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Take Ivy
Described by The New York Times as, "a treasure of fashion insiders," Take Ivy was originally published in Japan in 1965, setting off an explosion of American-influenced "Ivy Style" fashion among students in the trendy Ginza shopping district of Tokyo. The product of four sartorial style enthusiasts, Take Ivy is a collection of candid photographs shot on the campuses of America's elite, Ivy League universities. The series focuses on men and their clothes, perfectly encapsulating the unique academic fashion of the era. Whether lounging in the quad, studying in the library, riding bikes, in class, or at the boathouse, the subjects of Take Ivy are impeccably and distinctively dressed in the finest American-made garments of the time.
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 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.
142 pages, Hardcover
First published August 31, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
March 26, 2021
So gorgeous in every sense. Beautiful photos, impossible spiffy clothes, gorgeous architecture, the appeal of an idealized past. I'm sure there is an essay floating around out there about how this book's considerable esteem is a mark of nostalgia for white-only spaces or a celebration of capitalist aristocracy or something, but I don't care. It will be on my coffee table for the rest of my life.
April 24, 2021
“A pair of cotton trousers is a staple of the student wardrobe. The trousers come in various colors: white, off-white, olive, and many others."
The premise is simple. A Japanese team sought to photograph Ivy League style in 1965 for a Japanese audience. This slim volume was the result.
So why, 45 years later, would we get a direct translation into English? This Japanese take on America, re-presented for a new American era. Why are we reading this? And hey, wait, is that a Model-T driving by??
Looking back at the quote I opened with, what about it is so strange? If I were to put it in a word, it would be "frankness." The purpose of captions like these is not to analyze or interpret but to describe and document. Perhaps Americans like the idea that we too can be observed as foreign, as interesting. We like that someone without context would find our apparent predilection toward both white and off-white pants worthy of comment. Not judgment; just comment.
I think this connects to why it took so long for the volume to be published in English. We needed to wait long enough for the subjects to seem half-foreign to us as well. Many of the scenes are familiar, and plenty of these buildings look basically the same today. But no one has a phone. The grass is patchy in places where you'd expect artificial perfection today. The students are reading and playing softball together. There's nowhere to go because they don't have cars and they live in small college towns.
We feel like we might remember this, but it's a memory of a memory. Of when these schools' endowments were in the millions, not the billions. Of when they could have felt accessible. But we also see how inaccessible they were to people who weren't young, white, and male. The author even hints at how this pastoral idyll leads directly to Wall Street and corporate America. It is nostalgic for itself in its own time. How much more are we to nostalgize it today?
What we're reading is simplicity. A time before Vietnam escalated and killed many of the young people we see here. A time before the world became complicated. A time before Americans had to complicate our view of ourselves. We don't want to go back because it's not worth going back to. But it's an interesting place to visit.
The premise is simple. A Japanese team sought to photograph Ivy League style in 1965 for a Japanese audience. This slim volume was the result.
So why, 45 years later, would we get a direct translation into English? This Japanese take on America, re-presented for a new American era. Why are we reading this? And hey, wait, is that a Model-T driving by??
Looking back at the quote I opened with, what about it is so strange? If I were to put it in a word, it would be "frankness." The purpose of captions like these is not to analyze or interpret but to describe and document. Perhaps Americans like the idea that we too can be observed as foreign, as interesting. We like that someone without context would find our apparent predilection toward both white and off-white pants worthy of comment. Not judgment; just comment.
I think this connects to why it took so long for the volume to be published in English. We needed to wait long enough for the subjects to seem half-foreign to us as well. Many of the scenes are familiar, and plenty of these buildings look basically the same today. But no one has a phone. The grass is patchy in places where you'd expect artificial perfection today. The students are reading and playing softball together. There's nowhere to go because they don't have cars and they live in small college towns.
We feel like we might remember this, but it's a memory of a memory. Of when these schools' endowments were in the millions, not the billions. Of when they could have felt accessible. But we also see how inaccessible they were to people who weren't young, white, and male. The author even hints at how this pastoral idyll leads directly to Wall Street and corporate America. It is nostalgic for itself in its own time. How much more are we to nostalgize it today?
What we're reading is simplicity. A time before Vietnam escalated and killed many of the young people we see here. A time before the world became complicated. A time before Americans had to complicate our view of ourselves. We don't want to go back because it's not worth going back to. But it's an interesting place to visit.
September 30, 2025
Read this back in the spring at a quiet Japanese drip coffee joint with old Japanese fashion magazines stacked everywhere. The kind of place that lets you order one drink and loiter a bit, perfect for any slow weekday afternoon.
The seminal text that inspired 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 and how American vintage looks in Japan today. How tight is a cuff? How does a college sweater drape when it’s a bit too warm? What is there to wear on the weekends? How does prep still find itself off campus?
A definitive text with a great balance of images and words that create a great wave of constant inspiration. Denim shorts fit differently than oxford shorts, even the egg shell white is different. How a JFK cuffed shirt builds a person differently from occasion to environment. It’s the perfect guide to color blocking or even developing a keener eye on how to thrift. Still, the past is filled with inspiration.
The seminal text that inspired 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 and how American vintage looks in Japan today. How tight is a cuff? How does a college sweater drape when it’s a bit too warm? What is there to wear on the weekends? How does prep still find itself off campus?
A definitive text with a great balance of images and words that create a great wave of constant inspiration. Denim shorts fit differently than oxford shorts, even the egg shell white is different. How a JFK cuffed shirt builds a person differently from occasion to environment. It’s the perfect guide to color blocking or even developing a keener eye on how to thrift. Still, the past is filled with inspiration.
Read
April 28, 2024I understand this to be a pretty sought after classic, almost canonical book for menswear aficionados. I found it to be more kitsch than I was expecting. It's a cutesy little photographic anthropology of Ivy League boys in the 1960s. Lots of pictures of cute preppy boys and if you like looking at that sort of thing, sure it belongs on your shelf. But there's nothing surprising here. If you know preppy consists of chinos, loafers, cardigans, polos, and varsity jackets there's nothing really new here, nothing you haven't seen before. It's hardly the holy grail of preppy style nowadays—BUT idk also it is really inspiring if you want help throwing a fit together because pretty much every look pictured goes off!!!
October 30, 2013
Having attended an Ivy League institution and having developed a deep interest in preppy fashion, I was delighted to find out that an affordable version of this book was released in English. It is fascinating to see how the original author compares the Ivy League universities to Japan as it brings out the little nuances that we take for granted. I will say the book seems a bit repetitive in certain cases and is not really enlightening in terms of the history of Ivy League fashion. It simply is a snapshot, a portrait in time, and should be viewed as such. If you want to get a more thorough undertaking of elite American fashion and its influences you must dig into some other books, blogs and resources. I will also say this book does not cover the Ivy League evenly; most of the photos are of Dartmouth, Brown and Princeton. There are few references to the others (Penn, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, & Columbia). I would have loved to see some more pictures of those campuses during this time frame. Luckily, we have the internet for that.
April 30, 2023
I got this book for my birthday after listening to a 7 Chapter podcast on it from Avery Truffelman.
The reason why I loved it so much is because it felt like you were crawling down a rabbit hole only instead of TikTok Ivy Core trend it was like someone who’s never seen a Harvard campus learn the dos and don’ts. It’s very refreshing for me to read things we know everyone knows in a way that could be a total discovery for someone else.
Also it’s my best source of inspiration for dressing now
The reason why I loved it so much is because it felt like you were crawling down a rabbit hole only instead of TikTok Ivy Core trend it was like someone who’s never seen a Harvard campus learn the dos and don’ts. It’s very refreshing for me to read things we know everyone knows in a way that could be a total discovery for someone else.
Also it’s my best source of inspiration for dressing now
December 6, 2010
What an utter disappointment. I never saw the online scans of the original book, but the reproduction quality in this edition is ATROCIOUS. The photos are blurry and grainy, the b&w snaps are indecipherable, everything is spotted with dirt and scratches, and the color balance is completely off (unless I'm mistaken and in the 1950s-60s all Ivy Leaguers actually had beet-red fake tans and dyed their white shirts a dingy puke green). In short, the image quality in this makes a 90s punk 'zine reproduced at Kinko's and handed out for free look like a priceless Picasso by comparison.
I couldn't believe a self-proclaimed "leading publisher of high-quality illustrated books" like powerHouse would put their name on something this bad, and then I saw this on Amazon.com (posted by someone who works for powerHouse): "This is a facsimile reproduction of the original 1965 Japanese publication. There is 40-plus years of aesthetic appreciation of image quality and expectation between then and now; the image standards and appearances in this reproduction are typical of that era. It is the manifold coverage of birth-era content that is the time capsule value here; not the reproduction value of a J. Crew catalogue from last season."
Wow, for a scrappy indie publisher that is some major Fox News/Karl Rove-style spin! So I'm supposed to shell out $25 for a full-color illustrated book about a completely visual subject (fashion), but focus on the "content" and ideas behind the indecipherable visuals? No thanks. Stay away from this book, and read your (free!) J. Crew catalog instead.
I couldn't believe a self-proclaimed "leading publisher of high-quality illustrated books" like powerHouse would put their name on something this bad, and then I saw this on Amazon.com (posted by someone who works for powerHouse): "This is a facsimile reproduction of the original 1965 Japanese publication. There is 40-plus years of aesthetic appreciation of image quality and expectation between then and now; the image standards and appearances in this reproduction are typical of that era. It is the manifold coverage of birth-era content that is the time capsule value here; not the reproduction value of a J. Crew catalogue from last season."
Wow, for a scrappy indie publisher that is some major Fox News/Karl Rove-style spin! So I'm supposed to shell out $25 for a full-color illustrated book about a completely visual subject (fashion), but focus on the "content" and ideas behind the indecipherable visuals? No thanks. Stay away from this book, and read your (free!) J. Crew catalog instead.
February 21, 2025
racism aside these boys can dress!!!!
July 6, 2024
10/10 no notes. i love everything about it:
“Ivy Leaguers frown upon students who earn good grades but have pale skin from spending too much time inside. This photo shows a student who is desperately trying to get bronze skin while also preparing for an exam.”
“Ivy Leaguers frown upon students who earn good grades but have pale skin from spending too much time inside. This photo shows a student who is desperately trying to get bronze skin while also preparing for an exam.”
Read
June 11, 2024a real time and place—audibly gasped when they recommended 12 ties as a starting point. surely that's a lot. to start!
August 5, 2023
This slim coffee table book is like sitting down with Ishizu's photo album from his trip to America. The photos of 1960's prep students taken on the college campuses he visited are so enjoyable to look at (the documentation happened before any of the schools admitted women, so the fashion here is all male). But the captioning is what makes this book worthwhile. The admiration and wonder Ishizu has for the subject is so fun as he makes his fascinating study of the subset; American Ivy League student.
physical copy from my library
physical copy from my library
May 23, 2015
I’ve wanted to pick up a copy of Take Ivy ever since I heard about the original 1965 version. It’s the closest thing to a photographic Bible of collegiate style that exists. While it’s relatively short at 139 pages, there is much to say about the book.
I bought this book for the classic images, but to my surprise the captions added a crucial element to the work. Repetitive and admittedly uninspired as they are, they make Take Ivy into a story about the Japanese admirers as much as it is about American men. The text is awkward, but that’s not so much due to poor writing as it is to the utter foreignness of the author’s subjects. “I struggle to conceive of ‘campus wear’ or ‘college fashion,’” he writes, noting that Japanese students have strict uniform requirements. To the author, such rigidity is an expectation in order to cultivate a confident, collected look; that is, until he witnesses Ivy League students sporting cut-off shorts and holey sweaters epitomizing the word “collected.”
There is a constant theme of movement and transitioning in the book, evidenced by the fact that most of the students portrayed seem to be on their way somewhere. This is symbolic of the time in which the images were captured: From a fashion standpoint, the 1960s represented a time between the long-gone, strict jacket-and-tie days of before and the hyper-casual days we see today. In context of the institutions themselves, the 1960s were a time of integration of races and sexes and changing criteria for how students would be admitted to the university. (For the latter point, I think of Kingman Brewster’s reforms at Yale that resulted in increased numbers of Jews, African Americans and public high school students enrolling in the college.) I have no doubt that Take Ivy would have been lost in obscurity had the images in this book been shot a decade earlier or later.
And while Take Ivy captures transitions, we appreciate it because the soul of the Ivy League remains the same as it once was. True, these eight schools are nowadays (arguably) infinitely more accessible to students of all walks of life, and the “old boys club” mentality has all but disappeared. Nevertheless, other things remain unchanged: The work hard, play hard mentality is ever present; living for more than just academics is the norm; and the casual but oddly collected look is still very much still in. What’s amazing to me is that the schools have maintained their core while purging themselves of discrimination and oppression. That is the story that makes Take Ivy worth capturing.
I bought this book for the classic images, but to my surprise the captions added a crucial element to the work. Repetitive and admittedly uninspired as they are, they make Take Ivy into a story about the Japanese admirers as much as it is about American men. The text is awkward, but that’s not so much due to poor writing as it is to the utter foreignness of the author’s subjects. “I struggle to conceive of ‘campus wear’ or ‘college fashion,’” he writes, noting that Japanese students have strict uniform requirements. To the author, such rigidity is an expectation in order to cultivate a confident, collected look; that is, until he witnesses Ivy League students sporting cut-off shorts and holey sweaters epitomizing the word “collected.”
There is a constant theme of movement and transitioning in the book, evidenced by the fact that most of the students portrayed seem to be on their way somewhere. This is symbolic of the time in which the images were captured: From a fashion standpoint, the 1960s represented a time between the long-gone, strict jacket-and-tie days of before and the hyper-casual days we see today. In context of the institutions themselves, the 1960s were a time of integration of races and sexes and changing criteria for how students would be admitted to the university. (For the latter point, I think of Kingman Brewster’s reforms at Yale that resulted in increased numbers of Jews, African Americans and public high school students enrolling in the college.) I have no doubt that Take Ivy would have been lost in obscurity had the images in this book been shot a decade earlier or later.
And while Take Ivy captures transitions, we appreciate it because the soul of the Ivy League remains the same as it once was. True, these eight schools are nowadays (arguably) infinitely more accessible to students of all walks of life, and the “old boys club” mentality has all but disappeared. Nevertheless, other things remain unchanged: The work hard, play hard mentality is ever present; living for more than just academics is the norm; and the casual but oddly collected look is still very much still in. What’s amazing to me is that the schools have maintained their core while purging themselves of discrimination and oppression. That is the story that makes Take Ivy worth capturing.
February 23, 2011
This book is best read AFTER seeing The Social Network, a movie which caused me to view Harvard and the Ivy League through the lens of pants-wetting fear. Our friendly Japanese author takes us through a guide of American Ivy League schools, comparing and contrasting his own culture's pressure on the young to study hard to get into Japan's top campuses.
As an Australian looking into this book, I find a lot of things mentioning Ivy League Uni culture a bit baffling, if not terrifying. The author through his Japanese cultural background seems to be under the impression that the most studious graduates of Ivy League schools will become world leaders. Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't - or maybe at the time he just didn't see Mark Zuckerberg as existing as a new kind of "world leader".
I find a lot of campus culture overseas in America pants-soilingly horrifying, particularly Hazing and other Fraternity rituals. But none of that seems to have been captured here.
Maybe, the Japanese photographer who took these photographs paid more attention to the students who worked hard to have a good image and to keep up appearances as a worthy student who deserved his degree at a prestigious academy. From what I understand from that The Social Network movie, the poor Japanese author may have been a bit naive about what he saw versus the unfortunate reality of modern Ivy League culture - cheating in exams and assignments is more prevalent now than it was before the internet, and the whole Masters of the Universe type ideology of The Ivy League utterly frightens me. It is as if America is expected to draw its greatest leaders from a privileged few white males who were born into the right families and the right money.
The author seems to have mistaken the hard work ethic of Japan as something other countries like the USA would replicate among their own colleges. I sure hope I'm not as wrong about my previous view of what college was as I think.
As an Australian looking into this book, I find a lot of things mentioning Ivy League Uni culture a bit baffling, if not terrifying. The author through his Japanese cultural background seems to be under the impression that the most studious graduates of Ivy League schools will become world leaders. Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't - or maybe at the time he just didn't see Mark Zuckerberg as existing as a new kind of "world leader".
I find a lot of campus culture overseas in America pants-soilingly horrifying, particularly Hazing and other Fraternity rituals. But none of that seems to have been captured here.
Maybe, the Japanese photographer who took these photographs paid more attention to the students who worked hard to have a good image and to keep up appearances as a worthy student who deserved his degree at a prestigious academy. From what I understand from that The Social Network movie, the poor Japanese author may have been a bit naive about what he saw versus the unfortunate reality of modern Ivy League culture - cheating in exams and assignments is more prevalent now than it was before the internet, and the whole Masters of the Universe type ideology of The Ivy League utterly frightens me. It is as if America is expected to draw its greatest leaders from a privileged few white males who were born into the right families and the right money.
The author seems to have mistaken the hard work ethic of Japan as something other countries like the USA would replicate among their own colleges. I sure hope I'm not as wrong about my previous view of what college was as I think.
August 22, 2019
A collection of pictures and information about the Ivy League students during the time period, this book was written for a Japanese audience and meant to serve as a guide on how to emulate this style of dress and give an understanding to the lifestyle that made the clothes they wore so essential. In the process, a book was created that allows us to look back at a decade where your average Ivy League student was wearing Chinos and Penny Loafers, where Madras was all the rave and when utilitarian use of your clothes was more important than how they looked, but somehow, the clothes still looked good.
June 20, 2011
Do you love America? Do you love American style? Do you love Brook Brothers? What about Ralph Lauren, do you love it? Final question, do you love preppy or ivy style? If 80% of the answer is yes, you gotta read this book.
There is not much paragraph on this book. You can finish it in one day, i guarantee. This book is like a gallery of Ivy Leaguer in 1960's. But the great thing is this book is written by a Japanese. I believe that Japan is the best adopter in the world. It published in 1965 and spread American-influenced "Ivy Style" fashion in Tokyo.
There is not much paragraph on this book. You can finish it in one day, i guarantee. This book is like a gallery of Ivy Leaguer in 1960's. But the great thing is this book is written by a Japanese. I believe that Japan is the best adopter in the world. It published in 1965 and spread American-influenced "Ivy Style" fashion in Tokyo.
August 24, 2013
A strange little volume. It is a Japanese view (words and pictures) of the American Ivy League campuses, particularly campus "fashions," of the early 1960's. For most people now, this is a world as distant in time as it was a culture distant in space to the authors. As a result, the explanatory commentary is strangely resonant. I borrowed a copy from the library, and unless you are a real aficionado, I suggest you do the same.
January 8, 2016
First published in 1965, this overview of mid-1960s Ivy League fashion purposely retains the aesthetic of a book you would stumble across in a vintage shop. Through both B&W and color photos and captions translated from the original, it deftly illustrates that where preppy fashion is concerned, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
July 5, 2012
This is the story of four Japanese men who visited the eight Ivy League schools in an attempt to document Ivy League culture. They observe fashion, mannerisms, school culture,.... you name it. The photography is fantastic, and the photo captions are fantastic reading thanks to the naive tone.
February 10, 2014
This book was originally published in Japanese in 1965. I've been wanting to read this book since I heard it was going to be released in English four years ago. I enjoyed looking at the photographs of the classic collegiate prep fashion.
December 31, 2024
A gorgeous look at classic Ivy style for men.
March 27, 2011
Mesmerizing. Bizarre. What you want instead of TRUE PREP.
April 26, 2011
Fun book - made better by the clunky English.
August 18, 2011
Found this gem at Ben Silver.
September 9, 2011
Funny text (translated from Japanese) and pretty cool pictures make this a fun book to flip through.
August 27, 2012
Great time, classic. Feel guilty for giving a high grade to a book which has so many crisp clean color pictures
July 7, 2014
amazing
February 12, 2015
Purely a photo book. Great snapshot and time capsule of the Ivy League in the 1960's seen through the eyes of a Japanese photographer.
February 23, 2015
Essential viewing for the preppy dresser!
December 1, 2016
An interesting contemporary look by Japanese photographers at Ivy League fashions in 1964 in the last gasp of all-men colleges. Have fun trying to find anyone not a white dude in this.
June 6, 2018
One of the most visually captivation and cultural-historically fascinating books, on fashion or otherwise, I've ever read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews