Flawlessly clad Princeton students back in the day

Yesterday, blogger Mister Crew posted that an American publisher is reissuing Take Ivy, a classic photobook that captures the celebrated Ivy League look through pictures of students on several Ivy League campuses — including Princeton.  The book is now available for pre-order on Amazon for $24.95, almost a hundredth of what many have been paying for hardcopies of the original.

The book, by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida, was first released in 1965 and the few remaining copies now sell for over $2,000 online and elsewhere. Its re-release is huge news to prepsters and fashionista/o’s everywhere; the book is the authority on that classic prep look — best typified by a crewneck sweater, an oxford shirt, tapered chinos, and Bass Weejuns — that so many revere today. This is the look that current brands like Band of Outsiders and Thom Browne are celebrating in almost all of their collections, not to mention the look that seems to be sweeping through campus.

But seriously, pre-order this thing quick!  For quite some time, preppies have had to stick to online scans of pages on websites like A Continuous Lean and the Trad, so no surprise that people are running wild on the blogosphere over the opportunity to have their own copy (I just bought mine). Believe me, rummaging through the photos proves to be pretty enlightening on Princeton’s sartorial history and what preppy style is all about.

image sources: thepursuitaesthetic.com