Take Ivy, an Ivy-League collegiate guide to menswear, was originally published in Japan in 1965.
In fact, this is the book that made "trad" fashion so popular among young Japanese men. The look is an adaptation of the old-money prep school style of, you guessed it, American Ivy Leaguers.
Filled with photo after photo of gorgeous (now-retro) scenes from the daily lives of these boys, Take Ivy is now enjoying a welcome run with powerHouse Books. This new edition is the first to be translated into English, but remains otherwise unedited. To be sure, some of its charms lie in the captions.
But if this book was influential before, it's absolutely indispensable today.
