While I continue to focus on mostly national security and diplomatic stories and issues, I do want to put some writing time in on part of the reason I started the Preppy Statesman - the style & life that embodies the Ivy & Prep values. I hope you, my faithful readers, will enjoy this short article. Let me know what you think and feel free to share as you please!
As always, stay preppy,
Came across this great article today from Richard Press, the current owner of J.Press, who wrote in his book, Threading the Needle, and more recently, on the company blog about the novel-like connections between the Acheson and Press families. J. Press, as you will see is a long New Haven staple, has embodied, along with Brooks Brothers among many, the classic style rooted in the 1950s and 60s Ivy League college dress, commonly called Ivy Style.
Ivy Style birthed the more casual preppy style and for many, they are both synonymous with each other, with prep being a version of this classic style. For me, many years ago, while dreaming of attending Yale or Georgetown University (waitlisted in ‘03 but never attended cue me shaking my fist at the sky), I became familiar with a style I had been wearing for many years - Ivy Style. I was the kid in chino shorts every day from elementary school onwards, often eschewing the questionable fashion choices of my peers (i.e., please see Jncos) to stick with a classic style - plain T-shirts, polos, oxford button-ups, and chino pants or shorts. I didn’t have a name for it then but I realize I was “preppy” looking back on it now. In fact, I remember begging my parents for a pair of Sperry boat shoes, unlike my friends who wanted the newest Jordan’s from Nike. All that to say, please read this article, and hopefully, thanks to Mr. Press, we will learn some sartorial and diplomatic history in one.
According to Mr. Press, in both his book & article, the link between the Press and Acheson families began with the immigration of his Latvian-born grandfather, Jacobi Press, at the Port of Boston in 1896. Jacobi’s brothers had immigrated to the United States 10 years prior and opened a tailor shop in Middletown, CT. Jacobi joined them at their tailor shop and quickly learned the trade. A customer of the shop took Jacobi under his wing.
The Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, Edward Campion Acheson, himself an immigrant from England and Canada, began to mentor Jacobi, helping to learn both English & WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) culture, according to Richard Press. Acheson encouraged and helped Jacobi to establish his own shop, J. Press, in New Haven, CT, near the gates of Yale University. Jacobi formed a reputation for classic clothes and began to be the go-to for many preparatory and Ivy League colleges in the Northeast United States. In the early 1900s, Bishop Edward Acheson’s son Dean was coming up through the New England Preparatory system and began to form a connection with Jacobi and then, later, his son, Paul (Richard’s father).
Now, this is where the story gets interesting, for those of us who are students of history, the name Acheson should bring to mind one main person: Dean Acheson. Dean Acheson served as Secretary of State under President Truman from 1949 to 1954 and then served as an advisor to Kennedy and Johnson during the Vietnam War. Acheson is considered, by some historians, as the “primary architect” of the Cold War after the increasing influence of the Soviet Union & Communism in Eastern Europe.
Acheson, always dapper in three-piece suits custom tailored, still paid patronage to Paul and the J. Press store in New Haven as his primary sartorial store, his haberdashery of diplomacy. According to Richard Press:
Dad became his New Haven Railroad chauffeur even as Secretary-of-State traveling to New Haven for meetings of the Yale Corporation that also included stopovers at the 262 York Street Squeeze store. Acheson’s try-ons also occurred at his State Department office in Washington. J. Press Trunk Show traveler Ray Jacobs, witty and endearing New Haven raconteur, was once measuring a suit for the underwear-clad statesman. Ray was going slowly and Acheson had an appointment coming. “Ray,” he said, “you’ll have to hurry up before my appointment comes. It really wouldn’t due for the Secretary-of-State to be caught with his pants down.”1
The J. Press flagship has, likely, see the feet of many statesmen attending or visiting Yale University enter through its doors and try on its handmade suits and ties. From former Presidents, Gerald Ford, George H.W., and George W. Bush to Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance (Carter), Hillary Clinton (Obama), and John Kerry (Obama), to those in espionage like Porter Goss, CIA director under George W. Bush, to Norman Holmes Pearson, OSS director in London and founder of the American Studies department at Yale University, the doorways of J. Press in New Haven, Boston, and New York were crossed by the average man to the top of the United States government.
Press, R. (2022, October 3). An American Statesman. Threading the Needle with Richard Press. Retrieved October 3, 2022, from https://jpressonline.com/blogs/threading-the-needle-with-richard-press/an-american-statesman