jack your revelation leaves me with many questions, foremost how does this whole charade negate TRAD or AAAT? Plain English please, thank you.

I get the impression that Salty Ol' Cap'n Jack performed a miracle of loaves and fishes here, but as usual I missed it.

I blame the difference in time zones.

I'll catch up when the Ivy/Trad infomercial comes out.

Gee Jacques,

I hope this doesn't adversely affect your negotiation with The Masterminds per your triumphant return to AndyWorld.

Jacques...

Jacques?

Jacques!!!

Last edited by jack_sparrow (2007-10-18 01:25:10)

Last edited by Gomez (2007-10-18 02:02:05)

Jack,

If we are to believe you, you have been frothing at the mouth, attacking Harris and the Trads, arguing ad nauseum, trolling the forums, all for the past three years with the intent of starting a revolution of the style.  Then on the day it becomes public that "Trad" has been printed in some rarely-read, free Boston newspaper that doesn't even put their content on a website, you claim victory and state that, in fact, all this time it's been a farce, and, in fact, you love Harris and the Trads and all you really wanted was to raise the profile of the style in the world. 

Not sure I buy it, but for argument's sake, let's move on.  If your plan comes to fruition, I have a concern that I hope you might address:

The Andy Trads, and, I suppose all who like Ivy league clothing have always dreamed of a time when the style became easier to find and wear.  But that is a dangerous dream.  Clothes become easy to find when they are popular.  Popularity breeds great interest.  Then mass appeal.  Then mass marketing.  Then the edges get fuzzy.  Then the style becomes a caricature of itself.  Then you can find all the trash at Filenes Basement.  Then it's a laughing stock.

It happened with preppy circa '03 through the present day.  Preppy was reborn.  The first kids to wear it were sourcing preppy items that we know and love through ebay and the old makers who are still alive.  Then J Crew caught on.  The first summer, only a handful were popping their collars.  By the second, everyone was.  Then preppy staples were showing up everywhere.  Seerscuker made a resurgence.  Madras was back.  Pink and lime green everywhere.  Then it moved to the Old Navy crowd.  The madras colors were all wrong, and downright ugly.  The embroidered pants were no longer in the appropriate colors combinations, but in the audacious.  The khakis were frayed and "pre-washed". 

To be sure, the Preppy resurgence of the oughts has lasted longer than many younger-generation styles, but it'll be dead by the end of summer '08. 

And, those of us who wore embroidered pants in the 90's, when it wasn’t' that cool, will breathe a collective sigh of relief. 

But the style will have gone from hot to caricature in about five years.

All of this to ask:  is this what you want for the Ivy League Style?  Is this what you want for "Trad"?

Sure it'll be great to have everyone offering three-button sack suits and tweeds and shetlands and repps and oxford cloth shirts, but really, is that what we want?  Do we want everyone wearing it?  Do we want crappy makers producing crap off shore and selling it at TJ Maxx?  Perhaps we can call it the Vineyard Vines-ation of Trad. 

What many of us love about the style is its timelessness.  If it becomes popular again, wouldn't it lose some of that?

Thanks.

Trad to the Bone

So you're not concerned. 

Cool.  That's all you had to say. 

I'm on board with getting people to belive this is the one true American clothing style.  Just don't want to see it co-opted into mass-market crap.

That's all I'm saying.

TB

When trad looses its exclusivity I’ll go back to wearing hoodies and sweatpants.  If it's not devient, what's the point?

Last edited by mike (2007-10-18 10:57:20)