As a naive Midwesterner, I guess I was aware of the Ivy Look in the ’60s, by reputation in national magazines. However, when I entered grad school at Princeton in ’62, I found the Tiger dress to be considerably more casual. Even The Daily Princetonian poked fun at the casual, even sloppy dress of the undergrads, often a grungy T-shirt, chinos or shorts, and, of course, taped Bass Weejuns. To add insult to injury, when grad students tried shopping at the stores on Nassau Street, we were often ignored, upstaged by sloppily dressed undergrads as described (because we didn’t have the money that the undergrads did). I only attended a couple of undergrad classes but they didn’t seem to dress up for that either. Sloppy dress at the eating clubs was notorious. They didn’t seem to dress up for meals either, although a jacket and tie were required. Ratty, frayed jackets were quite common as were bad ties tied over the collar of a tee shirt, not a collared shirt. I knew a couple of undergrads and got invited to meals a couple of times and witnessed the ratty looks by many.
As a naive Midwesterner, I guess I was aware of the Ivy Look in the ’60s, by reputation in national magazines. However, when I entered grad school at Princeton in ’62, I found the Tiger dress to be considerably more casual. Even The Daily Princetonian poked fun at the casual, even sloppy dress of the undergrads, often a grungy T-shirt, chinos or shorts, and, of course, taped Bass Weejuns. To add insult to injury, when grad students tried shopping at the stores on Nassau Street, we were often ignored, upstaged by sloppily dressed undergrads as described (because we didn’t have the money that the undergrads did). I only attended a couple of undergrad classes but they didn’t seem to dress up for that either. Sloppy dress at the eating clubs was notorious. They didn’t seem to dress up for meals either, although a jacket and tie were required. Ratty, frayed jackets were quite common as were bad ties tied over the collar of a tee shirt, not a collared shirt. I knew a couple of undergrads and got invited to meals a couple of times and witnessed the ratty looks by many.