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Congratulations to the newborn Preppy Pr
Congratulations to the newborn Preppy Princess! What do you think Her Royal Highness’s name will be?
#RoyalBaby #PreppyPrincess
Filed under preppy
Friday Fun with a Nautical Slant
Hello-Hello, welcome to an almost-weekend here at The Prepatorium. It’s Friday, the monsoon seems to have finally abated: we actually have sun shining and it’s just plain gorgeous. It seems like a good time for some Friday Fun with a nautical slant, we begin with some amazing cakes.
Fat Girl Cakes / My 1950s Wedding
The next come via Alana Scully Photography/Style Me Pretty (L) and Arte de Ka Cakes (R).
Alana Scully Photography via Style Me Pretty/Arte de Ka Cakes
Here we see a trio of nautically inclined cakes via Bird’s Party Blog.
Bird’s Party Blog
This one is by Miso Cakes, the photo comes via The Cake Blog.
Miso Cakes via The Cake Blog
I like the Nautical Stripes Charm Bracelet from C. Wonder, and the Blue Nautical Stripe shoes by Zara are cute.
C. Wonder/Zara
More jewelry, Betsey Johnson’s Nautical Theme Necklace,on the left, the Nautical Knot Bracelet is by Madewell.
Betsey Johnson/Madewell
Other jewelry options include the Urban Outfitters Earrings or our Needlepoint Anchors Bracelet.
Urban Outfitters/The Preppy Princess
When it comes to apparel there’s no shortage of items at J. Crew, like the Anchor Tee Shirt and the Linen Pocket Anchor Tee.
J. Crew
Equipment’s Whirlpool Anchors silk shirt is on the left, on the right we show the Moschino Cheap & Chic Anchor Heart T-Shirt.
Equipment/Moschino
For your MOTH (Man Of The House) perhaps the Shanghai Anchor Smoking Slippers or J. Crew’s Lightweight Pattern Socks?
Saks 5th Avenue/J. Crew
For the wee Prince, a few styles from Danish brand ej sikke lej, the Sailboat Owl or Sailor Dog tees.
ej sikke lej
From the same shop, your very young Princess In Training may enjoy the onesie, if a bit older the tee could work.
ej sikke lej
Ralph Lauren offers some darling onesies: a vintage print, along with an embroidered navy style.
Ralph Lauren via Saks
One of my all-time favorite infant items: the needlepoint Baby Booties from By Paige.
By Paige
By Paige also has footwear for grown-up girls.
By Paige
But perhaps my favorite nautically influenced shoes come from J. Crew, the Bow Pumps in Ratti Regatta.
J. Crew Collection
They’re not terribly practical they are so distinctive, once worn they are not easily forgotten. But they are darling. Perhaps one would get more bang for their buck by using their pin money for these. The yummy-looking sailboats on the left are by Pink Martinis and Pearls, the collection on the right was shared on The Cake Blog.
Pink Martinis & Pearls/The Cake Blog
Our final item is something new to the Princess, the Reilly tote from Crabberrie Bags, featuring a vintage boat on the water.
‘Reilly’ Tote at PreppyPrincess.com
We hope you enjoy a splendid weekend, be it on land or at sea.
Storied Seersucker Brand to ReLaunch & Will Seersucker Thursday Ever Return?
Good news for a brand we have long loved, Haspel.
Haspel
Haspel clothing has not been manufactured for some time, the brand is being re-launched next spring. For years it was a “go to” for lightweight menswear and other tailored garments, especially seersucker. A bit of history from a 2011 Neiman Marcus blog post about the brand.
Haspel, founded in New Orleans in 1909 and later credited with making seersucker popular in America, is newly compelling right now as young men take a new interest in sartorial tradition—and as temperatures are rising.
Unfortunately, the company’s fortunes changed within months of that Neiman Marcus blog post. More about Haspel’s storied lineage: suits worn by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird? By Haspel.
Via Kaufmann Mercantile
This Navy working uniform: by Haspel.
Kaufmann Mercantile
Presidents Truman and Franklin Delano Roosevelt wore Haspel suits. A closer look at the textile.
Kaufmann Mercantile
Now the Haspel brand is being rejuvenated, more from Women’s Wear Daily (subscription required):
After a year’s hiatus, the venerable men’s wear brand, which got its start in 1909, will be relaunched for spring. It is being produced in-house by descendants of founder Joseph Haspel, who have brought CFDA-winning designers Jeff Halmos and Sam Shipley of the brand Shipley & Halmos on board to design the collection.
When going to the company’s website, this is what you now see.
Haspel.com
My favorite part of the graphic? “Haspel days are here again.” Although “tailored in the USA” is also good to see, especially when a company has Haspel’s heritage.
A Haspel family member remains with the company for its next chapter; WWD’s story quotes the founder’s great-granddaughter, Laurie Haspel Aronson:
The new Haspel offering will be targeted to a younger customer, have a “modern classic” sensibility and be targeted to better department and specialty stores. “The emphasis will be on sportswear, clothing and accessories that have references to our past but with more modern fits,” she said. It will be priced just under designer collections and will include suits at $795 to $1,200; jackets for $695 to $995; shirts for $175 to $225; ties for $95, and chinos for $195 to $295.
Below, a madras coat by the company, circa 2011.
Haspel, via Neiman Marcus Blog
It is delightful to see the brand coming back to life. Our only wish for the future? Adding womenswear to the mix.
Our next story also involves seersucker, and the tradition that used to be known as Seersucker Thursday. First, a spot of background from the US Senate:
In the years before air conditioning made summertime Washington bearable, senators from the South had much to teach their colleagues from other regions about proper attire.
In the late 1990s, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott decided the time had come to revive a long-forgotten Senate sartorial tradition. He selected a “nice and warm” day in the second or third week of June to be designated Seersucker Thursday. His goal was to show that “the Senate isn’t just a bunch of dour folks wearing dark suits and—in the case of men—red or blue ties.” On the day before each year’s event, senators are alerted to the impending “wearing of the seersucker.”
Below, a group photo from Seersucker Thursday 2006.
US Senate Website
Back to the US Senate page:
In 2004, California Senator Dianne Feinstein decided to encourage participation by the growing cadre of the Senate’s women members. “I would watch the men preening in the Senate,” she said, “and I figured we should give them a little bit of a horse race.”
Below, a candid from Seersucker Thursday 2011, via The Caucus blog.
The NY Times ‘The Caucus’
We say the tradition “used to be known” because last year the event (if it can be called that) was discontinued. More from last year’s column on the topic by Dana Milbank at the Post, titled The Seersucker Bond Unraveled:
This is a yarn about a cloth, and what this cloth’s unraveling means to the fabric of our political lives.
Seersucker Thursday would have been on June 21, but on the evening before, the Senate cloakroom’s staff notified members that the custom was being discontinued. Lott’s former colleagues thought it would be politically unwise to be seen doing something frivolous when there’s so much conflict over major issues.
There was even an online petition to bring back the tradition. Sadly, it didn’t garner many signatures.
The Washington Post blog The Reliable Source reported last week that at least one Senator wore seersucker this year on what would have been Seersucker Thursday (last week on the 20th); below you see Senator Roger Wicker (R) of Mississippi.
C-SPAN via The Washington Post
Back to the Dana Milbanks column of 2012:
But those who canceled Seersucker Thursday have got it exactly backward: Our leaders can’t agree on important things because they’re missing this kind of social lubricant.
There was this from Guest of a Guest‘s Kyle O’Donnell:
What this nation needs is a government organization to step out in their summer best with pride. Don those boat shoes! Whip out that madras! For the stability of this nation, put on that Lilly dress! We can only serve our people if we look good!
LONG LIVE SEERSUCKER!
(Nothing like a little satire.) Much as I would love to see it revived, I think the custom may be gone.
On an up note, the folks at Nebraska’s State Legislature did their own version of Seersucker Thursday.
…on Thursday there was an effort to hold a “seersucker day” at the State Capitol. Some sort of U.S. Senate tradition with a Midwest twist. Some pretty crazy get-ups from senators and lobbyists.
The State Line
Via The State Line, Nebraska State Legislature.
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For the Mad Men fans among us, we leave you with this.
Jamie Trueblood/AMC
And this.
Jamie Trueblood/AMC
Filed under preppy
How The Palace Will Share the News A Royal Baby Has Been Born
Hello-Hello, today we have some Friday Fun, delving into the details of the impending Royal Birth.
Courtesy Princess Cruise Lines
Many readers are aware a certain Duchess is expecting a baby, said to be due in mid-July. (Yours truly thinks it might be a bit earlier than that.) Above and below we see Kate on June 13, she was officially christening the new Royal Princess cruise ship.
Courtesy Princess Cruises
This week the Palace shared some information about how news of Kate going into labor and the birth will be released. And it won’t be on Twitter. More from the Daily Mail:
Although both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House have their own Twitter accounts on which details of royal events are frequently now broken, it will most definitely not be the preferred medium to announce the new royal baby.
Instead a formal notice on a piece of creamy A4 size Buckingham Palace-headed paper, signed by the medical staff who have assisted the Duchess, will be brought out of the Lindo’s front entrance by a press officer.
It will then be handed to a waiting driver and driven through the streets of London – escorted by police outriders – to the Privy Purse Door at the front of Buckingham Palace.
Sadly, I must report we do not have a Privy Purse Door here at The Prepatorium. Ahem.
The notice is then placed on an easel.
Via Global News Canada
It will be the same easel used to announce Prince William’s birth. Coincidentally, the Prince’s birthday is today, it was 31 years ago Princess Diana gave birth to him. Remember this?
Via Digital Spy
Kate will deliver the baby in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, the same place where Diana had Princes William and Harry.
The Daily Mail
Back to details on how the news will be shared with the world, from the Daily Mail.
‘We wanted to retain some of the theatre of the notice. It is quite important to us that this is done properly and with the degree of dignity that the event demands. This is the birth of a child who will be in line to the throne. It is a rare occasion and it is nice to be able to do it with some historical precedence,’ a Palace spokesman said.
‘It is very important [to us] that it will not be announced first on Twitter, although it will be announced on Twitter in due course.’
It can’t be easy. Being an expectant mother has to be hard enough without all of the added pressure of carrying a child who will be third in line to the Throne. Below you see media outside the hospital earlier this week, in a photo shared by Paul Harrison of Sky News.
Paul Harrison/Sky News Twitter Feed
Kate has done an admirable job coping with a pregnancy monitored by the media and followed throughout the world.
Courtesy of Sarah Campbell
Above we see the Duchess leaving a church service at Westminster Abbey last week, with thanks to Sarah Campbell for kindly sharing her photos. The Palace will even alert the media shortly after Kate is admitted to the hospital, an unusual move.
While palace aides are keen to retain Kate’s ‘dignity’ as a woman in labour, they acknowledge the fact that social media such as Twitter will make it almost impossible to keep her admittance a secret unless she is smuggled in.
‘While it is a deeply personal and private event, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge realise this is a time of national celebration and that there will be vast interest in the baby. They realise many people will want to share in their happiness,’ a spokesman said.
And when will the baby be seen for the first time by those outside the hospital? From People magazine:
The first time the baby will be seen publicly will be when the happy couple pose for pictures on the steps of the hospital in west London. It’s possible that they will also be able to say the name, but that could also follow in a few days. William’s name was released several days post-hospital and Harry’s was revealed as his family left St. Mary’s.
The plans are certainly indicative of social media’s impact, as well as the lightning-fast with which information moves around the world. Another view of Kate in quasi-maternity wear, this one from late April during a visit to Naomi House, a children’s hospice.
Naomi House & jack’s place Facebook Page
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised someone has come up with a “Royal Easel” Twitter account.
The Royal Easel Twitter
Until next time, may everyone enjoy a splendid weekend!
