Shagadelic at St. Andrews & “Twisted Preppy” at Hilfiger?

Hello-Hello, it is a bright and beautiful day here at the Prepatorium, we hope it is equally gorgeous at your palace.

Today we have a bit of Friday fun, we find ourselves quite incapable of resisting the urge to post this image.

AP

It shrieks “caption contest” doesn’t it? The picture features several attendee at this week’s Champions Dinner preceding the British Open.  John Daly’s choice of attire for the function has generated some conversation. (Mr. Daly is the individual in the center of the back row between last year’s winner, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods.) The look on Mr. Woods’ face is priceless.

Mr. Daly is wearing a brand that we have chatted about previously here at the Princess, Loudmouth Golf. (Our most in-depth treatment of the topic is probably contained in the When Argyle Goes Wrong post.) Below we see the golfer at St. Andrews in today’s print, a pink and green paisley; yesterday he sported a purple, lavender and chartreuse combination.

A better look at today’s print. Quintessential Daly, taking the Go to Hell pant to an entirely new level.

While grazing on the Loudmouth site we located the jacket Mr. Daly wore to the Champions dinner; behold the Shagadelic, described as one of the company’s new “Apres Golf Drinking Jackets”. If that seems a trifle overbearing, how about the Hamptons sport coat?

Not distinctive enough for  your MOTH (Man of the House)? You were thinking of something more in the argyle or plaid family?

Ladies, if seeking your own Loudmouth look, fear not. Here are some of the choices available, including such style staples as houndstooth and argyle. (Ahem.)

Here is the Shagadelic for women in both a black pant and a white Skort.

We rather fancy a few of the Loudmouth skort styles, they are not all that removed from many currently seen on the course. Many others however, require the Nancy Reagan response: Just Say No.

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Our other item of note today, the unveiling of the Hilfiger family.

Courtesy Tommy HIlfiger via StyleList

Above we show one of several print ads from this fall’s Tommy Hilfiger ad campaign; the fictional Hilfiger family is the focus of a new creative direction.  As described in this WWD story:

“There’s a father and mother (often with a Bloody Mary in hand); several children, including a son who was kicked out of boarding school, a daughter who doesn’t speak and a Portuguese foreign exchange student who never left; two basset hounds, and a station wagon.”

The campaign is supposed to be highly interactive.

Courtesy Image via WWD

Several ‘family members’ will have Facebook and Twitter pages, and one can ‘meet the family’ online at tommy.com. Hopefully this Tommy Hilfiger Facebook post is not indicative of the firm’s skillset on that site.

The post links to the same WWD story we reference above, unfortunately it is only viewable to those who subscribe to Women’s Wear Daily; perhaps a previous arrangement allowing the story to be shared with fans in some other form might have been prudent.

At any rate, in many ways the creative direction makes sense, imbuing a touch of whimsy that has previously been lacking for the company. We have long felt that Mr. Hilfiger took the brand too seriously; this dose of lightheartedness may be a wise strategy.  Here is a quote from Mr. Hilfiger about the upcoming ads:

““This is the first campaign to truly capture the brand’s 25-year heritage of twisted, preppy American sportswear.””

As for that direction and tone, here is part of Styleite’s story on the campaign:

“Words we would used to describe Hilfiger , as a brand: All-American. Classic. Sporty. Preppy. Words we wouldn’t: Twisted.

“We’re not sure how interestingly dysfunctional the family is, so much as it suffers from a particular brand of rich quirkiness that can get tiresome if not handled lightly enough. Think NYC Prep versus Gossip Girl.”

Two more images from the upcoming campaign.

There will also be special “Ultimate Preppy Tailgating” Pandora (online radio) stations and other supporting elements. We do like the way the family’s matriarch, Lea Hilfiger, is described:

““Met [husband] Bernard on a trip to France after Wellesley. Always well-hydrated, yet somehow usually exhausted. Quarterly Canyon Ranch jaunts are a must.”

Courtesy Image via WWD

You won’t be able to miss the ads in the fall fashion magazines, there are 10-page inserts for Vogue, GQ and many others.

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Finally, a quick look at today’s VSL(Very Short List), indispensable for anyone needing to sending a ransom note.

Click here to visit RansomSytes.org and create your own note.

ADDITIONAL PHOTO CREDITS:

• Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
• Jon Super/AP

Weird, Wonderful & Wacky: the Top 15 Searches at The Princess

Hello-Hello, happy Tuesday!

We are blessed with a gorgeous day here at the Prepatorium and hope you are enjoying the same wherever you may be.

In yesterday’s post about making it (miraculously) to the million mark in blog viewers we promised to share the highest ranking search engine terms.  We’re going to share the Top 15, doing most of the list in a visual way and in reverse order.

We will start with the 15th and 14th most searched terms as they are so similar: Number 15 is “preppy blog” and Number 14 is “preppy style”, both equally difficult to describe with just one image.  The best we can do is share the brief back story on an ancient item of clothing, a basic turtleneck we purchased ‘back in the day’ when Abercrombie & Fitch stood for something worthwhile. When its name was Abercrombie and Fitch Country Clothiers. When the most one would see of a logo on anything carrying the brand’s name was this. Below left, the inside of said turtleneck and below right, the external tag at the hem of this piece of perfection.

For those interested in more on the topic (at least from our very early archives), we discussed the topic in Those Abercrombie Abs…Part One and Part Two, also probably the earliest mentions about our horrific case of LogoPhobia.  (Of course we still wear the turtleneck, it is in perfectly good condition!)

Number 13 is perhaps better explained by a map.

Fodor's

(The Hamptons.)

At Number 12,  a brand that once shone brightly in our little corner of the globe.

Lacoste

Number 11 covers a topic sadly featured in many posts, we’ll go with an image from The Snuggie at Fashion Week last fall.

PHOTO: Jason DeCrow/AP

Number 10: This individual is mentioned in multiple posts, but here (more than 2 years ago) we officially confer Anti Prep status upon her. And yes, we are aware the young woman has undergone some significant image rehabilitation, but official Anti-Prep membership carries lifetime status.

(Kim Kardashian, famous for being Kim Kardashian.)

Number 9 comes to us from TSU (The Spousal Unit, aka TC), in his post titled The Consort’s Version of Cash for Clunkers, or Carpe Auto:

Yugo? No go.

This one came as a surprise to us, here is Number 8:

Via Two Barking Dogs

The search is just one word, “fireworks”, not a term we would associate with the Princess blog, this oddity addles our little brain.

Very similar to Numbers 15 and 14, at Number 7 we have “preppy” and rather than search for one comprehensive or spectacularly preppish photo we shall take the wimp’s way out and simply show the full image from whence we found our avatar.

PHOTO: TQM

It would seem our affection for madras is deeply rooted.

Number 6:

Courtesy Bravo TV

This image may be one of the least familiar to our readers, it is the cast of NYC Prep, the one-season wonder chronicling the lives of ‘real prep school students’. Ahem.

Number 5 (from multiple posts on a Princess favorite, Goyard):

Courtesy Goyard

Number 4 (from multiple posts):

Kris Connor/Getty

Number 3 from Why There is no Preppy Princess Post Today:

The actual search term is iPhone, again – utterly baffling. Why on earth would anyone come here for that topic?

Coming in at Number 2:

Andrew Eccles/The CW Network

(Actor Chace Crawford in a publicity still from the inaugural season of Gossip Girl.)

And now (drum roll please) we share Number 1:

Andres Eccles/The CW Network

Our Number 1 most searched term also hails from the cast of Gossip Girl: Blake Lively.

As of this writing 19,538 searches for Blake Lively have brought people to the blog. Is anyone else troubled by this fact? Especially when we confess to never having seen a full episode of G2?

With that, we must solicit your thoughts: did any of these surprise you?

Was Mad Men Enough? Also, is NYC Prep Better Than Gossip Girl?

Hello-Hello on this Tuesday morning!

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We are still catching up from our little weekend getaway to a family wedding.  We had the most fun, seeing relatives and visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time. The wedding and reception were just delightful, the latter held in the The Terrace Club at Progressive Field, home to the Cleveland Indians. The best moment had to be the newlyweds going to home plate for photos, it was all wonderful fun, a lovely party and celebration.

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We begin by thanking the fabulous Park Avenue Princess for her generosity in bestowing upon us the Sparkles Award! To quote from her post:

“The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring blogs.”

Here are the stipulations accompanying the Award:

• Put the logo on your blog/post.
• Nominate & link up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
• Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
• Remember to link to the person from whom you received your Splash Award.

And this award goes to the following…

Five Tomatoes

Lipstick at the Mailbox

Little Bow Prep

Mindless Musings

Puppy Love by Erin

Queen Bee Swain

Sweet Tea in Seattle

The Pink Tutu

Three for Tippy

(Ladies, we understand if you are crazy busy with the summer wrapping up, school and other obligations getting underway, we merely want to let you know how highly we think of you! If there’s no time to post about or pass on the award, not to worry!)

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Again, we send our gratitude to Miss Park Avenue Princess for including us!

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We have a few tidbits related to the comings and goings of certain television programs, starting with this look at the season finale of NYC Prep. The piece ran on the LA Times Show Tracker blog and in addition to asking readers if they want to see a NYC Prep Season 2, writer Enid Portuguez offers the following:

“It’s yet to be seen whether “NYC Prep” will get another season to prove itself. If it does, we’ll get treated to more of Sebastian’s hair flips, Kelli’s eye rolls and, hopefully, a set of new and improved prepsters. If not, we’ll just have to observe the Upper East Side through the eyes of “Gossip Girl,” which is completely fine with me.”

The story is essentially a synopsis of the show’s final episode in case anyone missed (that’s a liberal use of the word) it.

Also talking about the show, Newsweek’s Pop Vox blog with a post entitled “7 Reasons NYC Prep Tops Gossip Girl“.  Speaking from the perspective of one who has seen not a frame of NYC Prep, and less than 20 minutes of G2, it is an interesting post:

“… NYC Prep actually trumps its scripted predecessor, Gossip Girl, in terms of quality guilty-viewing pleasure. Despite its flagging ratings, the series is actually more entertaining than the show from which it was born.”

One reason we love the piece? Because the writing peaks well into the red zone on TP’s Snark-O-Meter. Here is a sample:

“Reason #5: That entitled cadence. You can give an actor all the speech lessons you want, but there’s just no aping the actual singsong, privileged speech patterns of the Upper East Side native.”

There you have it.

As far as Gossip Girl goes, People (and a host of others) is posting some details about the upcoming season’s plot lines.

SPOILER ALERT CAUTION SPOILER ALERT

Giovanni Rufino/THE CW via People

(Before proceeding, we must say the photo above makes us think of a giant ice cream cone piled high with different flavors of sherbet, it is simply yumalicious.)

Back to People’s story, the magazine interviewed the show’s producer about what fans can anticipate this season:

“”Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) are definitely going to be a couple and stay a couple this season…”

“We have our big Polo match in the first episode, we go to Sotheby’s for an auction in the third episode and in the fourth episode, we have a big movie premiere at Ziegfeld (Theater),”

For TP the most intriguing G2 item on the People site had nothing to do with the approaching season, for more of that information click here.  Rather, it is this photo of Mr. Westwick from the mid-1990s, part of the magazine’s bio on the actor. (Note the argyle.)

Courtesy People.com

Additionally, Ms. Meester has taped a version of the Broadway classic “Tonight” from “West Side Story,” it is part of a promotional campaign for the upcoming MTV VMAs

Courtesy MTV

We think the young star looks stunning.

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And then there was Mad Men on Sunday night. We enjoyed it immensely here at the Prepatorium, and it appears we were were not alone: the show drew record ratings with 2.8 million viewers. Those are more-than-significant numbers for a ‘cable show’ as some still refer to original programs on the “smaller networks”.

Courtesy Vanity Fair

All day Sunday (which started in Cleveland and ended back here at Princess InterGalactic HQ) the two of us were uncharacteristically neurotic concerned about somehow forgetting to watch the program, going so far as to set an alarm. What a relief yesterday to learn a friend experienced the same anxiety!

As for the show itself, it was one of the more cerebral episodes, delving into some psychological areas not frequently visited on other popular television shows.  It seemed a little racier than we remember Seasons 1 and 2 being, but that could simply be our tendency to ‘enhance’ history for those things we look upon with affection. Or it might have been more liberal use of vulgarities, we really cannot say.

Once again we cite the Newsweek Vox Populi blog for their review of the show in Mad Men: Was it Worth the Wait?

“But in terms of forward momentum, this was only a slight improvement from last season’s opener. Some viewers are bound to become exasperated and move on. I, however, won’t be among them. I’ll be the first to admit that the glacial pace wears on me at times, but there’s also something charming in the way Mad Men demands that you let its story unfurl at its own pace. It’s television as an old-fashioned courtship: true love waits.”

We do have one question for readers who watched: were we the only person on the Preppy Planet hopeful, despite fully knowing better, that Don’s philandering ways might end, if only temporarily while Betty is in her last trimester?

Sigh. Silly Princess.

We are back again tomorrow, hoping your today is fabulous!

A Gossip Girl in the Hamptons

Hello-Hello everyone, happy Tuesday!

We made a snap decision yesterday to play Blog Hooky, in part because it was the Consort’s Birthday.  Who can resist spending the day with someone whose Mad Men avatar is this cool?

We can hardly believe it is less than two weeks until the show returns! We are loving the crazy popularity the avatars are enjoying, they have definitely invaded Planet Twitter! (If you would like to make your own 60’s era look, just sashay on over to the Mad Men Yourself page and make some trouble!)

It was a busy weekend in Water Mill (the Hamptons) with the Annual Super Saturday Sale at Nova’s Ark Project – think giant designer rummage sale with a carnival and other activities and you kind of get the picture. The event is a fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, this weekend marked the Sale’s 12th year.

PHOTO: Matthew Peyton/Getty for QVC

Hosts included Kelly Ripa, Donna Karan, Ariel Foxman of InStyle magazine, and Gossip Girl star Blake Lively. Mr. Foxman can be seen with Ms. Lively in the photo above.  Below, Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelo.

PHOTO: Matthew Peyton/Getty Images for QVC

Also on hand, two outstanding designers, Charlotte Ronson and Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss.

PHOTO: Steve Eichner/WWD

Below we see Ms. Lively with another Gossip Girl actress, Kelly Rutherford.

In other G2 news, there is word that Tyra Banks will appear in an upcoming episode; the host of America’s Next Top Model will play an actress.  And one last tidbit, another star from the show, Chace Crawford; he tells Glamour UK that he is already training for his big role in the remake of Footloose.

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On a slightly related note, the Observer carried an interesting column: “Why Is No One Watching NYC Prep?”  Ratings are worse than we realized:

“According to Nielson, the episode that aired on July 21, only had 751, 000 viewers.

To compare to other prime-time shows that same night—Hawthorne, the new TNT show with Jada Pinkett Smith, had 3.2 million viewers… and the most watched show was The Deadliest Catch, a documentary series about fishing boats, which had 3.4 million viewers.

…Gossip Girl, perhaps the closest in the genre, had an average viewership of 2.59 million in its first season, which was considered low.”

Well. This doesn’t sound promising. Darn. (Ooooh, snarky Princess!)

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We have many little retail tidbits to share, starting with the FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) in another Talbots dress, this time on Saturday while in Norfolk. Mrs. Obama was there to speak to returning sailors aboard the USS Eisenhower, as well as the US Comfort battle group.

PHOTO: Steve Helber/AP

The First Lady wore Talbots’ Swirl Cotton Dress, available in the color seen above, as well as this:

Talbots

The dress is quite the bargain, now selling at $39.99 as opposed to its original price of $139.

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We simply must ask if anyone has yet confronted one of the hideous “Christmas in July displays or promotions?  We were reminded of the phenomenon by a story in the WSJ Friday, “Twas 147 Shopping Days Until Christmas”

“America’s retailers are responding to the recession with Christmas in July. A number of retailers and toy makers launched Christmas sales and promotions this month…”

The story talks about Sears, as well as one of its divisions, KMart:

“…two retailers have invited shoppers to take a stroll down “Christmas Lane,” anchored by a “Holiday Décor Shoppe” and “Gift Shoppe,” while snowflakes drift over the scene and holiday music plays in the background. Customers are awarded free shipping if they pile up a tab of at least $60 on items ranging from holiday decorations to snowblowers.”

What are your thoughts?

We are blasting out the door with The Consort for a day at the museum, an exhibit called Cars and Guitars. That’s all he wanted for the big birthday, this exhibit and homemade brownies, how easy is that? TP is the luckiest Princess on the Planet, to be sure. Sigh.

Mad Men Yourself, “Parodies of Preppiness”?

Hello-Hello,

For those readers of a…umm…well, readers of a ‘certain age,’ we must share yesterday’s “Where did TP’s brain go?” episode: after launching into a silly flurry of activity to make it to our afternoon volunteer shift at the local Senior Center, what do we learn? We learn (again) that putting things *in* the calendar is really very effective at warding off those occasions when one shows up for a shift that is scheduled for the following week. It also helps prevent the special looks one receives from the other volunteers.

Indeed.

But since we are chatting calendars again, we must share the newest addition to our Preppy Calendars category at the Princess, our desktop In Good Company Calendar for next year.

This is a desktop calendar, and the twelve oh-so-preptastic months fit right into the acrylic case that doubles as an easel.

Upon learning we could offer this to Princess customers for only $14 we put it on the “must-have” list for our little store.

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Next, we wanted to share a fascinating column from the Boston Herald, one we think readers will find more-than-intriguing. The piece is titled “Let Me School You About Preppies,” it is by writer Sam Allis.

It begins condemning a show we have blathered on about ad nauseam mention here occasionally, NYC Prep.

““NYC Prep,’’ the ludicrous reality show about spoiled rich kids, most of whom attend Upper East Side private schools.

The show has nothing to do with preppies. Real preppies would have nothing to do with it. They’d be laughed out of New Canaan…”

Mr. Allis makes the point about the origins of the word “preppy” in prep schools, somethings Princess readers are well aware of, but he then raises a topic we once heard debated with a ferocity that seemed just inane:

“And prep schools are, in the cultural sense I’m talking about, boarding schools – not country day or Upper East Side privates.

It was on boarding school campuses that true preppies were spawned. The petri dish in which the culture was created and perpetuated was the prep school dormitory.”

We are in the camp that believes one is not required to be at boarding school to be immersed in what we would refer to as a basic preppy culture, one need only be attending certain schools. The entire topic reeks of a “I’m preppier than you are” sort of argument, a topic not even worthy of conversation IOHO.

Naturally the story contains the standard references about current definitions of ‘preppy style,’ appropriately referring to it as “classic, conservative men’s clothes.”  That breaks no new ground.

But then things take a bit of a negative turn when discussing specific retailers:

“The reigning king of preppy wistfulness remains Ralph Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, who has created the ultimate illusionary preppy world. His efforts are nothing if not about a yearning for a past he never knew.”

“His threads are beautiful, in contrast to parvenus like Vineyard Vines, an upstart that makes clothes for men and women that are parodies of preppiness. J.Crew still answers the bell because it sells smart preppy knockoffs.

We’ll share the following and then move on, encouraging readers to look at the actual column personally, that ensures a far better experience than our efforts at paraphrasing it.

“Every once in awhile, marketers will try to sell patch madras or seersucker again. What they’re selling is the past. No one drinks gin and bitters anymore, but who cares?”

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We close with something we stumbled on to via Twitter yesterday that is likely to hold appeal for our fellow Mad Men fans. Remember the Elf Yourself fun every year around Christmas? (No, that isn’t TP, or even anyone we know.)

Well, true aficionados can now make their very own Mad Men avatars!

Courtesy amc-tv

Oh, of course we made our very own:

We hope we can convince the Consort to make one for himself.

Until next time, g’bye!