University | 4:27 pm | August 29, 2012 | By

Yale Club of NYC votes to admit denim

Closeup_of_copper_rivet_on_jeans
Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Earlier this summer, the Yale Club of New York City quietly cut down an OK tradition by allowing denim in certain portions of its Manhattan building.

“In a growing list of work environments and industries, denim has become an accepted and popular addition to sartorial correctness,” the club said in an online update. “Accordingly, we will now allow denim – neat, clean and in good repair [emphasis in the original] – to be worn on the roof this summer, on the library floor at all times, and in the Grill Room on weekends.”

The decision comes after a debate which inspired “much passion and diverging opinion amongst members,” forcing the club to take a poll its members. Forty percent of respondents advocated “greater enforcement of the status quo,” but they could not stop the 60 percent of voters favoring, well, sartorial chaos.

Alas, some Yalies fail to appreciate the finer traditions of their alma mater: the taste of tea at the Elizabethan Club, the comfort of tweed blazers and khakis at Mory’s, the smell of rich mahogany and leather-bound books in Sterling’s Linonia Brothers Reading Room.

One timeless Yale tradition, gone. Hide your clay pipes and handkerchiefs, Yale — this may just be the beginning.

CORRECTION: August 29, 2012

Due to an editing error, this blog post’s original headline was incorrect. Denim has been allowed, not banned. Oops.

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