Jack Carlson Is J. Press’s In-House Ivy Archaeologist

 The New York Historical Society was a fitting stage for Jack Carlson’s sophomore J. Press collection. The designer, known for founding Rowing Blazers, also happens to hold a PhD in archaeology from Oxford University. It’s just one facet of Carlson’s stacked resume, which also includes former participation in the U.S. National Rowing Team.However, it’s his university studies that inform his academic approach to fashion. Last season, his J. Press debut was hosted at The Explorers Club, a historic professional society founded in New York City in 1904. This season’s venue was built in 1804, making it the oldest museum in the entire city.J. Press itself is a living artifact of American history, established 123 years ago at Yale University, where the label laid the foundation for the sensibilities that would become known as “Ivy.” A lot like an ancient object unearthed from the ground, Carlson treats the brand with the same care and reverence that an archaeologist would an excavation. “It’s sort of the last brand standing that embodies American Ivy style,” he explained.In addition to a designer’s typical fieldwork—from making distant fabric sourcing trips to unpacking crates of archival garments—reading and studying are at the core of his development process. This season, Carlson named Take Ivy, a Japanese title published in 1965, as his muse. One of the first books to distil Ivy League style in photographic detail, the book has become a cross-cultural historical document capturing the height of Ivy League style from a Japanese lens.In an in-depth conversation just a few weeks out from his NYFW presentation, Carlson expanded on J. Press’s notable presence in US history, the eternal value of craftsmanship, and why Ivy is not the same thing as prep.How are you feeling ahead of presenting your next J. Press collection at New York Fashion Week?I feel great. It’s been a whirlwind first few months at J. Press, and I’m really enjoying it. I feel like I’m in the right place, and that’s just a nice feeling to have. When I was at Rowing Blazers, we didn’t really participate in the Fashion Week calendar. The only exception to that was the collaboration with Target, where we had an absolutely huge event. I could basically tap into Target’s huge team to manage all the details and pull it off. This is definitely very different. We have a great team, but it’s just much smaller. I definitely have to be more involved in all the little details, but I enjoy that stuff.Could you talk about the inspiration behind the show?The theme of the show is an homage to the 1965 Japanese book, Take Ivy, which is now kind of a cult classic among menswear fans all over the world, but for a long time, was really underground outside of Japan.  What a lot of people might not realize, if they’ve just heard of Take Ivy, is that there’s a whole section of the book about J. Press, and a lot of the clothes that the students in the book are wearing are J. Press.There