Ivy League Redux

London, 1985 and I'm making the occasional visit to a cool little shop on Russell Street at the back of Covent Garden. It is called J. Simons and the only other clue to the method is a sign that says 'Traditional American Clothes'. But that's all part of the shop's discrete value.

Inside, there are button down shirts, chinos and the Bass Weejun loafers that will soon be adopted by many of the city's subcultures. Even to a parochial oik like myself, it is clear that John Simons, the proprietor, knows his threads and that there are subtle codes in this collection. The references are Blue Note jazz, Kennedy family composure and the classic US collegiate style. Pure Ivy League, then. The lineage of Simon's enterprise goes back to 1955, but he was anotable in 1965 with The Ivy Shop in Richmond, when the Rolling Stones and the Eel Pie hipsters started copping the look.

By the time I was getting interested, the notion had been adopted by Paul Weller in the Style Council and Dexys Midnight Runners. The latter had an amazing record called 'Don't Stand Me Down' and the cover was pure Ivy League. At the time, his critics though he was dressing like a yuppie, but Kevin Rowland was far more tuned in and fastidious than this. And of course, he was intimate with the J Simons aesthetic.

I went back to the shop two years ago and was saddened to learn that it had closed. But more recently, the internet has delivered the exciting news that J Simons is back in operation, this time in Chiltern Street. And so a recent visit to London took me to Baker Street tube and onwards to the new shop, where I marveled at the Baracuta G9 jackets, the Weejuns and Oxford shirts with the most elegant rolls in the collars. I left with a modest purchase, knowing that I would never attain that particular cool, but happy with my little stake in the tradition.