The Evolution of Ivy: Pt. 1

The Early Evolution of Ivy

1950

1868

1920s/30s

1945

The Meiji Restoration begins

Bankara Schoolboys

The "Oh MIstake! Incident

Kensuke Ishizu born

Ishizu imprisoned in China and meets Lt. O'Brien

1911

Princeton students are developing their own utilitarian style

Apparel Arts features a new collegiate style

Brooks Brothers introduces the first Oxford shirt

England's "bright young people" are playing with style and identity

1933

1896

1900-1929

Ishizu's Rise as the Maven of Japanese Ivy

Filling in the Gaps

1932

1946

1949-1951

1946-49

1939

Ishizu returns to Okayama to find little left. He sells off the family business and becomes a menswear designer for Renown, Japan's largest undergarment producer.

Ishizu returns from school in Tokyo to work in his father's paper business.

Ishizu leaves Renown to open his own menswear store, Ishizu Shoten, which he renames Van Jacket in 1951.

Ishizu moves to the Chinese port city of Tianjin to run his family's department store, Ogawa Yoko

Ishizu begins working with a Harvard educated soldier living in post-war Japan to acquire Western fabrics and designs pocket T's, etc.

Pre-WWII