Introducing Romilly and Fernsbury

Introducing Romilly and Fernsbury

Two silhouettes infused with a learned air of eighties academia and Ivy League style.

Fernsbury, with a subtle rounded square 'quadra' lens. Made to be universally flattering, with a soft brow leading to horizontal butterfly rivets. And Romilly, an oversize butterfly, with broad square lenses that swathe the eyes, flanked by traditional double-dot pins on a pair of squared-off lugs.

Both feature subtly squared profiles, an elegant saddle bridge, and flared temples based on the shape of an old-fashioned English butter knife.

Written by

Henry Whaley

Photography

Rick Pushinsky

Styling

David Nolan

An air of academia sits behind this latest Cubitts diptych

The collection began with a fascination for 'Ivy style' of the early-mid twentieth century, and its preppy 1980s revival. Fashions born in American college campuses, repurposed by subcultures around the rest of the world.

In particular, the style found an audience in Japan, initially as an anti-establishment statement of self-expression, and subsequently through depictions of American campus life in Teruyoshi Hayashida and Shosuke Ishizu’s 1965 book and film of the same name,Take Ivy.

Japanese Ivy style was directly inspired by the classic American collegiate look

Ivy style in Japan was characterised by its clean lines, conservative colour palette, and a focus on quality and tradition.

Spectacles and preppiness go together like libraries and leather binding.

In 1975, Ivy style featured in Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy’s book,Cheap Chic, an anti-fad guide to intentional dressing: ‘Personal style is what this book is all about. Fashion as a dictatorship of the elite is dead.’

Where Ivy fashions had originally been the privileged domain of the 1920s Princeton man, its smart-casual grammar would take on new relevance as a universally accessible statement of thoughtful dressing.

Spectacles and preppiness go together like libraries and leather binding. Romilly and Fernsbury take after the refined silhouettes that defined the revival of Ivy. Subtle, smart shapes popular in the eighties, in a range of preppy colourways: classic Black, Dark Turtle, and Haze, or with a flash of collegiate flair in Khaki, Madder, and Apricot.