Rate this book

Take Ivy (2010)

by Shosuke Ishizu(Favorite Author)

3.99 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1576875504 (ISBN13: 9781576875506)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

powerHouse Books

review 1: Having attended an Ivy League institution and having developed a deep interest in preppy fashion, I was delighted to find out that an affordable version of this book was released in English. It is fascinating to see how the original author compares the Ivy League universities to Japan as it brings out the little nuances that we take for granted. I will say the book seems a bit repetitive in certain cases and is not really enlightening in terms of the history of Ivy League fashion. It simply is a snapshot, a portrait in time, and should be viewed as such. If you want to get a more thorough undertaking of elite American fashion and its influences you must dig into some other books, blogs and resources. I will also say this book does not cover the Ivy League evenly; most of t... morehe photos are of Dartmouth, Brown and Princeton. There are few references to the others (Penn, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, & Columbia). I would have loved to see some more pictures of those campuses during this time frame. Luckily, we have the internet for that.
review 2: What an utter disappointment. I never saw the online scans of the original book, but the reproduction quality in this edition is ATROCIOUS. The photos are blurry and grainy, the b&w snaps are indecipherable, everything is spotted with dirt and scratches, and the color balance is completely off (unless I'm mistaken and in the 1950s-60s all Ivy Leaguers actually had beet-red fake tans and dyed their white shirts a dingy puke green). In short, the image quality in this makes a 90s punk 'zine reproduced at Kinko's and handed out for free look like a priceless Picasso by comparison.I couldn't believe a self-proclaimed "leading publisher of high-quality illustrated books" like powerHouse would put their name on something this bad, and then I saw this on Amazon.com (posted by someone who works for powerHouse): "This is a facsimile reproduction of the original 1965 Japanese publication. There is 40-plus years of aesthetic appreciation of image quality and expectation between then and now; the image standards and appearances in this reproduction are typical of that era. It is the manifold coverage of birth-era content that is the time capsule value here; not the reproduction value of a J. Crew catalogue from last season."Wow, for a scrappy indie publisher that is some major Fox News/Karl Rove-style spin! So I'm supposed to shell out $25 for a full-color illustrated book about a completely visual subject (fashion), but focus on the "content" and ideas behind the indecipherable visuals? No thanks. Stay away from this book, and read your (free!) J. Crew catalog instead. less

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