A Brit Goes Prep on the Upper East Side & West Coast Preppies

Hello-Hello, and Happy Tuesday!

Today we ponder: is it time to create a new post category, something along the lines of “Preppy is Back“? Perhaps so, especially in light of this fall’s release of True Prep, the sequel to TOPH (The Original Preppy Handbook), an event adding to the topic’s popularity. (For more on the September release of True Prep click here or here; to learn about the fashion and accessories brands making an appearance in the upcoming book, click here.)

We begin with a little something from the far side of the pond in today’s London Times: “Slacks and the City: Trying out the Preppy Lifestyle“. Here is the subhead:

“As a new handbook marks a resurgence of the preppy lifestyle, our man in New York tries adopting the clean-cut collegiate look”

Tim Teeman’s story offers his British audience this description of male and female preppies:

“A truly preppy male works in finance or the law, wears polo shirts, nautical clothing, seersucker suits and Croakies (fashionable straps to keep your sunglasses on) and hangs out in frat-style drinking houses that preppies call “Irish bars”. The female works in or adjacent to charities, design, fashion or the arts, also wears nautical clothing, dons fitted pale pink rugby shirts with neat jacket, jeans and pumps, and holds Charlotte from Sex and the City as her icon.”

The writer undergoes a preppish style transformation. Two photos accompany the piece, along the lines of “before prep” and “after prep”.

As far as what Mr. Teeman dons to acquire his new look, we’ll only say it involves J. Press and J. Crew; we recommend reading the story in full for all of the wardrobe details. We did love the way he described reactions to his new look:

“New Yorkers are not fazed by challenging fashion but the glances on the subway are definitely pitying, at worst hostile. Once I’m on the Upper East Side things should improve but they don’t, because my preppiness is already fraying.”

We very much enjoyed this one.

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Another preppy feature in a mainstream media outlet comes via Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.

Mark Boster & Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

The paper featured a delightful piece by Adam Tschorn, one of TP’s favorite writers. “A field guide to L.A. preppies” is a wonderful read, here is a snippet:

“When “The Official Preppy Handbook” was published in 1980, it didn’t just give the West Coast the short end of the lacrosse stick, it practically smacked the City of Angels upside the head with the milky white sole of a Sperry Top-Sider.”

There’s a visual for you – Muffy Martini’s ancestors raging through the streets brandishing their lax sticks and headbands at the offenders. The horror.

Mr. Tschorn’s story mentions several lesser-known brands discussed in this space, including Band of Outsiders (although we have been more prone to chatting up the Boy by Band of Outsiders line, the women’s arm of the company), and Trovata, along with more well-known lines like Polo Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers.

Per usual, Mr. Tschorn does another stellar job with his topic, the link is well worth a visit.

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We want to say ‘thank you’ to our friend Skip over at the Alexander Grant blog; as part of a series of posts he asked us to come up with style ideas for his real life Preppy Princess.

We were only too happy to waste take a little time to endlessly graze oodles of fun websites to studiously dedicate ourselves to this cause. Indeed.

With that, goodbye until next time!