Decoding "preppy"

<p>For summer, Jack Rogers sandals strike me as preppy (though more southern than northern). Been thinking about getting a pair. </p>

<p>Ferragamo Varinas - preppy, classic, or frumpy? </p>

<p>I just can’t go there on the pants with whales or sailboats! I know they are a marker of old-school prep but they are over the top for me!</p>

<p>When I was in college, we used to call some of our classmates (or they called themselves) preppy reactionaries. They’d wear their signet ring, wear peter pan collared shirts with a blazer, with a danskin bodysuit underneath and with jeans an hiking boots (or topsiders). Seems pretty tame now-- not remembering why it was “:preppy reactionary” then. </p>

<p>@Pizzagirl Jack Roger are definitely a southern prep thing. I love mine, highly recommend them. High quality, and the platinum and bone colors go with everything. </p>

<p>Regarding the whale and sailboat pants, there was this guy at a college scholarship interview who was wearing mint green pants with pink flamingos embroidered all over them. Now those looked ridiculous. Not even preppy, just ridiculous. If you’re a guy, please don’t be gunning around in pink flamingos.</p>

<p>But you remember him. Maybe thats what he was going for. As they say, negative attention is better than no attention at all.</p>

<p>Haha, I sure do remember him…with a cringe. </p>

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<p>I have 2 kids in 2 different uber preppy New England boarding schools, and I’ve seen Lilly Pulitzer pink and green and bright colors. There’s enough Vineyard Vines on campus to make you puke.</p>

<p>I"d say Jack Rogers sandals are ubiquitous prep sandles. The store on Nantucket that sells the whale pants and Nantucket reds sells every possible color-combination of Jack Rogers. I see many women on the Cape wearing the sandals too. It’s the same with Lily dresses–there’s a store on Nanticket called In the Pink–nothing but Lily for women and children. The Lily dresses are standard for summer parties among the prep set. Don’t think it’s limited to one region.</p>

<p>While I see Lilly Pulitzer sold in Bloomies here in CA, it doesn’t seem to be as popular here. Something about it screams Florida and not California. </p>

<p>Have not finished reading this thread, but allow me to offer this definition of preppy dressing: it’s clothes that you inherit, not buy, because they are so well made and so classic that no one in their right mind would throw them out. </p>

<p>^and because you probably can’t even buy them these days. Not that fabric. Not that quality of stitching. And it is really almost impossible to find a good dressmaker. </p>

<p>My H who comes from a WASPy family in the east coast, absolutely refuses to wear any clothing with a visible logo. He said he ought to be paid advertising the designer clothing. This thinking also rubbed off on my son.Right before we were married in California, he cleaned out his closet and I found a huge bag full of Lacoste shirts destined for Goodwill, presumably they were bought by his mother.
At my daughter’s rehearsal dinner in California,his uncle who was 89 at the time, wore pastel green pants, blue blazer and a bow tie (dog pattern). No one could have missed him.
For men, when you come to CA, leave your pink shirts and rust red pants at home.</p>

<p>DMD if you haven’t read all if the thread then you missed that a number of posters have agreed with your view. In New Englad the old Yankees (old money and family name) tend to be quite frugal and will wear items until until they are worn through. Those Nantucket red pants turn to a faded salmon shade after years and years.</p>

<p>OP here. Thanks for all of the replies. It’s been fun reading! We visited one of the allegedly “preppy”/“fratty” schools on Thursday, and it was definitely “fratty” and according to one of the many definitions of preppy, that too. </p>

<p>Unsure about driving time, parking, etc., we arrived about an hour before our campus tour. In wandering around the campus, D was initially thrilled that everyone looked like her friends from her (public) high school (this after the previous day when we visited a school where seemingly every girl had multiple piercings and purple hair, and every white guy had dreadlocks). Soon, though, she began to grow concerned that EVERYONE looked like her friends from high school, and she did want to experience a little more diversity. In gathering at the admissions house, one of the student tour guides was thrilled to learn that one of the visiting students attends the same boarding school as the guide’s cousin, and one of the other vistors chimed in that she knew someone from there, too. On the tour, we were with two other families. When I asked one of the dads where they were from, turns out that they live in New Jersey, but the son goes to school in Massachusetts. So, nothing about the clothing to set off any alarm bells, but concerns from my daughter about how she’d fit in with her more-middle-than-upper class background.</p>

<p>Then there were the Greeks. The (non-Greek) tour guide, in response to another parent’s question said that, while the Greeks were an important part of the campus social scene, it’s definitely possible to carve out a rich social life without them. I didn’t find that as reassuring as it no doubt was meant. My D doesn’t want to have to struggle to “carve out” a non-Greek social life. Ironically, heading to the bookstore, we encountered five male students in tutus and face paint carrying huge flags with Greek letters on them. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this was fraternity-related. Emerging from the bookstore, we saw the flag bearers, a couple of people in duck costumes, and several hundred other students cheering on a group of female students who were racing “Big Wheels” through a red-cup obstacle course laid out on the quad.</p>

<p>Not a darn thing inherently wrong with any of that, but definitely gave the impression that Greek life was a very big part of the campus social scene, probably too much so for my D. I should note that at both schools, students and staff were very nice to us, holding doors open for us, and thanking us when we did the same for them, for example, as well as happily giving us directions to whatever building we were seeking. I put a lot of stock in subtleties such as those.</p>

<p>Two of our family members fell ill on what was meant to be a six-campus spring break odyssey, so it was cut short to just the bit-too-crunchy school and the bit-too-preppy school. Hopefully we’ll come across something a little more in the middle!</p>

<p>Tally Ho sweaters, maybe??? Sooooooooooooooooo long ago.</p>

<p>Reviving this thread because I was at a nearby outlet mall today and they had a Vineyard Vines outlet shop (or is it shoppe? :wink: )</p>

<p>This just popped up in my alum online magazine:</p>

<p>Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look</p>

<p><a href=“Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look - YouTube”>Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look - YouTube;

<p>I love that, @jym626‌. Thanks for posting the link. Kind of funny that’s the author’s a Brit, but I guess she’s just one in a long line of European observers of American culture. </p>

<p>Here’s a link to her bio: <a href=“About — Rebecca C. Tuite”>http://rebeccatuite.com/about/&lt;/a&gt;. Boy, that sounds like a fun field of study!</p>

<p>That is a great link, @jym626 ! </p>