Response Notebook

Avery Trufelman, host of American Ivy: Chapter 1, is a 31 year old podcaster and radio producer who graduated from Wesleyan University with degrees in German and Literature. She’s best known for 99% Invisible, a radio show and podcast centered on design, and Articles of Interest, centered on clothing.

The focus of Chapter 1 of American Ivy is trends, particularly the “Ivy” or “preppy” trend. They begin the episode by discussing the field of trend forecasting and the different levels involved, from micro to macro to mega, and how current societal factors (climate crisis, wealth inequality, the rise of social media) have impacted trends today. Soon they segue into the topic of “Ivy” fashion, a particular type of preppy fashion detailed in the 1965 Japanese book Take Ivy. The host and guests speculate on why this trend never quite seems to fully go away – and maybe never will – as well as the factors affecting trend cycles as a whole: wanting to look rich, wanting to look cool, wanting to look unique, wanting to look like you belong.

Avery Trufelman: “And so, I think for a long time, a lot of us have been dressing in reference to one particular world. I think a lot of us have been dressing like college students.”

(American Ivy: Chapter 1 00:25:52 – 00:26:03)

Derek Guy: “Fashion is both your desire to project yourself as an individual within a group but also say that you are part of a group to outsiders.”

(American Ivy: Chapter 1 00:32:25 – 00:32:34)

Questions

Research Question 1: Do forecasts simply predict trends, or do they create them? Are consumers controlling producers, or are producers controlling consumers?

Research Question 2: How do politics and class influence trend dissemination?

Research Question 3: Why has Ivy been able to survive massive mega trends to become a long-time staple in popular fashion?

Research Question 4: What is the root of trends?

Claims

Claim 1: The modern influences of social media have caused a massive influx of trends so that the only real discernible trend is “trendiness itself”.

Claim 2:Trends are innate in human culture; the desire to be part of a group while still maintaining individuality.

Claim 3: Ivy has become so popular that to some extent, it’s no longer an aesthetic, but “just clothes”.

Claim 4 (Preliminary Thesis): Style is a language wherein outfits convey information about yourself to the rest of the world – the language of social capital.

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This episode was fascinating and touched upon many points I’ve found myself wondering about fashion and the trend cycle as well, particularly those relating to how trend predictions may be self-fulfilling prophecies and how trends are most often about mimicking those with the highest social capital. The adoption of “Ivy” styles as “classics” or “basics” is something I’ve seen in my own life as well: the chinos, vests, blazers, sweaters, and more that have been adopted into the popular culture, a “capsule wardrobe must-have”.

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Works Cited

Camerota, Christian. “The Invisible Woman: Avery Trufelman ’13.” Wesleyan University Magazine, 5 Dec. 2018.

Trufelman, Avery. “American Ivy: Chapter 1.” Articles of Interest, season 3, episode 1, 26 Oct. 2022, https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qRZfBYlAcB3MzUvIoTb9y?go=1&sp_cid=0c2c44e83a1b2076bc7e0932c9b55cb5&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop.

Trufelman, Avery. “American Ivy: Chapter 1.” Articles of Interest, Substack, 26 Oct. 2022, articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/american-ivy-chapter-1.

The podcast series titled Articles of Interest is hosted by producer Avery Trufelman, accompanied in the first episode Kids’ Clothes by Joe Rosenberg, Erin Algeo, Morgan, and Lana Hogue, all with varying experience in the realm of children’s clothing. 

The episode begins with a brief history of punch cards and their evolution from fabric production to early computing, serving as an introduction to the overarching theme of the series: the back-and-forth exchange between fashion and culture, their intertwined paths. They then delve into the primary topic of children’s clothing. Rosemberg shares his experience as a little person struggling to find adult-appropriate clothing in the children’s section full of eccentric styles, after which Algeo, a textile museum curator, briefly discusses the history of children’s clothing in America. Morgan, a technical designer for a children’s clothing company, and Hogue, an expert in garment development, share their insights on the production of kids’ clothes. Like all other clothing, children’s clothing is a reflection of our culture – in particular, a reflection of our expectations of children and of our concept of childhood.

As Algeo describes, children’s clothes weren’t always so funky and bright. The change occurred as the culture around childhood itself changed. In the past, only upper-class, non-working children could have distinct “children’s clothes” – or childhoods at all – and even then, those “children’s clothes” were entirely different to those we have today. The idea of childhood at this time was more about “cultivation” of future adults than the value of childhood itself, and that was reflected in the clothing: corsets for little boys and girls to keep their posture upright, laced underneath miniature, warped versions of adult garments. What the popular culture expected of children shaped the clothing they wore, which in turn shaped the children, who in turn shaped the culture – an endless cycle of give-and-take.

As Trufelman put it, the state of children’s fashion “has everything to do with our evolving concepts of childhood, and how much freedom and protection we think children ought to have” (Kid’s Clothes 00:17:51 – 00:18:00). In the 18th century, Rousseau’s writings and the introduction of child labor laws shifted the American cultural attitude around childhood more towards “freedom and protection” and away from labor and “cultivation”. Children’s fashion shifted with it. That freedom is reflected in the clothing’s newly bright and loud designs, and in their freedom of movement. Simultaneously, due to the cultural shift towards protection of children, a slew of child safety regulations on clothing production (detailed by Morgan) restrict their design. Modern children’s tastes have been molded around these clothes, their personalities melding with the present-day zeitgeist to mold the fashion and children of tomorrow.

This begs the question: what may other cultures’ children’s fashion reveal about their views on childhood? And – considering the low level of input from children currently taken into account during clothing development – how would the world of children’s fashion change if children themselves were given more authority on its production?

Works Cited

Trufelman, Avery, host. “Kids’ Clothes.” Articles of Interest, episode 1, 99% Invisible, 15 September 2018, https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/kids-clothes-articles-of-interest-1/.