What does "preppy" mean to you?

johnwesley
Fri, 26 May 2006 08:43:55 +0000

well, if you’re going to conflate prep with the whole idea of attending classes in formal attire, I might go for that. But, a hundred years ago women were still wearing billowing skirts that reached their ankles. And you could forget about wearing flip flops to class or that raggedy golfing shirt; that would have been as unthinkable as walking in with cleats.

A hundred years ago the only thing popping on a man’s neck was the single button which held the detachable collar he wore.

I would place the beginnings of what we call prep at The Jazz Era about twenty years later, coinciding with the invention of the less restrictive, more versatile women’s clothing. The supreme irony, GottaStayFlyy, is that the icons we most associate with that era, Coco Chanel, Hemingway, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald – were almost all socialists.