Fashion Forward #12 - Slippery Autumns

To the chagrin of many of my student peers, the North Carolinian summer has slowly lost ground to the the rainy season that is so characteristic of a Duke autumn. While most people on campus have quickly pulled out their rain boots and jackets and their light layers, there are still those who have yet to transition, if ever to their fall wardrobes. How some people can wear flip-flops in the rain and still avoid serious split-inducing slippage incidents is beyond me, not forgetting the sheer messiness of stepping into mud and puddles. I guess some feet just enjoy getting cold and dirty more than the warm "constricting "comfort of a dry shoe?!

Rainy Day on Campus, Take Ivy

Rain - Stone Tiles - Boots - I have had the misfortune of being reminded today just how unfortunate the combination can turn out to be as I, in all of my 6'4" "majesty" graciously rear-landed in front of the library. While others would be more worried about the sheer pain of impact, the possible staining of clothes or damage to one's laptop, the first thing that popped into my head was how I could augment said boots so that this would not happen again.

The basic idea is increasing traction/friction between your shoes and whatever surface you walk on, thus avoiding unfortunate aquaplaning. This can be done either by gluing a couple of no slip appliques /decals or some light sandpaper pieces to the soles of your feet, or applying a no-slip treatment to them.

Shameless Pitch - CampusSartorialist.com

Hi everyone, I hope the last month has been treating you all well. I have been extremely busy with returning to school, freshmen orientation and another project I started working on over the summer and of which I'll talk about in just a bit. Sadly, being so busy meant I have had virtually no time for writing new posts. Fear not though , as I have many great posts lined up for the last quarter of 2010. 

As for my shameless pitch, I would like to introduce everyone to a project I have been working on since July and have only launched yesterday. 

CampusSartorialist.com, is a website which I hope will walk in the footsteps of its famous counterpart ( The Sartorialist ) and will become a medium of expression for Campus fashion. Many of you have probably witnessed the invasion of, if not been guilty of wearing, Fleece/Sweatpants, Hoodies, Crocs and many other unspeakable accoutrements, however there is still hope amongst the college population and through Campus Sartorialist I hope to bring the best of college style to the surface.

In Perpetuum Effingo, CampusSartorialist's motto can be literally translated as "in perpetual formation/fashioning" and I chose it for its simple yet all-encompassing nature as well as its correlation to students perpetually evolving, adjusting and changing.

Many of you might ask why the need for another fashion website aimed at the college population, when CollegeFashionista, CollegeFashion and other blogs/websites are already popular and followed?! While I do give credit to these websites, I believe they focus too much on the sartorial aspects of campus fashion and thus miss the big picture. College campuses are ever-changing environments, where teenagers experiment and define their style as they transition from their teenage years into adulthood. It's not about what the trends in Milan are, which shade of lipstick goes best with what, but about self-expression and originality. Teruyoshi Hayashida created Take Ivy, one of the most appreciated and famous college look-books, in 1965 and while looking back at what students wore back then compared to now might seem familiar to you, these two periods of now and then are quite dissimilar. CampusSartorialist would like to become the repository of collegiate looks from around the world and specifically from within the U.S., where students living on a campus together creates a unique fashion bubble.

Taking upon this task is definitely not a one-man job and I would like to welcome any help I can get as far as photography and capturing what you think is unique amongst the college crowd. If fashion photography is your passion, I would definitely welcome any guest features as well as anyone who would like to become a long-term contributor. Your name, photos and a link to your resume/website would be added to a Contributors page, which will be made available from the main page.  

Please direct any questions, suggestions or submissions to CampusSartorialiast@gmail.com and please spread the word, follow it on google or twitter(#CampusSartorial), like it on Facebook and comment on the posts!

To a great new beginning!

Robert

Take Ivy

Corduroy slacks disgust me

Black leather jackets are vile

Long greasy hair and blue suede shoes

Transform my blood to bile.

If you want everyone to accept you

As a modern American male

You must dress the way the magazines say

They dress at Harvard and Yale

The Ivy League Look (excerpt) by Clark Gesner

Of all sartorial publications and materials, there has never been one as elusive and as rare as Japanese photographer, Teruyoshi Hayashida's Take Ivy. What has constituted the Ivy League Bible for the Japanese baby boomers, who were very much into the whole Ivy League Look, has been a very rare find in the West and has garnered auction prices as high as $2000. However there is very good news on the horizon as PowerHouse Books has announced that they will be republishing the famous book this August and it will sell for just $16.47(You can imagine my relief, as the only old edition found on the internet was selling for almost $500 on eBay). You can also pre-order it on Amazon: Take Ivy (Powerhouse Books)  Until then however, I give you the book in an online readable format, courtesy of The Trad. Enjoy and look out for it in August! 

If you would like to have Take IVY in a pdf format, just click Follow Blog on the right sidebar and you will receive a message with the download link!