In 2013 the blizzard Nemo literally brought down the roof of the historic J. Press headquarters at 262 York Street. A framed picture of my dad, Paul Press, in tennis gear on the courts at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico in1954 with Wimbledon great Fred Perry hung in a place of honor at the back of the store in the prime fitting room. They crossed rac-quets over the net clad in Mr. Perry’s eponymous tennis whites that were confined to the J. Press geographic U.S. locales in the 1950s.
After the brand went national, Fred Perry and J. Press parted racquets. No longer did laurel wreaths adorn Squeeze polo shirts. Nor will you find polo mallets, alligators, frogs, hanging sheep, whales or any other accoutrements of the national brands. Avid polo lover Winston Churchill once re-marked, “A polo handicap is a person’s ticket to the world.” J. Press chukka polo shirts play the game clean and straight.
Ennobling our historic plain front polos, an abundance of trad colors are en-larged beyond tennis white in a merry-go-round of colors. A rejuvenated old-time favorite is our distinct solid Jersey button-down short-sleeve polo enhanced by our J. Press button flap breast pocket in classic colors.
Ideal for comfortable weekend or casual business wear, our stripe polos feature a cornucopia of combinations.
J. Press polo shirts define Sprezzatura with either a blazer, khakis, poplins, grey tropicals or Bermuda shorts. Baldassare Castiglione, Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and prominent Renaissance author defined the term 500 years ago,
RICHARD PRESS
6 comments
You bring up an interesting point. When men were still using detached collar shirts for all business and formal wear, there were three kinds of informal sportswear shirts defined by their different attached collars.- the polo, the tennis and the golf. One was button-down, one was rounded and one was pointed.
Wow! I had no idea that the iconic British brand, Fred Perry had a partnership with the esteemed J. Press brand in it’s early days. Learn something every day. I am a huge fan of both. Also, starting to climb back in to suits. Wore one yesterday…J. Press summer wool in brown check. Have to do so again next week. Debating whether it will be navy seersucker or olive poplin. It’s happening! And J. Press is there! Keep the faith.
Somewhere in the history of American fashion there must be a chapter on “logos” which goes far beyond mere labels as an identifier of manufacture of garments. Most of us have fallen for this advertising technique, for which we get paid nothing unless we are under contract with the sponsor. For the most part J. Press has resisted the temptation to promote its goods in this way. It’s as close to bespoke or custom tailored as the well-dressed common man can achieve, and still have the occasional pleasure of being asked “Where do you buy your clothes?”
Actually, J Press, when it was on Madison and 47th St, carried a full line of Fred Perry shirts, up to about six years ago. Too bad The Proud Boys adopted the emblem; the company reacted by discontinuing the shirt!
I’ll ditto the St. Johns Bay Rum kudo, — I’ve had my bottle a few days & Love it!