A video about dressing like the old Ivy campus did 27,000 views in its first day. Aimé Leon Dore quietly put painter pants and hickory stripe on its site. And the 90s-minimalism video we cited two weeks ago has nearly quadrupled. Here's what to buy before the market catches up.
What the brands did this week — and what it means for prices.
Aimé Leon Dore quietly put American work clothes on its site — hickory stripe, painter pants, chore jackets
No campaign, no launch post — the pieces just appeared on aimeleondore.com on September 26. A Hickory Stripe Painter Pant at $300. A Chalk Stripe Painter Pant at $350. Striped denim trucker jackets at $400 and $450, a Striped Denim Chore Jacket at $400, a Fatigue Pant at $350. Hickory stripe is the narrow blue-and-white stripe that railroad workers and carpenters wore for most of the last century, and painter pants are exactly what they sound like — work pants with a hammer loop and tool pockets.
Secondhand implication: The originals never stopped existing. Dickies, Big Yank, Lee, and Osh Kosh made these pants and jackets by the millions, and sellers still list them as plain old work clothes — because until last week, that's all the market thought they were. Sourcing hickory stripe and painter pants now means buying from people who haven't seen the new product page.
In stock at Kindan
The Denali collection restocked — and more buyers are learning the original's name
Two weeks ago, most of the Aimé Leon Dore / North Face collection sold out in three days. This week it came back: the Nuptse, the Baltoro, the GORE-TEX mountain jacket, and all three colors of the '95 Denali Half-Zip are available again on aimeleondore.com. Everyone who missed it the first time gets another look — and another reminder that the fleece is named after a jacket from 1995.
Secondhand implication: The searches we ran in No. 008 — 90s Denali fleeces, Steep Tech, 90s North Face down — stay live. A restock keeps the original's name in front of buyers for another month, and sellers are still writing "old fleece jacket."
In stock at Kindan
More pieces from this week’s stories, in stock now at Kindan.
Seven searches worth running right now. Prices shown are the buy range.
Start with the real thing: Harris Tweed is handwoven wool from the Scottish islands, and the orb label inside the jacket proves it. Decades of them sit in thrift stores and estate listings, cut full and built to last, usually listed by fabric condition alone.
The other campus cloth. Wide-wale sport coats, five-pocket cords, and corduroy chore pieces from the 70s through the 90s — look for made-in-USA tags and patch pockets. Sellers list most of them as plain brown jackets.
The sweaters the Ivy look was built on. Scottish Shetland crews, Fair Isle yokes, and heavy cable knits — wool, made in Scotland, Ireland, or the USA. Moth holes are the thing to check; everything else about these improves with age.
Our own listings say the rugby run is still building — five of them are being watched right now. The buys are the heavyweight cotton ones with rubber buttons and a real collar, from Bean, Lands' End, and the campus outfitters.
Aimé Leon Dore just put hickory stripe and painter pants on its site at three hundred dollars and up. The originals — Dickies, Big Yank, Lee, Osh Kosh — are still priced as work clothes, because that's what the sellers think they are.
The cheapest way into the whole look. Striped repp ties from Brooks Brothers and the campus shops, wool and lambswool scarves from Scotland — a few dollars each, and the supply is endless because nobody searches for them.
The piece that finishes the Ivy wardrobe, and winter brings new buyers to it every year. Herringbone and camel wool overcoats from the 60s through the 90s — union tags, full linings, set-in sleeves. Buy before the first cold week.
One category we're tracking before it moves.
Five of our own rugby listings are being watched at once
We can see the rugby demand in our own numbers this week: five separate rugby listings drew between 24 and 38 watchers each on eBay this week. That is broader interest than any other category in the shop right now. At retail, Aimé Leon Dore's new North Face collection includes a Fleece Rugby at $225 — one more sign of where the shape sits this season.
Watchers are buyers deciding. When a category draws this many at once, the sales usually follow within weeks — and the sourcing answer is to keep feeding it: heavyweight cotton, rubber buttons, real collars.
The one move to make before next week.
Two weeks ago the call was "90s minimalism" — plain, well-cut clothes. That video, at 75,000 views when we cited it, now reads 287,000. This week the same channel, Blu Menswear & Style, got more specific: "The Fall Academic Aesthetic — Dark Ivy Style, Explained" did 27,000 views in its first day, and "The 3 Ralph Lauren Aesthetics Every Man Can Wear This Fall" did 59,000 in eight days. The direction now has a name and a wardrobe: tweed and corduroy jackets, Shetland and cable knits, rugbys, flannels, loafers, wool overcoats.
Every piece on that list was made continuously for fifty years, which means the secondhand supply is deep — and still mostly listed by people who see a brown jacket, not a direction. Our own numbers say the buyers are already moving: the rugby watchers above, and a cashmere herringbone crew drawing more eyes than anything else in our knitwear this week.
Timing: The videos are climbing and the cold weather hasn't arrived. Source tweed, corduroy, heavy knits, and rugbys now, while sellers still list them one garment at a time. Shop →
