Hello-Hello, and welcome to another edition of “Preppy is Everywhere, Version #4921”.
There are numerous and diverse references to what we’ll call broadly term ‘preppy fashion’ strewn about the media landscape this week. In yesterday’s post we discussed the merits, or lack thereof, of ‘sexy preppy’.
Today we turn to the Trib for “Preppy fashion takes on an edgy look,” offering a more egalitarian look at the task of clothing one’s offspring for the approaching (or already underway) school year.
“For most people, back to school does not mean a return to a pricey prep school.”
“But no matter what your age or station in life, prep school style is a classic.”
We actually concur with the majority of statements in that portion of the article outlining classic style. As frequent readers may be expecting, we do reach a point where TP’s opinions don’t sync with the author’s. In this case it is the point where the story suggests “replacements” for classic preppy styles. For example, the ‘Naughty nurse white stretch knee-highs’ replacing regular knee-highs? We think not. (Fear not, TP is not accessorizing her skirts with knee-highs.)
We also have “preppy collegiate” as described by Lands’ End and Parents magazine in a ‘ joint survey’ on back-to-school fashion, described in this post on a Plain Dealer (Cleveland) blog:
“… experts say girls and boys are tweaking their looks under themes they’ve dubbed “boho chic” and “preppy collegiate,” with loads of references from the 1980s — skinny jeans, tunic tops and sweaters, leggings and splashes of neon.”
For those of us having witnessed many of the looks mentioned above, we can only say this is frightening. Very, very frightening.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers the following in a similar piece, using an ad from Kohl’s as an illustration:
- “Whether it be the rocker look or that Upper East Side preppy look … a lot of kids, especially teens, are taking their cues from celebrities…”