The one thing to take away from this book: there is much more to style than just clothing.

The book itself seems to also be a main inspiration behind the Inis Meain clothing line, and indeed, just about every Inis Meain stockist I’ve visited seems to have a copy of it on hand. Bill Doyle’s other book, Images of Dublin, is also worth checking out.

“Harris Tweed has always resonated in the minds of the few. But increasingly the people of Harris and their traditional ways are striking a chord with the many. It is hard to think of another product so deeply connected to both the landscape in which it is born and the people who create it. It has life, this tweed: it is filled with life by those who weave it it, it is coloured by the land in which it lives.” – Patrick Grant, Norton & Sons

In the book, Lara Platman follows the production of Harris Tweed fabrics over the course of a year and along the way profiles many of the people who are involved in the process, from those raising and shearing the sheep, to those who inspect the final product before it’s shipped off to suppliers and designers. When I was finally able to sit down and go through it, I couldn’t help but think of my own Harris Tweed jackets and the work that went into them – likely many of craftsmen featured in the book could have worked on the very same fabrics that my jackets were made from.

Along with tweed fans, anyone in the industry who is in the business of selling Harris Tweed garments should have this book on hand. I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it that captures the entire production process into a single volume and presents it in such an appreciative way.

A few examples of the photography included in the book can be found through Platman’s photoshelter website and it can be easily ordered online through several sources.

Browsing the Elliott Bay bookstore this last weekend led me to a collection of short novels written by five different authors but all under the same title – The Duel. Recently released by Melville House Publishing as part of its larger Art of the Novella series, each book provides a look into the upper class societies where young military officers and gentlemen would resort to pointless illegal duels to settle differences (the practice was often banned by Emperors, Kings, Generals, and the like).

At $10-12 a pop though, I decided to start with just two of them and picked the stories that were in my favorite historical settings: Czarist Russia and Napoleonic France.

By Alexander Kuprin and Joseph Conrad, respectively – the other three are by Chekhov, Heinrich Von Kleist, and Giacomo Casanova. Each book also comes with a special URL included in the back that provides access to additional reading material which looks to be ideal for the type of person who can get distracted for hours on just wikipedia alone.

Its illustrator Maira Kalman has also worked on other notable projects and was recently featured in the WSJ several months back (her email-free workspace sounds tempting).

For me, the best part of it is that it also highlights many great design details that have faded away into history (just the sort of details that we repro nerds like) and it will be interesting to see if it has an influence on the some of fledgling companies out there today who are still looking for something to set their jeans apart from the rest. This is a must own I think, for any denim fan.

Think of this book as Ivy League: The Director’s Cut. An entirely personal edit of what we consider to be the very best bits – the main styles, the sharp dressers and the major retailers.

The surprisingly small book is full of great illustrations, ads, and pictures exploring different parts of the Ivy look and the icons that popularized them. Definitely pick it up if you find these things interesting.

Some favorite quotes I found:

Brooks Brothers was something else; in the heart of New York, it was a vast, oak paneled emporium full to bursting point with the finest Ivy clothing, pared down and laid out on tables to be viewed as though works of art. To me there were just that, each label sewn in in every garments that Brooks Brothers sold carried the words ‘Made in USA’, as reassuring to seekers of the Ivy look as an authenticated painting signed by Picasso.
- Graham Marsh

It is a wardrobe that bestows tradition and elegance upon those who were not born into backgrounds of tradition and elegance. It’s a quiet, decidedly un-flashly way communicating an appreciation for clothes with a connection to the great moments of twentieth century culture. It still means a lot to me that Miles Davis wore Bass Weejuns. I feel like I am part of that tradition. I am following in his footsteps.
- JP Gaul

Previous post: Reviews for The Ivy Look

The most memorable passages are about his everyday dealings with the local Inuit, particularly in how he describes their hunting techniques as well as culture – in one experience where he and his Eskimo hunting party are trying to free a trapped boat, but have to wait for the tide to come back, he introduces the notion of ‘Ionamut’:

The Eskimos came also to possess a shell of resignation, enabling them to suffer, with apparent equanimity, any hardships that might arise. This resignation often became a source of irritation between them and their southern companions when hunting or traveling together, for in such a situation as we now found ourselves, with a shrug of the shoulders the Eskimo would say, ‘Ionamut’ (’It can’t be helped’), and settle down to wait, while his companions become increasingly agitated.

The book is an easy read and reasonably well written – pick it up sometime if these sorts of memoirs interest you. Related: An older review in the NYTimes by William Grimes.

Is it a must buy? If you’re a vintage enthusiast, it would be a nice addition to your bookshelf, but for more regular folks I think the money spent on the book (it costs roughly $60-65 USD) would be better used on a few issues of Free & Easy instead, many of which will show some of the same pieces shown in the book.

If you’re curious on the format, several Japanese blogs have more pictures:
http://www.bhs-nyc.com/news/2010/09/my-rugged-211.php
http://blog.sweetroad.com/2010/09/my_rugged_211.html
http://ameblo.jp/ware-house/entry-10652465891.html
http://shop.plaza.rakuten.co.jp/vintage-works/diary/detail/201009170000/

Where to find it: contact your local Kinokuniya bookstore.

From the Trad:

JP Gaul and Graham Marsh have make it their own again and this time they’re inviting everyone. The Ivy Look, like Take Ivy, is an appreciation of what many of us take for granted. Weejuns, button downs, khakis, Jazz, Horween cordovan. And unlike True Prep or the Official Preppy Handbook, the aesthetic here is a quiet whisper of traditional. What is best described as invisible but with style points for those in the know.

From modculture.co.uk:

Now I’m pretty sure both Mr Marsh and Mr Gall aren’t averse to talking about the appropriate rise of trousers, the hang of a jacket or the width of a lapel. The former has been a devotee of the look since mixing with stylish American illustrators in the early 60s, the latter a refugee from the 80s mod scene, inspired by Blue Note sleeves, vintage Esquire and the knowledge of Mr John Simons, a man who has kept ivy’s torch burning for the best part of 50 years. But they’re no fools either. As evangelists for the look, the pair have reined in the desire to preach to the converted, instead producing a fascinating introductory guide to the look, its history and its influence throughout the years and around the world.

From the Independent:

In the book there are numerous examples of how the Ivy look is best done. It’s Miles Davis in a green Oxford cloth button-down shirt on the cover of his 1958 album Milestones. It’s Steve McQueen in a pair of brown-suede crepe-soled boots in the 1968 film Bullitt. And it’s Paul Newman in 1956, displaying effortless Ivy style simply by virtue of his khaki trouser/corduroy jacket combination.

Also be sure to check out TinTin’s interview with the men behind the book (source of the image above). If you would like a copy you’ll have to go through a European bookseller for now.

Tsugami was a successful illustrator during the 60-70’s and worked on many children’s books for the Japanese and English markets on topics ranging from family life to dinosaurs.

Wry and cranky, droll and cantankerous — that’s the Mark Twain we think we know, thanks to reading “Huck Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” in high school. But in his unexpurgated autobiography, whose first volume is about to be published a century after his death, a very different Twain emerges, more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet…

…About literary figures of his time, however, Twain has relatively little to say. He dislikes Bret Harte, whom he dismisses as “always bright but never brilliant”; offers a sad portrait of an aged and infirm Harriet Beecher Stowe; and lavishly praises his friend William Dean Howells. He reserved criticism of novelists whose work he disliked (Henry James, George Eliot) for his letters.

Critics, though, are another story. “I believe that the trade of critic, in literature, music, and the drama, is the most degraded of all trades, and that it has no real value,” Twain writes. “However, let it go,” he adds. “It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden.”

Continue reading more. The first volume is available for preorder on Amazon for just under $20.

In addition, powerHouse books put up some images of the new version along with another video showing it off on their facebook page.

The rest of us will have to wait for another month or so until they start shipping, but until then you can always check out the Trad’s scans of the Japanese version.

Get it from InspirationLA.com, Self Edge, or your local Kinokuniya book store.

Update 5/19: Men’s Mentore has some more scans.

Update 5/20: J.Crew is now selling it too.

Steve McQueen was the last person in the world I expected to find in Cornwall. He’d arrived some time in the night at a house that the director Sam Peckinpah was renting in Penzance while scouting locations for the film Straw Dogs.

They weren’t friends. The rugged movie star had simply turned up out of the blue — dirty, unshaven and looking more depressed than anyone I’d ever seen. As I found out later, his first marriage was breaking up and his dream project, a film based on the Le Mans car race, had run into problems.

Peckinpah, however, was desperate to get rid of his unwanted guest and he was probably just as keen to be rid of me. Not yet 18, I’d met the director while working in the publicity department of the Cinerama film company in London and had persuaded him to let me observe him at work. By the time I arrived, overflowing with youthful enthusiasm, he’d come to regret his decision.

Continue reading more.

Above: Images from Men’s File, Issue 2.

Available at Self Edge (where my copies were purchased) and Oi Polloi.

It’s also interesting to note that the listing has English for the language. Maybe it will be a translated version?

# Hardcover: 142 pages
# Publisher: pH Books (August 31, 2010)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1576875504
# ISBN-13: 978-1576875506

Update: This is the real deal. The publisher is powerHouse Books and there will be a full English translation. Read more on powerhousebooks.com.

Take Ivy is now considered a definitive document of this particular style, and rare original copies are highly sought after by “trad” devotees worldwide. A small-run reprint came out in Japan in 2006 and sold out almost immediately. Now, for the first time ever, powerHouse is reviving this classic tome with an all-new English translation. Ivy style has never been more popular, in Japan or stateside, proving its timeless and transcendent appeal. Take Ivy has survived the decades and is an essential object for anyone interested in the history or future of fashion.

Take Ivy cover scan via The Trad.

Interestingly there is no mention of the whisky in it, and there are only a few references to other types of alcohol which only seemed to be used rarely for toasts, holidays, and cooking.

From a section where he is describing part of the cabin at Cape Royds (where the cases were found):

My room contained the bulk of our library, the chronometers, the chronometer watches, barograph, and the electric recording thermometer; there was ample room for a table and the whole made a most comfortable cabin. On the roof we stowed those of our scientific instruments which were not in use such as theodolites, spare thermometers, dip circles, &c. The gradual accumulation of weight produced a distinct sag in the roof, which sometimes seemed to threaten collapse as I sat inside, but no notice was taken and nothing happened. On the roof of the dark room we stowed all our photographic gear and our few cases of wine, which were only drawn upon on special occasions such as Mid winter Day. pg. 85

Maybe the wine above was the whisky? Earlier he also describes a situation where brandy is fed to one of the ponies named Chinaman, who had fallen in ice cold water:

Mackay started to try and get the pony Chinaman across the crack when it was only about six inches wide, but the animal suddenly took fright, reared up on his hind legs, and backing towards the edge of the floe, which had at that moment opened to a width of a few feet, fell bodily into the ice cold water. It looked as if it was all over with poor Chinaman, but Mackay hung on to the head rope, and Davis, Mawson, Michell and one of the sailors who were on the ice close by rushed to his assistance. The pony managed to get his fore feet on to the edge of the ice-floe. After great difficulty a rope sling was passed underneath him, and then by tremendous exertion he was lifted up far enough to enable him to scramble on to the ice. There he stood, wet and trembling in every limb. A few seconds later the floe closed up against the other one. It was providential that it had not done so during the time that the pony was in the water, for in that case the animal would inevitably have been squeezed to death between the two huge masses of ice. A bottle of brandy was thrown on to the ice from the ship, and half its contents were poured down Chinaman’s throat. pg. 63

Chinaman ended up being the weakest of the horses and was the first to be killed for food:

It can be imagined that the cook for the week had no easy task. His work became more difficult still when we were using ponymeat, for the meat and blood, when boiled up, made a delightful broth, while the fragments of meat sunk to the bottom of the pot. The liquor was much the better part of the dish, and no one had much relish for the little dice of tough and stringy meat, so the cook had to be very careful indeed. Poor old Chinaman was particularly tough and stringy horse. pg. 230

In those days, explorers used animals brought along as transportation and when needed, as a source of food. Shackleton describes this process in detail on pg. 168 if you’re curious.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

From the foreword:

Civilization in its onward march has produced only three important non-alcoholic beverages — the extract of the tea plant, the extract of the cocoa bean, and the extract of the coffee bean.

Leaves and beans — these are the vegetable sources of the world’s favorite nonalcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa beans are a distant third, although advancing steadily. But in international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far more important position than either of the others, being imported into non-producing countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy a world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation; but where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has established itself in a given country, the other gets comparatively little attention, and usually has great difficulty in making any advance. The cocoa bean, on the other hand, has not risen to the position of popular favorite in any important consuming country, and so has not aroused the serious opposition of its two rivals.

Coffee is universal in its appeal. All nations do it homage. It has become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency. People love coffee because of its two-fold effect — the pleasurable sensation and the increased efficiency it produces.

Coffee has an important place in the rational dietary of all the civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it the drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of the men and women who do the world’s work, whether they toil with brain or brawn. It has been acclaimed “the most grateful lubricant known to the human machine,” and “the most delightful taste in all nature.”

No “food drink” has ever encountered so much opposition as coffee. Given to the world by the church and dignified by the medical profession, nevertheless it has had to suffer from religious superstition and medical prejudice. During the thousand years of its development it has experienced fierce political opposition, stupid fiscal restrictions, unjust taxes, irksome duties; but, surviving all of these, it has triumphantly moved on to a foremost place in the catalog of popular beverages.

But coffee is something more than a beverage. It is one of the world’s greatest adjuvant foods. There are other auxiliary foods, but none that excels it for palatability and comforting effects, the psychology of which is to be found in its unique flavor and aroma.

Men and women drink coffee because it adds to their sense of well-being. It not only smells good and tastes good to all mankind, heathen or civilized, but all respond to its wonderful stimulating properties. The chief factors in coffee goodness are the caffein content and the caffeol. Caffein supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the capacity for muscular and mental work without harmful re-action. The caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma — that indescribable Oriental fragrance that wooes us through the nostrils, forming one of the principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are several other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannie acids, that, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare gustatory appeal.

The year 1919 awarded coffee one of its brightest honors. An American general said that coffee shared with bread and bacon the distinction of being one of the three nutritive essentials that helped win the World War for the Allies. So this symbol of human brotherhood has played a not inconspicuous part in “making the world safe for democracy.” The new age, ushered in by the Peace of Versailles and the Washington Conference, has for its hand-maidens temperance and self-control. It is to be a world democracy of right-living and clear thinking; and among its most precious adjuncts are coffee, tea, and cocoa — because these beverages must always be associated with rational living, with greater comfort, and with better cheer.

Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused. Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people who, because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some people can not eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that over-feeding causes all our ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!

Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the caffein-sensitive. in recent years there has appeared in America and abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are “neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.” Most of them have been shown by official government analysts to be sadly deficient in food value — their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has been, found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find. There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably summed up the matter by saying, “xV substitute should be able to perform the functions of its principal. A substitute to a war must be able to fight. A bounty-jumper is not a substitute.”

It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee story for the general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful reference covering all the salient points of coffee’s origin, cultivation, preparation, and development, its place in the world’s commerce and in a rational dietary.

Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces a natural beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven per cent of individuals find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be drab indeed — a pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature’s own laboratory, and one of the chief joys of life!

History of Coffee in Old New York

The Dutch founders of New York seem to have introduced tea into New Amsterdam before they brought in coffee. This was somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century. We find it recorded that about 1668 the burghers succumbed to coffee.  Coffee made its way slowly, first in the homes, where it replaced the “must”, or beer, at breakfast. Chocolate came about the same time, but was more of a luxury than tea or coffee.

After the surrender of New York to the British in 1674, English manners and customs were rapidly introduced. First tea, and later coffee, were favorite beverages in the homes. By 1683 New York had become so central a market for the green bean, that William Penn, as soon as he found himself comfortably settled in the Pennsylvania Colony, sent over to New York for his coffee supplies. It was not long before a social need arose that only the London style of coffee house could fill.

Read the rest here.