost invisible pale blue check. On his crossed feet were black moccasin-type ties, the kind with two eyelets that are almost as comfortable as strollers and don’t wear your socks out every time you walk a block. His white handkerchief was folded square and the end of a pair of sunglasses showed behind it. He had thick dark wavy hair. He was tanned very dark. He looked up with bird bright eyes and smiled under a hairline mustache. His tie was a dark maroon tied in a pointed bow over a sparkling white shirt.
The Long Goodbye
Nackymade for Drake’s
From Kobe, Japan
Naoki Nakagawa, or “Nacky” as he likes to be called, is the designer and manufacturer of Nackymade glasses. A glasses connoisseur from the start, Nacky searched, tried, and tested every glasses brand he could find only to come to the realization that his ideal pair of glasses in terms of style and fit did not exist.
So Nacky did what only Nacky has done and committed himself as an apprentice through the entire glasses-making process: for manufacturing, a factory; for design, a design company; for eye prescriptions, an optician’s; for sales, an optics shop. Pulling it all together, Nacky opened his first shop in Kobe in 2004.
Nacky has one and only one policy for serving customers: find and recommend the most suitable pair of glasses for each individual. He is continuously at work on his ready-to-wear collection, which offers a variety of colors and frames, his made-to-order business, which is based on the ready-to-wear collection, and his one-of-a-kind bespoke offering.
Whether it’s an eye-catching color paired with dinosaur arms, or a muted color with a classic frame, Nacky offers a unique style with a comfortable fit and has been attracting fans not only in Japan but also internationally as well, and we are very happy to be collaborating together.
Nackymade for Drake’s is available at No.3 Clifford Street.
Raymond Chandler…
Fashion Notes – Men
1. Gazelle leather sports coat nutmeg brown
2. Coconut straw hat deep beige with pugaree band
3. Light tweed jacket with dark buttons, plaid slacks, alligator shoes, soft brown shirt, narrow bow tie, brown felt hat with narrow snap brim
4. Creamy white Shetland sports coat with dark Oxford gray slacks, solid burgundy four-in-hand tie, plaided handkerchief to match, plain white shirt and tie. Collar slightly stiffened.
Wedding Ties
End on End Silks
There’s a particular, small-patterned Macclesfield genre of silk neckwear referred to as “wedding” ties, because funnily enough they were, in the early years of the 20th Century, relegated to formal day wedding attire for gentlemen.
Oxford Weave
These are truly wonderful ties, always woven in contrasting tones of two colours – light and dark – small checked patterns that produce a soft glow. Black-and-white, which results in a silvery hue has always been the most popular, but other combinations include white or cream with blue, brown, purple, green, and almost any other colour you could want.
50oz Royal Twill
In the 1930s well-dressed men – think Fred Astaire and the Duke of Windsor for a start – began to wear their wedding ties with day suits, and even sports jackets. Astaire loved to wear his tweed jackets and grey flannels with a button- down shirt and simple wedding tie. It was a nice touch of acquired nonchalance gained by mixing the formal and informal together in an outfit.
50oz Royal Twill
Since the height of the wedding season is almost upon us, we wanted to mention weddings of course, but also note they don’t have to just be worn on those occasions.
50oz Royal Twill
