Stan... I've seen Ivy "wardrobes" from the 50s or 60s... the basics/essentials every man should have (x # of ties, shirts, etc...)... You've posted such a wealth of info here about this particular subgenre of Ivy, info I've taken copious notes on... but if it had to be distilled - what were the very essentials of the 70s/80s prep style, in your opinion?
(Yes, this is a baldfaced attempt to get you to drop more of that stanshall wisdom on us all...)
No worries stan... I'll just keep amusing myself over here with these yearbooks... What I really love about them is they give the full range, not just the archetypical looks found in the HTJ archive but also cutoff khakis for shorts, lots of baseball caps, sneaks and t-shirts, many variations on jean styles...
Very much looking forward to what you're cooking up, stan!
Last edited by stanshall (2017-03-16 11:48:23)
That was an amazing write up Mr. Stanshall! Are you from Florida? I remember as a young lad going into a Burdine's department store when I visited my grandmother in the Miami area for socks and a bathing suit. 😊
Hahaha I couldn't pass up that Rod Laver shot even though I couldn't crop Mr. Seventies out of the background... believe me I tried...
Sad that they don't make Rod Lavers like they used to anymore... they're so heavy now...
Last edited by stanshall (2017-03-16 14:07:10)
I'm loving these 80s shots, BB. Great stuff!
Thanks Sidewinder... that's high praise from the Yearbook Master himself...
Believe me, I should get a medal for all the photos of terrible facial hair and giant collars I've had to wade through to get these pics
You can find Ivy at any damn school if you go back to 1959, 1960... but prep is a different story, and the really prep colleges don't just throw their yearbooks out onto the internet, although I will keep praying they do... Sewanee was a godsend, that's where most of these are from... but I do find the odd Norwegian sweater and tastefully worn puffer vest here and there... the well isn't dry just yet...
unspoken but true, the dirty little secret of '70s prep ... Levi's 517 boot jeans and corduroys ... irreconcilable with Ivy but part of '70s prep and worn by the iconic JFK, Jr. and plenty of others, even though many won't admit it .....
517s, 519s and 505s were all worn in the summer of '76 ... '75 too ... seen with Top-Siders, Incontinence pants, Wallabees .... but when the flares became more disco than Dead the preps dropped them hard and pretended they'd never had them at all .... punk straightened the trousers out too ... took a full twenty years before the 517s made a hipster-driven comeback ....
shitkickers always wore boot jeans, though ....
/\ nice detective work Alky, I sort of remember the CB brand ..... but I still think the kid in the pic would benefit from a Shetland sweater ....
back in the fall of '78 at my college, the bright colors and accents on that CB top would have signified "high school," same as a pair of Clarks ....
Last edited by Chipper (2017-04-05 07:58:58)
/\ like the fact you admit to the occasional wearing of the "slight flares" (517s) ...
freshmen kids took flak for those, I specifically recall that one guy, came from NYC's top private school, got the nickname "Disco" because of his flares ....
... 517s were not very common, they were not prevalent, and they became notably less evident after '78, but in the interest of accuracy I felt they should be acknowledged at some point in this thread ......
I didn't have Clarks of any kind in college, they had the reputation of being high school shoes, but I did get a navy Baracuta from the Andover Shop in the fall of my first year of law school, outgrew it, gave it to my uncle, very nice light jacket ..... currently have a great Baracuta, but it's just the standard light beige .....