<p>Preps in the south also like Southern Tide
<a href=“http://www.southerntide.com/”>http://www.southerntide.com/</a></p>
<p>S2 also reports that at his university the prepster guys don’t wear long baggy below the knee shorts. They wear khakis that are above the knee and not saggy/baggy. He says you can always tell a frat boy (at his sch. anyway) by his shorts.</p>
<p>I feel about preppy just like I do about punk. Once the “look” became a fashion statement, it became rather meaningless. </p>
<p>Preppy to me is being extremely conservative and dressed in the style of an establishment higher SES NE/New England WASP culture. This could range from wearing formal suit, dress shirts, & ties when it’s not required to wearing cashmere sweaters commonly associated with that culture. </p>
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<p>Had a colleague who despite being from the tri-state area ended up picking up the preppy habits of her Vandy classmates. </p>
<p>She ended up being mortified at being so clueless she dressed up to the nines as if to fit in with the most refinely dressed crowd at the Met Opera…complete with pearls to go see the Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway. </p>
<p>She stuck out like a sore thumb with an audience mostly dressed up in ripped jeans, ripped t-shirts, leather jackets/spikes, tattoos, and spiked/mohawk hairstyles in a wide variety of loud colors. She didn’t appreciate my remark that by sticking out like that…she was “soo punk”. The rest of us colleagues had a bit of a friendly laugh at her expense. :D</p>
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<p>I love the music and anti-authoritarian attitude of the punk rock movement. Am cool with others rocking the fashions and look though I can’t be bothered myself. </p>
<p>Don’t know…but being overly concerned about one’s looks…especially regarding clothing is in my mind…the anti-thesis of being punk. :)</p>
<p>You think punk wasn’t originally very concerned with projecting a certain appearance? : )
Along with everything else?</p>
<p>cobrat- You’ve missed the point so badly that you might as well have posted in a different thread.</p>
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<p>I know some quarters of the punk community bought into the appearance/fashionista element. I just opted not to buy into that aspect and just enjoy the music and attitudes. :)</p>
<p>A reason why I didn’t find the recent exhibition of “punk fashion” at a NYC area museum to be that compelling…even though my non-punk friends thought I’d be enthusiastic about it. </p>
<p>The ultimate prep is Muffy Aldrich; check out her blog, thedailyprep. </p>
<p>“Preppy to me is being extremely conservative and dressed in the style of an establishment higher SES NE/New England WASP culture. This could range from wearing formal suit, dress shirts, & ties when it’s not required to wearing cashmere sweaters commonly associated with that culture.”</p>
<p>Oh god, no, cobrat, you’ve missed the boat on preppy. A true prep is wearing a faded polo shirt, dad’s old LL Bean sweater with a hole in it tied around his waist, top-siders that are salt-stained from doing real duty on a boat. He can clean up nicely if required to, but oh god, you have SO missed it if you think it’s about “dressing up.” Indeed, preppy clothing costs less than much designer clothing. You’re a little confused between “dressing up” and “preppy.” There is a certain ease of life that a true prep portrays and part of that is that they don’t have to dress to impress anyone. </p>
<p>The dorkiness of overdressing (wearing a suit to a college classroom, etc) isn’t “preppy” in the least. </p>
<p>But a true prep, will be able to dress up properly for a wedding. But I agree, poloshirts and topsiders are still the ultimate prep to me. And I can assure you having a jillion New England prep school education relatives, Pizzagirl is spot on. Southern prep is a little less shopworn I think. </p>
<p>S wears a lot of Vineyard Vines, Polo, Brooks Brothers, J Crew. He attends a science/tech magnet HS and is very liberal politically. Breaking a few stereotypes here.</p>
<p>Preps aren’t necessarily conservative politically. There are preps at places like Hampshire.
And preps tend not to be members of the religious right.</p>
<p>PG’s description of prep is what I think of as old Yankee. I worked for a nonprofit organization that was started by women from old established Boston families --think Cabot and Lodge. If you didn’t know their backgrounds, it would be easy to mistake some of these women on the board as bag ladies. They were incredibly tight and were perfectly content wearing old Bean stuff or old Lily dresses that they had owned for years.</p>
<p>Becha they wouldn’t be caught dead in off-brands from Target, though.</p>
<p>(I haven’t heard of most of the brand names being thrown about here. I guess that makes me pretty un-prep.)</p>
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<p>Agree on them not being part of the religious right. More of being part of the comfortable establishment conservative WASP elite. :)</p>
<p>Preps at Hampshire? That’s a new one as the impression I’ve gotten from every Hampshire alum is that they’re much closer to the crunchy artsy granola LACs like the one I attended. </p>
<p>Places where preps would avoid in droves and only time preppy clothing is worn is “to be ironic”. </p>
<p>Think Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”… a louche preppy, which of course, is always an American.</p>
<p>Gourmetmom is on target. You have this weird stereotype of uptight associated with preppy. A prep could easily be living a crunchy granola life, just with a trust fund behind it. </p>
<p>Defining “preppy” is similar to defining “hipster” in my eyes. There are varying groups of “prepsters” just like there are varying groups of hipsters. While one may claim what the “true” preppy style is, another may view differently. Regionally, they vary. I have only been exposed to the Southern Prepster. The only idea I have of a Northeastern Prepster is through books and television shows. </p>
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<p>Was thinking of preppies as the villains in movies like the Omegas(Animal House), Balls & Shaft(PCU), or the Alpha Betas(Revenge of the Nerds). :D</p>
<p>A prep living a crunchy granola life is not preppy. If preppy meant “people who went to prep school” then we wouldn’t need to further define it.</p>
<p>I think there might be preps at Hampshire when Amherst kids are taking classes there as part of the consortium.
But we certainly didn’t see any when we were there.</p>