My memories of preppy style are similar to Jjsloane’s and Le Pedestrienne’s. Much of my high school and college style was preppy...nod to the Preppy Handbook. Kelly green, navy, pink and white were predominant colors in solids, madras, argyle and stripes. Chinos, skirts, polo shirts, dress shirts, sweaters, blazers, docksiders, loafers, fair isle sweaters and accessories with motif patterns were seen everywhere and across all age groups and economic ranges. Preppy was not a style for the elite, or rich. Many New Englanders wore the styles (even if not the colors) long before Preppy was identified as a style and a social statement.

I’ve been surfing the web. I do think preppy is rooted in New England, and very much to do with prep school/boarding school. But the Nets has reminded me that not all the prep schools are in New England (when you flunk out, you’ve got to go somewhere else). So this is how SF gets to be considered a pretty preppy city and was once declared the last bastion of real society.

The Nets also reminds me that there is WASPdom and there is Prepdom. There’s overlap for sure, but they are not synonymous. I’m debating now how inclusive or expansive either is. It all depends on whether the W stands for wealthy or white (which is a redundancy and unlikely).

I mean, how important is a Mayflower connection? Can’t one be New England and not preppy? And don’t we think Lilly Pulitzer is a little more WASP than Prep?

Lol! I have insomnia

Gothic preppy is for me!

This is fascinating! I love "gothic preppy" (not for me but I love admiring it on others. So what would everyone classify as the loud equivalent of preppy—classically tailored but with bright, almost clashing colors and zany touches? Like Gothic preppy but more like if preppy went to Pee Wee's Playhouse? Hard to think of a famous person who encapsulates it, but I'm thinking like Andre 3000 circa early to mid 2000s. Ironically I just did an image search for "Andre 3000 Hey Ya" and the images that come up are all with him wearing grass green—exactly Angie's post that set me off with this question yesterday.

Ah, Rachy, you are right that Lilly Pulitzer has changed! There was a time when it was emphatically prep, but then they did a Target collab a couple years ago. It sparked outrage! Lisa Birnbach herself wrote an interesting response to the whole hullabaloo:

https://www.thecut.com/2015/04.....wrong.html

Well worth a read.

If I get a chance I'll come back with more thoughts later.

As a non-anglo-saxon, I find this thread very interesting.
I have come across the word "preppy" here in France in advertisements or magazine articles, and the style it was associated with seemed to be quite close to what upper-class, conservative people wear here as well during the week-ends : chinos, pastel or brightly-coloured polos, madras, topsiders...

That was a good read, LP. So much there to dissect!

Lesley, I realise I haven’t even gone near the topic of Kate Spade. Lol, let me hold forthwith:

Kate Spade is NOT preppy, except that she IS.

I feel Kate Spade is a little too feminine to be proper preppy. However, I also feel the original Kate Spade as run by Kate and her husband Andy was very much a favoured trend amongst preppies. Like Rubik’s cube and the M&Co watch. Wrong aesthetic but instilling great fondness.

Ok, but then they sold and the brand expanded. I think Kate Spade then got closer to the ASPIRATIONAL Prep style of - well, not Ralph Lauren - but Tommy Hilfiger, who got himself a real ghetto following. Kate’s colours are pretty amped. I don’t know why the company went that way, except that they were sold to Neiman’s.

Ralph, Tommy and Kate aren’t preppy because they’re preppy ... they’re preppy because they seem to be fond of preppies and preppies are fond of them ...

Aurore - in the old days, preppies were some of the few Americans who traveled. France was always where you went for polish...

And one more... now I’m contemplating the puzzle of Lilly Pulitzer. SHE was the very definition of prep - her values and aesthetic. But Lilly Pulitzer, esp now - and I remember that lash out at Target - not so prep. How inside out.

I grew up overseas. The first time I ever lived in the US was in the early 1980s when I went to Choate. That was pretty much the gold standard of prep-dom.

It took me quite a while to assimilate and I never did fully. I wouldn’t wear corduroys for years after I got out of
Connecticut. And even after 20 years back in New England I don’t really follow the environmental norm.

I define preppy as anything classmates would have worn, or that their parents would have worn to pick them up. Definitely nothing flashy or expensive-looking. Worn in a bit. Definitely the navy, white, kelly green, red, Nantucket red palette. And pink and blue oxford shirts, LL Bean field jackets, boat shoes for both sexes.

La Pedestrienne is pretty well on track with her answer.

Another good read is the blog Amid Privilege — she’s a California transplant with east coast roots, and in her older posts she does a nice job parsing what she calls “High WASP” style and culture -- sort of the broader milieu from which preppiness emerges, I'd say.

http://amidprivilege.com/?s=hi.....mit=Search

West Coast prep, to me, is best represented by young Joan Didion — she and Quintana Roo in Liberty lawn dresses… Joan D was emphatically not counter-cultural at a time when counter-culture was the norm in California.

Oh, and you can absolutely be from New England without being prep. I grew up in northern VT, as far away from the coast as you can get and still be in New England. We called anyone from Mass or CT “flatlanders” — that whole look, while very common where I grew up, definitely communicated a sense of “I’m not from here” i.e. not a farm kid. And I think the deep-rooted antipathy toward “the coastal elite” is even more pronounced in northern NH than in VT. The northern New England look, though, is really just flannel flannel flannel.

Lesley. It sounds like your style has some of the better, more visually interesting aspects of prep, but isn't strictly preppy. I'm trying to think of preppy characters in film and tv.

Does Wes Anderson get prep? I think he does in "Rushmore." How about Gwyneth Paltrow in "The Talented Mr. Ripley?"

UmmLila - Rosemary Hall! What! No corduroy?! How about a station wagon?

LP - I have to think about Joan Didion now that you say this. I’m always hearing her on the radio and just think of her as a writer. She does have this certain sound quality to her voice tho...

Alright, I should get off this thread before I start saying ‘Oh The Glory Of It All’...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik....._of_It_All

Mid 80’s. East coast cousins upon seeing West coast cousins, in a neutral location. “See mom, they’re wearing their shirts untucked!” Clothing in question? Chinos? Dockers? And a polo shirt.

Oh Barbara that is HILARIOUS.

Now for some ramblings of my own.

Disclaimer: I have no true preppy cred whatsoever: I am the Canadian-born child of postwar European immigrants. I'm now a professional in rural New Brunswick, where native wear is like LaP's northern New England flannel flannel flannel, when it isn't camo camo camo.

1. In my university days, the preppy handbook came out. My housemate was really into it -- she even bought the Izod Lacoste alligator shirts -- along with the whole lifestyle, getting up at 6 for her skating club or rowing team. I watched bemused from afar (I lived in jeans at the time).

2. My first pregnancy: summer of 1984. I went totally boho (was that a word back then? I went hippy) with flowy dresses and scarves and the baggy SugarSack jumpsuit from Cotton Ginny, all in teal/purple/hot pink. And for our vacation? We went to Chatauqua in upstate New York. Attended lectures and listened to concerts while sticking out like a sore thumb. I was blown away by how uniformly preppy everyone else was dressed. Even tiny children were all in chinos and those pastel polo shirts. And my first sightings of madras shorts since the 60s! No denim to be seen. (I remember finding a Talbot's catalogue at their library and studying it for pointers.)

3. Decades later I have found my own style niche -- Gentlewoman is my moniker. Feeling a need to distance myself from the ubiquitous flannel and camo (and the artsy boho of our fine arts university folks) I started wearing chinos and oxford shirts instead of jeans and Ts. Then we got a sailboat and now I never see a nautical stripe I don't have to have. I don't own a lobster belt... yet. But I do have the socks...

4. My sister on the other hand has turned out totally artsy-boho. We were speculating at a recent visit on how this came about. And then the next time I was visiting my folks, I saw my dad was outdoing me in classic preppyness. I submit these 2 photos as evidence. (In true classic-prep fashion, when we went to the theatre later that day, he was wearing the same outfit, with socks and Birkenstocks.)

Great thread...Is Charlotte fromSex and the City preppy? Are Sloane Rangers (old style / 80’s) the uk version of preppys?

I say:

Sloanes are UK preppies, but they are higher up the food chain in the World Order.

Charlotte wasn’t a preppy, but she had one of the most immortal encounters with Prepdom in the history of tv comedy. And my all time favorite was when she kissed the gardener and her MIL said ‘Welcome to the Family!’

Ps: Bunny is a man’s nickname... this is where SATC went wrong with that, hehe

Pps: Ok, I think Bunny actually said something like ‘now you’re a MacDougal!’ ...

Ahh, interesting. May be it’s the upper class titled thing that puts them up the food chain?

That gardeners kiss WAS the best scene

Bunny’s name seemed a strange choice to me too but I thought my cultural gauge was out so interesting.

FWIW I think Johnnie Boden is preppy, may be like Kate Spade that doesn’t quite spill into his brand. But Boden is quite Sloane (80’s style). Like Ben Fogle and most rowers, James Cracknell say.

It’s totally the title thing. Can’t compete with that. Can only try to trade a fortune for a title!

Re Boden... or maybe like the current Lilly Pulitzer. After all, his wife is a Sophie!

I can barely understand most of this thread! I do remember the term WASP, it was used a little here but clearly not with the same connotations. I definitely knew it as White Anglo-Saxon Protestants not WealthyASP. Growing up I was the former not the latter. The closest we have to Mayflower descendants type thing in NZ, being a younger country with our founding document in 1840, is those who were descended from "The First Four Ships" in our most English Southern city, Christchurch. I'm definitely not from that group. Cornish tin miners in my ancestry!
I do remember Sloane Rangers from London. Weren't Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson classed as that, Jane?

I do like the retro/classic thing going on in the Talented Mr Ripley... like preppy, but when preppy was fun, when it used leopard print as a basic. I tend to personally like a louder look than even those outfits. I love Lilly Pulitzer prints but have never bought anything because the rickrack detailing is always too much for me. I'm more of a Marimekko fan—loud prints, super simple classic construction.

These posts are fascinating. While in my original post I confessed to being East Coast preppy- seeing all that is written— I find myself asking- is that me? Is that how I describe myself? Is that how people see others- almost as caricatures? Why is my definition of preppy so different? So- I am walking back my comment because after reading these post I have determined that accordingly- I ain’t that preppy lol,

All the posts on the YLF site have been an eye opener and given me such a world wide broadening exposure to fashion you don’t get in magazines or even travel. Now I am starting to see styles-all styles- preppy, romantic, dramatic- every last one of them- in the story of the elephant and the blindfolded men. Do you remember that one? Each blindfolded man was touching a different part of the elephant (trunk, tail, leg, ear) and “seeing and describing “ something different.
Apparently we all approach the fashion “elephant “ similarly. Thank goodness for this YLF site for giving us another opportunity for exposure and learning and removing blindfolds.

Back when I first started college, in 1980, preppy was the rage - like the photos Janet posted. Maybe that was when the term was first used? To me these photos represent preppy and the khakis, pearls, etc are more "classic". Anyway, I remember everyone had Sperry Topsiders but I couldn't afford them so I had fakes from Penney's. Otherwise I don't think I am preppy at all and actually avoid it, not really sure why. Maybe it's the "elite" impression that just isn't me.

The images Janet posted define my own idea of "preppy" - Lacoste is the name I personally remember most.

But this image I found when searching for "Lacoste preppy" actually seems very today's version of preppy (to me at least) and I'd likely wear that outfit without the head wrap.

i remember wanting those LL Bean Blucher shoes. Coveting them. I think my friend got hers passed down from her brother. Sigh. To be worn with the just so slightly frayed at the collar pink or yellow oxford. Maybe with a fair isle sweater if it were cold.

I agree with Rachy that Lily is WASPy and not so much preppy.

Interesting, the distinction some people are seeing between WASPy and preppy, which I would have thought of as interchangeable but perhaps not?

If The Talented Mr Ripley was preppy maybe The Royal Tenenbaums was WASPy?

I still think the items of clothing that currently define the preppy look have changed and that the classic items that used to make the look are now just classic, but maybe I'm too attached to the idea of the prep school as origin.

I think Rushmore was preppy - it took place in a prep school, right?

Royal Tenembaums and Talented Mr Ripley are more difficult. I think the Tenenbaums were preppy (the harmless eccentricity) and Mr Ripley a convergence of all closely associated tribes. Ripley took place in Europe, with lots of super wealthy peeps from all over.

I think also: you can be classic without being preppy and WASPy without being preppy and all those things at once. And more one than the other. Etc etc.

I am toying with the idea that preppies are the ones who took their classical education a little more seriously than others, lol. I think La Pedestrienne is right about preppy being more rooted in leisure wear and the American answer to the British country tweedy set.

*Like,* Ivanka may have gone to Rosemary like UmmLila, but she just didn’t come out preppy. Lol. The Bushes are preppy (albeit a bit tainted by the whole Texas oil thing), the Trumps are not. I don’t know where the Kennedys fall - well, I do. They are a strange anomaly.

Religion plays a part. Protestant is distinctly NOT evangelical or fundamentalist, as well as not being Catholic.

Rachy, I must argue the point -- Bunny was TOTALLY a preppy woman's nickname in my neck of the woods.

And on top of the whole Choate Rosemary Hall 80s true preppy thing I mentioned from my earlier life experience, my daughter just finished at Northfield Mount Hermon, one of the more boho of the New England prep schools. No required blazers at dinner for them. She came out more minimalist than boho, but there was a definite low key aesthetic going on for girls that involved skinny jeans/ black leggings, short Patagonias (never North Face) and LL Bean duck boots for much of the year. A lot of black, navy and burgundy and never anything bright. Blow-drying and styling of hair a no-no (in both her time and mine).