Summa Cum Style

Let's remember that the primary function of clothing is still to keep you warm in the winter and out of jail in the summer. Beyond that, the attire you choose to wear is almost as limitless as your own imagination–especially on campus.

As an example, did you know that for three bucks you can pick up a genuine Alma Mater athletic supporter, the pouch of which carries your school colors in blazing rep stripes? Loyalty and devotion to that degree leaves our pulses pounding just a little quicker than before.

Yes, the campus is a good place to burst forth with distinctive originality in your choice of clothing. While it's true that several of our better-known eastern universities have been accused of being rather rigidly tradition-bound concerning matters of attire, few will argue against the fact that it is to the Ivy Leaguers that we owe the current national acceptance of the trim, tapered, natural look in men's clothing. Gratefully, we raise a double brandy in their direction.

This year, any playboy-about-campus worth his Thunder-bird will take full advantage of the New Freedom that is abroad in our land. You might start exercising your rights with a violently-colored, brass-buttoned wool and cotton blazer jacket in a solid green with black-and-white stripings or navy blue with red-and-white stripings. A somewhat quieter blazer, woven of a deep blue woolen flannel, serves as a good knockabout jacket. If you wish, sew your college crest over the breast pocket.

You can follow through with the crest idea by purchasing a box of university medallion brass buttons, gold fired and untarnishable. Included in the set (continued on page 52)Summa Cum Style(continued from page 18) are three buttons for the jacket front and six for the sleeves or possibly a vest. If your girl friend or house mother is handy with a needle and thread, either should be pleased to sew them on for you.

Carrying this Alma Mater craze a little further, there is an enterprising clothier (Chipp, 14 East 44th St., New York City) who adapts traditional college colors and mascots into an array of apparel items and accessories. Your university mascot–be it leopard or billy goat–is woven in small, neat figures in authentic university colors on a pure rep silk fabric. Out of it all flows a colorful flood of vests, slippers, neckties, bows, cummerbunds, watchbands, tobacco pouches, belts, braces and garters–sporting Yale's Bulldog, Princeton's Tiger, Dartmouth's Indian, Cornell's Bear, Columbia's Lion, Virginia's Cavalier and even Williams' Purple Cow. Other university mascots and colors are available, but mostly for those schools east of the Monongahela River. We find the whole idea an appealing one.

The sport waistcoat (pronounced weskit or vest) is an established fashion fact at most schools these days and one that adds a plush and colorful note to your party weekends as well as extra warmth for chilly football afternoons. Some of the best-looking waistcoats that we've seen around the men's dormitories come in a tattersall check pattern trimmed with pearl buttons. Color combinations we like include a red, wine, navy and black check on a yellow background, or a black, light blue, brown and yellow check on a white background. Other favorites in good taste are made of velveteen in the warmer solid shades of scarlet, gold, light blue or green. Pure woven rep silks of dark brown vertical stripings on a black background or dark green on a navy background impart an elegant, sophisticated air to the wearer. All wool vests of imported miniature tartans, including Black Watch (green-black), MacDuff (red-green) or Dress MacLeod (yellow-black), provide a wonderful dash of color and distinction for any occasion . . . including a panty raid.

Well-appointed university men to whom we have spoken have taken warmly to a relative newcomer on the campus scene–the duffer coat. This all-weather knockabout is made of a 32 ounce rough pile fabric, and comes with detachable hood, whittled mahogany wooden peg buttons and Dutch fishing hemp button holes. The duffer coat is available in a choice of natural than or navy blue and costs you only $25.00–a beautiful thought if you still depend on Uncle Sam for tuition and fruition.

Another cold weather campus favorite is the double-breasted greatcoat of water-repellent tan cotton gabardine in either the short or full-length models. The body and sleeves are lined with thick alpaca pile; the neck carries a heavy alpaca collar. For more variable climates, you may wish to choose a water-shedding heavy tan cotton cloth surcoat with a removable rayon, wool and alpaca lining and small mouton collar. Both these coats are cut in the raglan sleeve model; the greatcoat comes with a belt and slash pockets while the surcoat features straight hanging lines with large flap and patch pockets. For those unpredictable fall days, you'd be smart to pick up a zippered shower-proof windbreaker in coat length with removable wool plaid body lining, or jacket length with knitted waist band and cuffs.

If you happen to belong to an eastern club, or midwestern fraternity, you can probably find a handsomely-striped six-foot muffler–smart and warm for out-door living–in your proper club colors. We've seen them made up in a durable Shetland wool, in wide stripes, for such venerable organizations as D. K. E., Psi U, Fence, S. A. E., Colonial, Racquet, Cap & Gown, Ivy and Cottage; also in the school hues of Notre Dame, Michigan, North Carolina, Washington and Lee, Brown, Pennsylvania, Harvard and Amherst. If you're not quite that much of a booster, you may prefer a six-foot job in an authentic tartan plaid woven in Scotland by the very same fellow (Cambridge '07) who makes them for the British Royal Family. In fine worsted and Saxony wool, they're available in Royal Stewart, Dress Stewart, Black Watch, Hunting Fraser, and Cameron of Erracht. As long as you're feeling your Scotch, why not top the whole thing off with a tartan ski cap of British flannel, with a square peak and a warm alpaca earband? We've seen them in richly-colored MacPherson (gray-light blue), Hunt Campbell (red-green) and, probably the most popular and best-looking tartan of all, Black Watch. But for sheer luxury and warmth at more formal occasions it's difficult to beat a cashmere muffler, available in a two-color combination of navy and wine or solid shades of beige, light gray, navy or brown. Gloves should be chosen with a careful eye to their warmth as well as their harmonious blending with the rest of your campus clothing. Dress-up affairs demand hand-sewn, cork-colored pigskin or brown lambskin pull-ons with a warm white fleece lining. Less formal sessions call for wool string pull-ons in black, gray, maroon or navy.

For serious beer drinking, there's no better lounging fare than a crew (round) neck long sleeve pullover made of pure llama. Because the South Americans can actually breed these clever ruminants in fashion-wise colors of black, dark brown, charcoal gray, light gray and beige, there's no worry about your sweater pulling a fade-out after several washings. But if you don't mind taking a chance, there's always the faithful vat-dyed Shetland wool crew necks available in the above colors and also in good-looking shades of navy, olive, rust, yellow and green.