Iconic Prep Brand is Coming Home

Hello-hello, how wonderful to see Wednesday already, here at the Prepatorium the week is simply flying by.

We begin with a look at a once-iconic American brand, GANT.  For those not familiar with the company, Michael Williams at A Continuous Lean describes it succinctly:

“The name GANT is synonymous with East Coast prep.”

Below, two vintage ads show the company’s signature item, the GANT button-down.

Courtesy Gant

Some readers may recall the custom described in the Urban Daddy post below:

“Gant even invented the locker loop—that little coat-hook-friendly strip of fabric on the back of your shirt that your high school girlfriend cut off your lucky oxford to let all your classmates know you were taken, and maybe even going steady. (You kept the loop, just in case.)”

The company has been owned by a Swedish firm since 1999, there are 300 GANT stores all over the world and the company recently opened a GANT Rugger store (on Bleecker); Rugger targets a younger, sportier demo. Below, a look inside the new store.

GQ.com

Here is an image from the company’s UK site, better showing the line’s classic aesthetic.

Courtesy Gant

The good news? Designer Michael Bastian is doing a GANT line for women, in addition to the GANT menswear collection launching this fall.

John Aquino/WWD

The women’s line is being introduced to buyers at New York Fashion Week next month. WWD had an exclusive look at the group in this story, here are two more looks from the Spring 2011 collection.

We have known about the upcoming launch for some time, but hadn’t seen any pieces from the collection until the story ran in WWD.

“For his first outing, Bastian didn’t turn his back on Gant’s preppy Americana roots. Instead, the launch collection is preppy with a sexy attitude, from a seersucker dress with lace overlay — “I thought it had a good-girl/bad-girl dynamic” — to a cropped and boxy shirt that could have come straight from a boyfriend’s wardrobe…”

Also offering a look at the upcoming products, this story from The Cut.

Courtesy Photos via The Cut

In their interview with the designer, Mr. Bastian was asked about his favorite designers.

“The designer I always reference in my head is Perry Ellis, back when he was alive. People forget that at his peak, he was right up there with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Calvin was always the sexy one, Ralph was classic, and Perry slid down the middle — a little bit cleaner, simpler, but still luxurious. No one has stepped into those shoes.”

We tend to concur with that assessment.

The men’s line debuting this month carries traditional lines and prep-positive motifs.

David Rinella via GQ

The brand is gaining traction in the US, below we see Rachel Bilson in a GANT blazer, part of a photo spread in Page Six magazine.

Sheryl Nields for Page Six Magazine

We look forward to seeing the complete women’s line during Fashion Week. For an overview of GANT’s history and heritage, click here. To see Mr. Bastian’s runway collection from this spring’s Fashion Week, click here.

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A few other Bits and Bytes:

• Chanel is using FNO (Fashion’s Night Out, Sept. 10) to launch a collection of khaki nail polishes, seen below.  (With apologies to our Facebook Fans.)

Courtesy Images via Teen Vogue

• We have an early look at this year’s Bergdorf Goodman Christmas ornaments, including James the Doorman. (True confession: despite their rather commercial nature, we have collected several of these over the years from varying retail emporiums. Oh, the horror.)

Courtesy Photo via WWD

• And finally, we love seeing London Fog’s fall advertising campaign, featuring Joan Hollo Christina Hendricks of Mad Men.

London Fog/Nino Muñoz via The Cut

With that elegant look, we say g’bye until next time!

It’s Baaaack – Ultimate Preppy Names

Hello-Hello, and good thoughts hoping everyone is enjoying a splendid day, not too frazzled and frenzied by the holiday crunch.

We start with a holiday greeting from one of the employees here at the Prepatorium, perhaps the hardest working staff member. If you ask her. Frankly, we think she spends more time lounging around than she does testing products, which was part of her job description. (And she promised us she was qualified for this part of the job way back when we hired her to be part of the Princess Team.)

It’s not like it’s a hard job either. This is one of the products we needed her to try out:

Stewart Dog Collar at PreppyPrincess.com

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Heh-heh-heh. Yep. We are talking about Silly Tilly, the largest lounge lizard this side of the Mississippi. And she just couldn’t turn down the delightful Daisy’s request for a photo op.  Of course, this all started with the Princess Consort’s Giveaway Post.  (Don’t forget to enter! Just leave a comment asking him a question; the drawing is tomorrow night.)

Tilly's Christmas Wish for You

Oh, and those fabulous grosgrain ribbon dog collars?  Miss Tilly is only allowed to wear a harness because of her throat issues, no more collars. (Don’t ask; we’ll just say the most recent surgery involved removing tonsils and trying to help her collapsed trachea. She is our little Bulldog Rescue girl, health issues and all!)

Besides, when it comes to work, this is Miss Tilly’s idea of a hard day at the office.

Tilly at Work

And after what Tilly refers to as “The Episode”…..

"Never Again!"

… we were advised that she was going on strike.  (Honestly, it was just a little fundraiser put on by Vet students at the The Great Midwestern University nearby.)

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Once again, it is time to break out the Prep-O-Meter; we need to rank some names in terms of their ‘preppiness.’

• Caldwell Rohrbach
• Thayer Damm
• Skyler Hopkins
• Porter Whitman
• Wick Kelley

Yes, these are names of real people on Lacrosse teams at real schools. Every year Inside Lacrosse selects the preppiest sounding names, all in good fun, and puts together the Inside Lacrosse Yearbook All-Name Team.

Inside Lacrosse

As described by the editors:

“Lacrosse has long been known for its prep school roots. And while that changes and diversifies rapidly every year, it still crops up in some of the 1,000-plus names that appear in IL’s Face-Off Yearbook.”

The list is more than entertaining, click here to read all of the names on the 2009 rosters; many just shriek prep, or old school, or WASP.  If thinking about your very own copy of the Inside Lacrosse Yearbook, just click here.

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We have been sharing some of the Inaugural Day sketches submitted by menswear designers for President-elect Obama.  The request for the fashions came from WWD, and they have all been posted on their site as well as the looks, their visions of stylish looks for the next President.

Today a few of the suggestions for accessorizing, starting with Brooks Brothers and their Tie #1 in silk and cashmere:

Courtesy Photo

And as seen in the catalog in a different colorway:

Brooks Brothers

If you are looking for the tie Ms. Aniston wore on the cover of GQ, that is Brooks’ Black Fleece Triple Guard Stripe Tie in silk and cotton.  (No, we aren’t running the photo.) That tie is actually on sale, now $112.50 from $150.

An offering from Countess Mara:

Countess Mara Tie

Having visited the Countess Mara site for the first time in forever we must say we find their marketing more than intriguing: “Countess Mara – Be a Gentleman.”

Countess Mara

The next sketch is from Perry Ellis .

Perry Ellis

For today’s Argyle Update we offer a Black Fleece Argyle Sweater at Brooks Brothers. One of designer Thom Browne’s better looks, in cashmere with grosgrain trim.  (Quite the bargain too, originally $1000, now $600.)

Brooks Brothers Black Fleece

We close with Miss Tilly giving you the look she generally wears:

Stop the Insanity and Another “Preppy Comeback”

Hello-Hello….it is a Monday.

At the risk of tempting fate, we fear it may be time to bring back the “stop the insanity” shrieking from last decade. And we aren’t talking about this:

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

We are saying resurrect the phrase only, not the person best known for yelling those words at us. At least that’s how it felt whenever that show was on the television: ‘Hi, I’m Susan Powter, with TV that’s YOUR FAULT!’  (Good heavens, no, The Princess did not have it on, but when employed in a television station one isn’t always in charge of what is on.)

But the lunacy continued throughout both the Milan and Paris Fashion Week shows. We are talking about footwear and we’ll commence the visual aids with a look from Gucci’s RTW Ready to Wear Spring 2009 show:

Photo: Stephane Feugere

Or the Emilio Pucci RTW Spring 2009…

Photo by Dave Yoder

From Women’s Wear Daily, in a story about the Prada RTW Spring 2009 show:

“As for the accessories, it was all about the shoes, and not in a good way. The mile-high platforms strapped on over what appeared to be Prada’s take on Peds might have been impressive, had half of the girls not had major trouble walking and thus looked absolutely petrified. At least one fell (the meandering stage set didn’t allow for full viewing), and one bailed on the finale. Folks, more sculptural, higher, chunkier, clunkier, strappier, bondage-ier — we get it. But maybe it’s time to cry uncle and downgrade to shoes that function as shoes, even on the runway.”

The photo below is from that same Prada show during Milan Fashion Week:

Stefano Rellandini/Reuters

Next, a close-up of a pair of Ferragamos.

Ferragamo Show, Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty

Below, a shot from this September’s Peter Som Spring/Summer 2009 runway at New York Fashion Week.

Joshua Lott/Reuters

And here, one from the Marni Spring/Summer 2009 show (BTW, they do have a fabulous online store!):

Photo: Imaxtree

And then this photo is just in from yesterday’s Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2009  show:

Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images

As far as TP is concerned, enough is enough. Actually, it is too much.  What do you think? Is the silly shoes phenomenon out of control?

Next, a quick look at the Lacoste Fall campaign, “Perfectly Prepped.”

And they are showcasing polos for kids, both boys and girls.

It seems that once again “preppy is making a comeback.” This is at least the third or fourth time we’ve seen this headline since we started our little blog back in February of this year and this is our 219th post, so if one does the math, the comebacks are happening more than we care to contemplate. And wouldn’t that necessitate the lifestyle going away in order for it to ‘come back’?  Our most recent discourse on the topic was June 11th, titled “Everyone Discovers Preppy…“

Now in Adam Tschorn’s story for the Los Angeles Times entitled Preppy makes a comeback on the men’s runway, we see it dubbed the preppie renaissance:

“And nothing in American sportswear is as intrinsically optimistic as the preppy wardrobe built around madras, seersucker and oxford cloth, the de facto uniform of the scion-in-waiting circa 1980 who bides his time at a prep school until a Harvard early acceptance puts him on the path to Wall Street.”

The next two looks are from Perry Ellis:

“In this new world order, it’s a preppie renaissance with privileged panache, with Michael Bastian, Thom Browne and others.”

In referring to designer Thom Browne the articles notes we have the ‘neo-preppy’ moniker:

“Thom Browne, the official tortured soul of the neo-preppy brat pack also toyed with texture, filling his tennis tournament set piece with gauzy sweaters, a floor-length peignoir festooned with tennis rackets and jackets woven over-under from strips of grosgrain.”

Because we have shown so much Thom Browne and Thom Browne for Brooks Brothers Black Fleece, we’ll share two more looks from Perry Ellis:

We simply must fly. Back later.