The New York Historical Society was a fitting stage for Jack Carlson’s sophomore J. Press collection. The designer, known for founding Rowing Blazers, also happens to hold a PhD in archaeology from Oxford University. It’s just one facet of Carlson’s stacked resume, which also includes former participation in the U.S. National Rowing Team.

However, it’s his university studies that inform his academic approach to fashion. Last season, his J. Press debut was hosted at The Explorers Club, a historic professional society founded in New York City in 1904. This season’s venue was built in 1804, making it the oldest museum in the entire city.

J. Press itself is a living artifact of American history, established 123 years ago at Yale University, where the label laid the foundation for the sensibilities that would become known as “Ivy.” A lot like an ancient object unearthed from the ground, Carlson treats the brand with the same care and reverence that an archaeologist would an excavation. “It’s sort of the last brand standing that embodies American Ivy style,” he explained.

In addition to a designer’s typical fieldwork—from making distant fabric sourcing trips to unpacking crates of archival garments—reading and studying are at the core of his development process. This season, Carlson named Take Ivy, a Japanese title published in 1965, as his muse. One of the first books to distil Ivy League style in photographic detail, the book has become a cross-cultural historical document capturing the height of Ivy League style from a Japanese lens.

In an in-depth conversation just a few weeks out from his NYFW presentation, Carlson expanded on J. Press’s notable presence in US history, the eternal value of craftsmanship, and why Ivy is not the same thing as prep.

---

How are you feeling ahead of presenting your next J. Press collection at New York Fashion Week?

I feel great. It’s been a whirlwind first few months at J. Press, and I’m really enjoying it. I feel like I’m in the right place, and that’s just a nice feeling to have. When I was at Rowing Blazers, we didn’t really participate in the Fashion Week calendar. The only exception to that was the collaboration with Target, where we had an absolutely huge event. I could basically tap into Target’s huge team to manage all the details and pull it off. This is definitely very different. We have a great team, but it’s just much smaller. I definitely have to be more involved in all the little details, but I enjoy that stuff.

Could you talk about the inspiration behind the show?

The theme of the show is an homage to the 1965 Japanese book, Take Ivy, which is now kind of a cult classic among menswear fans all over the world, but for a long time, was really underground outside of Japan.  What a lot of people might not realize, if they’ve just heard of Take Ivy, is that there’s a whole section of the book about J. Press, and a lot of the clothes that the students in the book are wearing are J. Press.

There’s no brand that better encapsulates and symbolizes the relationship between American Ivy style and Japan than J. Press. It has a reasonably big footprint in Japan, and it’s been Japanese-owned since the mid-80s. I think it’s one of the reasons that J. Press has remained as authentic as it is. We’re going to release a special edition of the book, Take Ivy, in conjunction with our runway show during New York Fashion Week.

Not many fashion designers have a PhD in archaeology. How does that inform your approach?

I think my background in archaeology and academia makes my process research-driven. It also predisposes me to want to do a lot with books, reading, and studying in general. In the first collection I did for J. Press last Fall/Winter, there was a literary component as well. We launched a book called The Pennant, which is a beautiful book about vintage college pennants.

One of the first things I did when I started this role as Creative Director was to give the J. Press offices in Japan a huge list of vintage products to send me. It was crates and crates of stuff. A big thing I wanted to look at was all the vintage J. Press labels throughout the years and the labels we’re using now. It’s a small thing that probably doesn’t matter to 99% of people out there, but it’s a recreation of the vintage J. Press labels that were being used at the time that Take Ivy came out in the ’60s.

Are there ways that these vintage silhouettes were updated for today, or did you really stay true to those references?

It’s a balancing act. J. Press has a very loyal customer base, and I would say that the loyal customer base is very rigorous about the fit, about maintaining the sort of authentic Ivy League structure and details. At the most basic level, the quintessential J. Press sport coat is a three-button, undarted, hook center vent jacket. You really don’t want to mess with that too much. And you also don’t want to come out with something that is going to look like it’s cosplay, like you’re playing someone in the Take Ivy book.

A lot of our customers are the real deal, just as J. Press is the real deal. I think we have a responsibility to be the standard bearer for the American Ivy look today. We look at things like the fit or the length of the shorts, and let it inform what we’re doing without making a carbon copy.

“There’s something about J. Press representing a kinder, gentler, softer, warmer, cozier, fuzzier vision of America. And I think there’s a lot of nostalgia for that.” — Jack Carlson

Your arrival at J. Press aligns with a period where prep and men’s tailoring are seeing a revival. What do you think is driving people back to the classics at this moment?

Regardless of what else is going on in the world, it always comes back around. I think a very long, rich, and fertile period for American preppy style began in ‘04 or ‘05 and went pretty strong until 2014 or so. And then it was really on the outs in terms of what the fashion world was looking at for a few years. I do agree there’s something in the air. I think we’re on the verge of yet another renaissance for this look and aesthetic.

What I would say specifically about J. Press is that it is synonymous with Ivy League style—a vision of America that almost doesn’t really exist anymore. J. Press dressed a lot of presidents and a lot of powerful people in the history of this country on both sides of the aisle, a lot of iconic people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. There’s something about J. Press representing a kinder, gentler, softer, warmer, cozier, fuzzier vision of America. And I think there’s a lot of nostalgia for that.

Do you think that this wave we’re currently experiencing is different from the way that it was, perhaps in the 2000s?

I think it’s a little more Ivy than it is preppy. In the early 2000s, up through that period, it was very colorful. It could even be kind of neon. It was harkening back to the Official Preppy Handbook era of the ‘80s: pink and green, really loud colors, popping your collar up, wearing multiple polo shirts at once.

This is a different thing happening now, and I actually think J. Press and Ivy are much more central to what’s happening—it’s more dressed up, it’s more classic. Back then, everything was slimmer and trimmer and so on. It’s a whole different branch from preppy that I would call Ivy, which is actually older than prep. It’s a little more grown-up, it’s a little more sober. It can still be colorful, for sure, but it’s more serious and academic.

How has being at the helm of a heritage brand been different than leading your own label, Rowing Blazers?

Whatever I do, it’s gonna have my fingerprints and point of view, but ultimately, I view myself as the steward of a very important brand in American history. It’s sort of the last brand standing that embodies American Ivy style. All of its peers in that genre have gone much more contemporary in their cuts, fits, and aesthetic because they’re chasing the market, rather than trying to stand for something.

It’s in no small part thanks to the stewardship of J.Press’s Japanese ownership and the continued involvement of the Press family. You could probably have more mass market appeal by changing some of the silhouettes or going more contemporary. You could start making J. Press polo shirts out of polyester, moisture-wicking whatever, but I would never do that. That’s the opposite of what I would do, because to me, it’s really about preserving the DNA.

What do you value about doing things the “old-fashioned” way?

How a button is sewn onto a shirt, how something is cut, or the fabric that you might use—you can actually do that anywhere in the world. China can do some of this, arguably more efficiently than anybody else. To me, the point isn’t to do it as efficiently as possible. There’s something about the DNA of J. Press. There’s something about the magic of what makes it special—that it’s actually made right here in New York City, or it’s actually made on this remote island off the coast of Scotland, which is where our sweaters are made.

What I value, and what I think a lot of customers value, is authenticity. That’s like the most prized quality of any brand or any product or any piece of clothing, because it’s a rarity. It’s a word that’s way overused, but it’s the most valuable currency because it is so rare these days.

“What I value, and what I think a lot of customers value, is authenticity. That’s like the most prized quality of any brand or any product or any piece of clothing, because it’s a rarity.” — Jack Carlson

What were some of your early encounters with J. Press, or are there any J. Press pieces that you’ve had for a really long time?

I don’t know what the very first thing I bought from J. Press was, but it was probably a tie. Many of my earliest ties, which I still have, come from J. Press. I have a navy blue tie with a duck motif, and a Madras tie. A lot of this was informed by my reading The Official Preppy Handbook, which my mom gave me her copy of when I was in eighth or ninth grade.

J. Press is heavily featured in the Preppy Handbook as well, where it’s described as something like “the brand for those for whom Brooks Brothers is not traditional enough.” And I kind of loved the idea of that, that it’s like, this is like the final boss. At that time, especially, Brooks Brothers was in every mall, but for J. Press, you had to go to right next to Yale, Harvard, the White House, or the Yale Club in New York City.

Are there particular J. Press pieces that you’ve been loving to wear right now?

I’m wearing the Bulldog sweater, which has been sold out for a while, but we’re restocking next month. Most days, I wear a tweed sport coat, a tie, and corduroy. It’s kind of like my go-to uniform. Or I wear a Shaggy Dog sweater—I would say the Shaggy Dog is probably my number one. There are a lot of knock-offs, but the level of brushing, colors, and fit that we have is just different.

What are some books that you’ve been enjoying recently, or are there books that, aside from Take Ivy, informed the new collection?

I have a pretty big library that I’ve accumulated of old Japanese magazines going back to Men’s Club from the ‘70s and ‘80s, Free & Easy from the early 2000s, and a lot of Japanese books. Those are actually my go-tos for inspiration. A lot of people know Take Ivy, but fewer people know that there are other books in that vein, almost like sequels to Take Ivy. One is just called The Ivy, and it’s basically the 1980s version of Take Ivy. And then the other one is called Take 8 Ivy, which has unseen photos from the original Take Ivy trip and later trips. Those have been great sources of inspo for this collection.

As far as just what I’m reading, I’m in the middle of reading Graydon Carter’s memoir right now, and I’m also just about to start a new book by David Marx, who wrote Status and Culture. He’s just come out with a new book that’s a history of the 21st Century [Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century].