Ivy Colleges (1934)

[Wilson Gray]

Hey, Geoff
Long time, no see. How long has it been? A quarter-century or more?
Time flies, whether you're having a good time or not.

FWIW, by 1957 in the BE slang of Los Angeles, "Ivy League" had spread
from naming a clothing style to naming a hair style, without losing
its original reference. The Ivy-League haircut was a kind of reverse
afro. The barber used his electric clippers to cut a person's hair as
short as possible. The point was the same as that of the natural/afro:
to obviate the distinction between "good" hair and "bad" - in the
"bad" sense - hair in aid of racial solidarity. Men and boys with
really "bad" hair have been wearing their hair like this since only
God knows when.

It never really caught on, since it did nothing to alleviate the
distinction in women's hair, where it was of far greater importance.
OTOH, the few guys who did wear this style were considered to be "bad"
in the good sense.

-Wilson


On 1/18/06, Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Ivy Colleges (1934)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In this connection, I've been trying to date the use of 'ivy league'
> to refer to styles of clothing or a certain voice. manner, etc. The
> earliest cites I've come up with are from the mid-50's:
>
> Trimly tailored Bermuda shorts, neat blazers, smooth flannels, and
> bulky twees all contrived to give an "ivy league" menswear look to
> the fashions shown yesterday at the opening of Abraham & Strauss'
> college shop. NYT Jul 20, 1954
>
> Junior now asks for soft Oxford cloth shirts with button-down collars
> to be worn with his good suit, the suit being as slim in cut as the
> most severe Ivy League model. NYT 11/9/55
>
> My guess is that this goes back earlier, though.
>
> Geoff Nunberg
>
> >On Tue, 17 Jan 2006, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >
> >>" W. Lax Overcomes Early Deficit for Win" _Harvard Crimson_  March 23,
> >>1920
> >>
> >>"Harvard will now travel to Providence on Saturday to take on Brown for
> >>the Crimson's first Ivy League contest.  "We are looking at each game
> >>
> >>[Note:  this turns up on the Harvard Crimson archives -- but it looks
> >>hinky to me.]
> >
> >Yes, Barry has brought this up before.  It's clearly misdated.
> >
> >Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
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> >Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
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> >Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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