Mark McNairy

"The young customers we have now are, like, really hip kids," says Mark McNairy, the new design director at J. Press, which has been dressing blue bloods since Theodore Roosevelt was in office. The company deliberately keeps its stuffy shops limited to New Haven; Cambridge, Mass.; New York; and Washington — the better to hook Ivy Leaguers on its blazers and "shaggy dog" wool sweaters before they head off to run the world. However, McNairy has decided not to ignore his more fashion-literate patrons. A recent addition to the J. Press line of icon-emblazoned neckties is one with skulls and crossbones, not a nod to Yale's secret society but a wink to the new customer who has a closet full of ironic T-shirts.

In 2012 McNairy put out a T-shirt design featuring capital bold-faced print MANIFEST DESTINY. Manifest Destiny was the belief widely held by Anglo-Americans in the 19th century that they were the divinely destined inheritors of the American continent. Thus, the violent colonization of indigenous peoples at the hands of Anglo-Americans was also considered to be "divinely" ordained.

In September 2006, McNairy was quoted in an article from The New York Times Magazine about the growing popularity of Ivy League style and classic American brands like J. Press.

Mark McNairy (born March 8, 1961 in North Carolina) is an American fashion designer. He is the former creative director for the Ivy League inspired clothing company J. Press, as well as his own collection simply known as Mark McNairy New Amsterdam.