First of all let me say that it doesn't exist.
We have Prep Schools, we have Public (ie, Private/Independent) schools, we have all the clothes, but we do not have the construct.
There is no 'look-from-a-book', 'way-of-life' mentality to go with the wardrobe over here.
However,
Companies like 'Crew' & 'Joules' along with certain others produce a colourful Anglo-Preppy style which you see a lot of in places like Cheltenham & Bath on Upper-Middle class kids with clean hair & white teeth. Usually they are 6th formers, either at school or at 6th Form College. The look is dropped pretty much by University time. Less hair washing goes on by then in England.
It's basicly English clothes viewed from an American Preppy sensibility and sold back to the English in a revised colour palette targetted at the young/young-at-heart. Interesting. This goes on in Paris too I'm told.
What it isn't is anything other than just another wardrobe option over here. Just like the Ivy look or like a taste for Italian threads...
We don't do 'lifestyle' wardrobes like the MBs love, I don't think. There is no "I am a Trad (or whatever... no offence to the Trads) therefore this is my wardrobe/car/hairstyle creed. I think if you tried that over here you would be heartily laughed at. Especially by those of your own group.
It's just clothes.
http://www.crewclothing.co.uk/
http://www.joulesclothing.com/JoulesSite/pages/home/default.asp?ppcseid=2814&ppcsekeyword=joules&mmtctg=225696776&mmtcmp=7042016&mmtmt=3&mmtgglcnt=0
http://www.brora.co.uk/Brora/Default.aspx?language=en-GB&s_kwcid=cashmere|653978899&engine=adwords!4779&keyword=%28cashmere%29&match_type=
T.L.
Boden is on the fringes of all this.
http://www.boden.co.uk/default.asp?strShortkey=LNAF&cm_mmc=Tradedoubler-_-Winter06%2010pc%20fsfr-_-234x60-_-wm06000774
They aim for the young-at-heart, not the young.
Same classics-with-a-twist way of thinking, though.
It's English, yet it's not.
Cyrillus would be the French Boden.
A bit more grown up & sophisticated (being French).
Same perky, 'Preppy' mindset to my eyes.
http://www.cyrillus.com/vente-en-ligne/default.aspx
Last edited by Terry Lean (2006-11-19 05:07:04)
True or false: They had a 'love-child' who posts on the MBs somewhere?
Edit: I have removed all the bile & invective from this post. Applaud me at your leisure.
St. Terry.
Last edited by Terry Lean (2006-11-20 05:42:31)
Last time I listlessly looked at the J. Crew site they had Madras Flip-Flops...
... And yet I'm still alive.
I wonder how many more sensitive souls they have driven to the bin?
18,000? 36,000?
I think there were pleats in the Flip-Flops too.