We like: Take Ivy

We're silly about Take Ivy, the recently republished 1965 book by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida with text by Shosuke Ishizu, Toshiyuki Kurosu and Hajime Hasegawa.

The book is a series of photos of students at U.S. Ivy League campuses in the 1960s that seeks to explain the elements of preppy style. It's fantastic not only because of the way the captions refer to the students in the photographs as if they are some sort of exotic species (which, in many ways, Ivy League students still are), but because the clothes they wear are still so fashionable today.


The book's blurb says that when it was originally published, it set off an explosion of American-influenced "Ivy Style" among students in Tokyo. If you've been to Tokyo, it's easy to suggest that this so-called explosion is still reverberating today - although you could also argue that the way Japanese fashionistas have tweaked preppy style means they have turned it into a style all their own.

However, this is now, and that is then - and we recommend Take Ivy as a completely charming time capsule (and a very good gift for your favourite prep fans). It's published by Powerhouse Books. We got our copy at Auckland's Unity Books.