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So regarding my parents visiting and being sentimental around the end of the PhD journey
and all of that, one of the other fun things I discovered recently was that
the school that I'm in right now is one of the Ivy League schools and it's prestigious and
everything in different ways, but research-wise it's a different story, so I don't want to get
into too much about it, but I've basically been lucky to be in this institution for the past five
years doing research. Anywho, my dad, it was extra exciting to visit here for my dad because
he is from the generation of Ivy League fashion or Ivy fashion. Do you know anything about this?
I've never heard of it, but what is it? What is Ivy fashion?
Yeah, it's a fashion style. So technically, my dad's generation overlaps with like the second
revival of this Ivy League fashion that was extremely popular in Japan in like the 70s and 80s
and the real original Ivy League fashion started like after the war, so like maybe 50s and 60s,
so that's the first wave of Ivy League fashion, but basically
it's just like a preppy fashion style of rich affluent, predominantly white families
that come to Ivy League schools and Ivy League schools in those times, like in the previous
century, it was way more segregated, way more like less diverse, it's mainly only serving
very, very rich affluent families and their kids. It's getting better these days, there's a bit more
socioeconomic and racial diversity in these Ivy League schools, they try to have that,
but at the time, that wasn't really the primary purposes and basically
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what they did, these like preppy school kids, prep school kids, what they did is have very nicely
made items, like very well tailored suits or blouses, sweaters, things like that, like high
quality item and like kikuzusu, that, right, so like you don't like tuck it in or like you wear like
I don't know, like it's something maybe a little mismatched color or something like that,
and that was deemed cool, that was the hottest fashion at the time.
And so my dad grew up as a teenager, you know, thinking that this Ivy League fashion
is the coolest fashion, right, I mean even my mom too, who's like, my mom just wasn't that
intense about fashion, but my dad, you know, with his teenage like motetai, you know,
like drive, you know, because that's literally what drove him to do anything at that time,
like he picked up surfing, he picked up, yeah, he picked up skiing, like he, like
moteru tame ni ironna koto erande kita otoko dakara, he knows that, right, and so of course he
had to get behind Ivy League fashion and, you know, it's like, amerika no varsity istajan
mitai na etsu, like, jump, wakaru, sports team no jump, yeah, like aiu no ga hayatta juki de,
and so he really loved it, right, and there was a book that he, like, carried like a bible
for this Ivy League fashion, it's a photo book called Take Ivy, and it's basically just a photo
snaps and some sort of like contextual scenes, like some texts explaining why and how the Ivy
League fashion came about and stuff, but it's mostly just pictures of beautiful campuses of
like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Brown, like all of that thing, and I, you know, like in some photos
there are some buildings in my school and my dad got really excited, right, because he recognized
the building from that photo and, yeah, like wanted to take a picture and he wanted to, like,
you know, share that, like, time with me and, yeah, and this just came about because
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for my birthday a couple of years ago he gifted me that book, the Take Ivy book,
that he found in, like, a random furuhon-yasan, which he was really excited to find, because
he had the copy that he had in high school, right, but
in the furuhon-yasan he found a copy, but it was in English, so he had the Japanese copy,
but it was in English, but it was close enough, like, everything was the same, and he bought one
and he gifted it to me, explaining that this was, like, his, you know, his teenage, young adult,
like, he, that was, like, seishun for him, and he, how it's weird and interesting
that his daughter would end up in one of these schools, and it's, like, you know, for him it's,
like, I, you know, high school me would have never believed if I said that, you know, if somebody said
that your kid's gonna end up in one of these schools, that you, like, you know, idolize looking
at, you know, and think about it, this is, like, pre-internet era, right, like, all of the information
are coming from the magazines and books, and he basically looked at those pictures countless
of times, like, wishing he could go there one day, you know, wishing he could, like, be in the same
space as these cool kids, you know, that's in the photobook, and now he had done it, and he was,
it was a bit of a, like, a sentimental moment for him, and yeah, it felt like a sentimental moment
for me as well, you know, it's like, like, my parents are fairly young, like, I don't really
think about Oyakoko on the daily basis, but, like, I felt like this was one of the moments that I
actually got to do, like, I really don't find it special to have gone to this kind of prestigious
school, like, I really picked it based on which school I could get in and what kind of research
that they were offering, like, I didn't go because this had a name, right, you know, I, like, that
was never an issue, I would have happily gone to, like, state schools if that was the best for my
research and, you know, the locations and whatnot, but it just so happened that I ended up in this
historical school, like, that has lots of history, one of the oldest schools in America, and that had,
like, a meaning outside of just my research school, and this must be what it feels like to, like, make,
you know, do a proper Oyakoko, yeah, yeah, like, I mean, I, now that I'm, like, actually done with school
and be a real shakaijin, right, I guess, I hope I get to do more of that, but it was quite special
moment for me, like, I didn't find it that special, you know, the fact that I went to IBD
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school, but it meant so much more to my dad, and not because he wanted me to go to a prestigious
school like that, he never cared about it, but, like, because it was his, like, seishun, and it was,
like, the coolest place he thought growing up, and, like, being there in a completely different context,
like, that was quite special to both of us, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he must be, you know, so proud of you.
Yeah, yeah, like, in a completely different way, but yeah, like, they don't really, like, they don't
do science at all, they're both bunkei people, I'm kind of an oddball in a family, and, yeah,
but, like, they supported me all the way, and they, like, never questioned why I'm still in school,
and, like, when am I gonna be done with this PhD thing, like, are you gonna get a job, or anything
like that, they just, like, supported me all throughout, you know, without asking me any
questions, and they're just like, you know, make sure you don't, like, work yourself too hard, make
sure you don't, like, get sick, like, that was all they said, so that was really nice, and, like,
yeah, this is a bit of a tangent, but going back to Take Ivy, my favorite, favorite podcast,
podcaster of all time, Avery Truffleman, she made a series called Articles of Interest, and
she dedicated an entire season on preppy fashion, and basically the book Take Ivy is, like, the
backbone of that series, like, she starts the whole project from this book Take Ivy, and apparently
it's one of the only books that goes into detail of preppy fashion, and why it meant,
why it meant what it meant to Japanese people, and, like, that historical, like, she did a
deep, deep research into why it became a thing in America, and why it became a thing in Japan,
and, like, how it's different, and how, like, the two cultures influencing each other, what preppy
meant, and, like, also just in general, like, what does preppy mean, like, does it mean just, like, affluent
rich boys fashion, or, you know, is there something more to it, and that kind of thing. It was really,
really interesting episodes, I think it's, like, 10 or 12 episodes of history and cultural
significance of ivy fashion, and I didn't know that, you know, in the fashion industry people,
Take Ivy is, like, the bible as well, they're, like, oh yeah, if you want to know anything about preppy
fashion, you have to go read Take Ivy, or, yeah, and, like, and they talked about another book,
I think, called, like, Handbook of Preppy Fashion, or something, both of which actually were in my
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parents' house. My mom had the book, so I was really excited, so, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just, like,
fun episodes, if you're, if you're looking for the new podcast to listen to, give it a shot,
I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I should listen to the podcast too, yeah. Yeah, okay. All right, that's it.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening, and find us at Eigo De Science
on Twitter, that is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time!
