It’s That Time of Year!

Hello-Hello, and welcome to a new week.  We’re in an especially celebratory mood here at the Prepatorium because it’s our Annual “I’m No Fool” Sale, with the entire store 20% off!

That makes it a perfect time for early ordering of wedding and graduation gifts, our monogrammed iPad accessories from Clairebella are ideal gifts for the grad.

Clairebella at PreppyPrincess.com

Always great shower presents, Clairebella’s Personalized Cutting Boards and Melamine Platters, at 20% off these become a smart buy for the discerning gift-giver.

Clairebella at PreppyPrincess.com

As mentioned in Friday’s post, we’ve included our brand new Pink Pineapple jewelry collection in the sale, below we see the Nantucket Spout Whale Toggle bracelets and the Port Anchorage Anchor Toggle bracelet, both make a wonderful gift for the grad with nautical inclinations.

Pink Pineapple Jewelry at PreppyPrincess.com

Each is only $25.60 with the 20% discount; as always, we’ll gift box and wrap them for you at no additional charge, just let us know in the ‘comments’ section of the order form, we’re happy to do it!

Another stellar gift idea, personalized stationery. Our Preppy Ladybug designs are always popular, the Icon Flat Cards come twelve to a set, they are just $10 today!

Preppy Ladybug at PreppyPrincess.com

Other great buys today include our personalized Collegiate House and Garden Flags.

Collegiate House & Garden Flags at PreppyPrincess.com

Not to mention all of our Lilly Pulitzer, this spring’s new Melamine and Acrylic pieces are bright and beautiful.

Lilly Pulitzer Nice to See You & Luscious at PreppyPrincess.com

We’ve just added the snappy Jonathan Adler Ear Buds to our inventory, they’re cute as can be, $16 with today’s sale.

Jonathan Adler Ear Buds at PreppyPrincess.com

The soft silicone buds fit perfectly inside your ear, 6 ear bud tips are included, and best of all, the 46″ cord comes with a free cord keeper, for those of us a little, ahh, ‘ear bud challenged.’  They also match our Adler iPhone 4 cases, offering the opportunity for a coordinated look.

The “I’m No Fool Sale” also offers outstanding bargains on merchandise being discontinued that is *already* on sale, like our Jonathan Adler iPhone 3 Cases.

Jonathan Adler iPhone 3 Cases at PreppyPrincess.com

Originally $19.50, they are retailing for $15, with the additional discount the cases are only $12, a great price for a designer iPhone case!

Also a big bargain, the Scout Original Dean-O totes in solid pink, green and blue.

Scout Original Dean-O Tote at PreppyPrincess.com

Another bag we are closing out, the Gina Tote from Milano, a fab bag with a magnetic closure, 2 zippered pockets on the front, 1 zippered pocket on the back plus 2 more pockets inside, a big help for those of us who like to have things organized.

Gina Tote at PreppyPrincess.com

Originally the Totes were $29.50, but they’ve been marked down to $19.50, more than 35% off; with today’s additional savings they’re only $15.60.

Today’s goofy little post doesn’t even mention our goodies from Sloane Ranger, Lovie & Dodge, Boatman Geller, Sailor Bags or Kiel James Patrick, but they’re all included in the sale. Just use promo code APRILDEAL at checkout to receive your discount.

As always, we’re here to help if we can, don’t hesitate to give us a call, the toll-free line is 877-353-7737.

Preppy Style Cheat Sheet & “That Absurd War on the Color Pink”

Hello-Hello, and welcome to a Wednesday. We are brief today, business is usurping oodles of time, so we share only a few items.

Our first topic is a quick look at another preppy style guide, “Preppy Style Cheat Sheet,” is found in a recent post on the Washingtonian website.

When it comes to fashion, Washington has a serious case of split personality disorder. From the flannel-wearing hipsters in Columbia Heights to the slick suits on K Street, each neighborhood has its own look. And where would we be if we didn’t mention the pastel-wearing prepsters of Georgetown? With this style, there’s a fine line between fabulous and costumey—and no one walks it as impeccably as law students/platonic lifemates Lauren Wynns and Van Bloys, the duo behind the fashion and lifestyle blog Necessary & Proper.

Below, Mr. Bloys and Ms. Wynns as seen in the story.

PHOTO: Katie Warren via The Washingtonian

Writer Sarah Zlotnick features input from the duo on a variety of topics, including their vision of the Top 5 Wardrobe Essentials.

For women: colored pants (denim or tailored silk), trench coat, a silk blouse (bonus points for one with an unusual neckline or pattern), an equestrian-inspired blazer, and a colorful shift dress.

For men: A navy blazer, Cordovan lace-ups, gray flannel trousers, an oxford shirt, and a cashmere V-neck sweater.

PHOTO: Katie Warren via The Washingtonian

The story also asked about “skills every prepster should master”:

Social grace. Write thank-you notes, buy hostess gifts, be cordial to everyone, and stay classy in the presence of those who are not. Bad manners and cattiness are so unbecoming.

Tying a bow tie. It’s like riding a bicycle. You’d never imagine how many men came into Ralph Lauren [Van used to work at the Georgetown store] on the night of a big event in a tux with an untied bow tie and asked a salesperson to tie it for them.

We couldn’t agree more on the need for proper social skills, and can also verify The Consort concurs on the merits of tying one’s own tie.

There is also a list of brands of up and coming brands, it is nice to see our friends Kiel & Sarah from KJP at the top of the list.

• Kiel James Patrick—whimsical, handmade accessories out of Rhode Island.
• Sasha Lickle Designs—Floridian-style jewelry inspired by sea life and the beach.
• Pierrepont Hicks—An American brand with beautiful ties and bow ties.
• Smathers & Branson—A Bethesda-based needlepoint belt company. You can even get a “life belt” custom made to match your personal interests.
• Hugh and Crye—This Georgetown-based shirtmaker has slim cuts and great patterns. And we love our native DC designers!

Click here to see the story in its entirety.

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Our second item involves a story from Scientific American, a publication not frequently referenced here at The Prepatorium (there’s a shock). Yet today we speak about a story posted on the magazine’s blog,  Stop This Absurd War on the Color Pink.  A great photo is near the top of the piece, prominently captioned “This Dog Does Not Exist”.

Scientific American: "This Dog Does Not Exist"

The story begins this way:

Last week Robert Krulwich, a co-host of the wonderful program Radiolab, Pluto’d pink. In a blog post he noted that pink doesn’t occupy a slot in the familiar colors of the rainbow—there’s no P in Roy G. Biv. From this, he concludes that pink does not really exist:

“That’s why pink is an invention. It’s not a name we give to something out there. Pink isn’t out there.”

Now, at the risk of sounding like an airhead, I confess much of the story was over my head.

Pink is real—or it is not—but it is just as real or not-real as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

On a more fundamental level, however, Krulwich is right. Pink is not out there, because no color is really “out there.”

Tilly doesn’t think it is ‘out there,’ Tilly finds it very real.

This Dog Is Really, Really Not Real

She may not be real, but still qualifies as our Pretty in Pink for the day.

Lilly’s Big Birthday Bash, Brooks Brothers New Digs

Today we share a look at Lilly Pulitzer’s 80th birthday bash, clearly the place to be this weekend for many of us who admire the iconic designer.

The event was at the Museum of Lifestyle and Fashion History, an ideal venue, the Museum has been featuring a special Lilly  exhibit.

Courtesy Life is Better with a Twist of Lime

As one would expect at such a festive occasion, there was an abundance of pink and green.

Via Southern Living Preppy Style

Here is how Lilly’s plate looked.

Courtesy Mary Lane

What does one have for dessert at a celebration like this?

Courtesy Southern Living Preppy Style

Our thanks to the always delightful Jennifer from Southern Living Preppy Style for sharing her lovely pictures, below we see her with the birthday girl.

Courtesy Southern Living Preppy Style

Mary Lane was chairwoman of the event, we see her looking ever-so-chic below left, and on the right…wait a minute, I know that guy! It’s the one and only Kiel James Patrick.

Courtesy Mary Lane (L) & Twist of Lime (R)

Fortunately Kiel’s better half friend Sarah Vickers was also at the party, we see her below (L) with Bethany of Maryland Pink and Green (C) and Wendy of Life is Better with a Twist of Lime, isn’t that a gorgeous group?

Courtesy Life is Better with a Twist of Lime

There was also a fashion show by a company that knows its Lilly, C. Orrico.

Courtesy Mary Lane

There were also vintage styles shown, yours truly actually owns the frock on the left.

Courtesy Mary Lane

The party was clearly an enormous success, our hats are off to those who organized the gala. We also want to thank Mary Lane and Wendy of a Twist of Lime for graciously sharing their photos!

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Our second topic today involves another storied prep brand, Brooks Brothers, the retailer opened its new Flatiron concept store this weekend.

Steve Eichner/Women's Wear Daily

More on the store’s different look from Women’s Wear Daily:

….represents a major departure for the retailer in terms of merchandising. While the entire apparel assortment is also found in the company’s traditional Brooks Brothers stores, it is brought together in a creative, playful way to attract its target customer: college students and young professionals.

The merchandise has an edgier appeal without detracting from the core brand.

Brooks Brothers Courtesy Photos

The company is wise to broaden its customer base, more on the tactic in this post on the concept store.

Steve Eichner/Women's Wear Daily

Speaking of Brooks, we wanted to share the latest celebrity to step out in the company’s formal wear.

Disney

That is one very dapper frog, it turns out he wears Brooks in his new movie that opens Thanksgiving.

Brooks Brothers Goes Ivy League & Why Those Slippers Need to Stay Home

Hello-Hello, welcome to a delightful Friday here at the Prepatorium, it has been a hectic week.

We begin today with news of another new endeavor for the folks at Brooks Brothers, they will be producing a line showcasing 15 colleges and universities.

Via Brooks Brothers

News about the new collection came late last week that the company will be offering products with the logos of fifteen different colleges and universities.  Here are examples of a few items you can expect to see, specially selected with TQM in mind, that Notre Dame logo seen lower right has a special place in her heart.

Via Brooks Brothers

There was quite the to-do initially, some thought the folks in New Haven were being left out. From the Yale Daily News:

“Preppies, have no fear: despite some rumors to the contrary, Yale will be included in the upcoming Brooks Brothers Collegiate Collection.

Several blogs picked up a Bloomberg story about an unannounced clothing line from Brooks Brothers that would feature fifteen colleges, including Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell. Yale was not featured in the article’s list of schools, but according to several sources, the University will be participating in the new collection, available August 15.

For the record, here is the list of schools.

• U.S. Naval Academy
• Alabama
• Auburn
• Boston College
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Georgetown
• Notre Dame
• NYU
• Ohio State
• Princeton
• Stanford
• Vanderbilt
• Univ of Virginia
• Yale

One FYI: in most blog posts and stories we have seen Harvard and/or Georgia included on lists of schools, here is the list shown on the Brooks website.

Brooks Brothers

Look carefully, for we do not seen either Harvard or Georgia on the rundown of schools currently included in the collection.

BTW, a new tie has been added to the Brooks collaboration with Social Primer; here is the Tennis Hall of Fame tie.

Social Primer for Brooks Brothers

As you can see from the photo, there are little white tennis rackets and a ball on the blue portion of the tie, it honors the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum in Newport, Rhode Island.

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Also today, a look at relatively new trend: wearing evening slippers out and about. You know the kind of footwear we’re talking about, basic velvet with one’s monogram.

Broadland Slippers

Or the family crest if appropriate.

Broadland

Designed for an evening of casual elegance at home (and a very limited group of other social occasions), evening slippers have been updated, as many readers are no doubt aware. Below left we shoe “Jardin” for women, on the right the men’s “Storm,” both from a shop we have been fond of for some time, Stubbs and Wootton.

The Journal recently carried a story about the new trend, “How Going Outside in Slippers Became Cool.”

“Velvet evening slippers à la Hugh Hefner have caught on with some young celebrities, fashion editors, publicists and other early adopters of men’s high fashion. But no one’s saving them for intimate evenings at home by the fire. Instead, men are hitting the streets in hard-soled, heeled slippers, using them to add an insouciant flavor to shorts, cropped pants, jeans and full suits.”

Really?

Ray Smith’s story was accompanied by a photo of Kanye West wearing the aforementioned slippers. With his jeans.

Getty Images via The Wall Street Journal

The slippers in one form or another have been around forever, but the wretched habit of wearing them out in public is recent.  Fortunately there is a voice of reason on the topic, prompting us to say, “We stand with Esquire on this.”  A headline from the magazine’s Style Blog:

A Trend We Can’t Support: The “Casual” Velvet Slipper

Hallelujah. From Kurt Soller’s blog post:

“If you read the Wall Street Journal this morning, you might be tempted to head over to Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren and snag yourself some velvet slippers before they’re sold out.  Please don’t do that.”

Mr. Soller provides solid reasoning as to why one should just say no.

“Prince Albert Slippers, as they’re officially known, or Hugh Hefner slippers, as the WSJ would have them known, are made of velvet for a reason: They’re meant only for formal occasions. And actually, at one point, they were intended to be worn only by the host of a party — in times gone by, people actually had formal events in their own homes. Today, if you wanted to be particularly dashing (or, in some circles: obnoxiously preppy), you could slip on a pair of these slippers right after you put on a tux. For this to work, you’d have to be headed somewhere nice for the evening — somewhere inside.

Very well put, we’ll leave it at that. (Except to say, click here to read Mr. Soller’s entire post on the topic.)

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We leave you with a bit of Friday Fun, we have been busy getting in new things here at Princess InterGalactic HQ. Like our Exclusive Kiel James Patrick Stede Bonnet Headband.

KJP Stede Bonnet Headband at Preppy Princess

With that we say goodbye until next time, if interested in the Kate and William visit to California starting tonight, we will be busy tracking those events at our sister blog, What Kate Wore.

May the weekend be fabulous!

The Consort On Bulldogs, Bracelets & Bags

Hello-hello, all.  The Consort gliding effortlessly mikeside to dazzle and baffle you while my lovely and talented bride tends to other obligations.  She’s throwing herself into a tizzy regarding Fashion Week and I’ve learned to keep a low profile during these… spells.  We have much to discuss today so let’s jump right in!

trunk o'bulls from Buddies Thru Bulldogs

You know our fondness for bulldogs here at the Prepatorium.  Tilly is a great joy and sometimes a challenge.  I can’t imagine what the good people at the “Buddies Thru Bulldogs” rescue group in south Florida must deal with on a daily basis.  The photo above was taken after an adoption event and it is one of my favorite bulldog shots ever.  Love those faces!

One of the challenges the group faces is vet care for the dogs.  As you can imagine, the bulls that end up at the shelter are often in pretty rugged shape.  Like Dozier.

Meet Dozier

Dozier had developed a growth on his left rear paw.  Surgery was needed.

Prepping For Surgery

Despite the great work by the surgical team the paw could not be saved.  The decision was made to take Dozier’s left hind leg to his hip.  Within hours after the surgery Dozier was standing on his own.

Dozier & The Doc

The recovery continued and a couple of days later Dozier ventured unaided outside.

Dozier On The Loose

This is a happy story.  Not all the stories end with smiles.  But through the laughter and the tears the good folks at “Buddies Thru Bulldogs” do the best they can to provide excellent care, good homes and tons of love to bulldogs who have been battered, surrendered or abandoned.  I have no affiliation with them at all other than I respect the work they, and all the pet rescue people, do every day.  Please support your local rescue groups; I’m certain they will appreciate your help.

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We just got off of the phone with one of our favorite people of all-time: Kiel James Patrick.  I’m always energized after talking with him because he’s exploding with creative ideas.  By now you’ve noticed Kiel’s bracelets featured in the new Tommy Hilfiger campaign.  Say what you will about Mr. Hilfiger, at least he has the good taste to accessorize with Kiel’s products.  We’ve been proud to carry Kiel’s bracelets, headbands and earrings at The Preppy Princess for some time now, he is good enough to design exclusive pieces for us, that is always a fun process.  Right now Kiel is in the city for Fashion Week, we can’t wait to hear what he comes up with next!

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I’m also feeling good about a relationship we’re growing with the folks at Sailor Bags.  Some of you might remember when The Princess mentioned meeting them in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago.  Their bags are TDF!  All their bags are made of supple and durable new sailcloth.  The designs, ranging from REAL BIG duffel bags to lunch sacks, are practical and hardworking.  They’re guaranteed for life and,  yes, they can be personalized.  They make great gifts for the boat people in your life, memorable prizes for your next regatta or just to bang around in the back of the car.  Beach season is just around the corner (I keep telling myself that!) so you’ll want to order your Sailor Bags today!

Enough of my wandering about… it’s time to strike fear into the hearts of the poor souls in the Shipping Department.  The Princess will be back tomorrow with more on NYFW and other goodies.  I’ll leave you with the reminder to take care of your waitperson because they’re working hard for you today.  Oh, one more thing… Let The Day Begin!