I side with the 'aesthetic and design choice' crowd.
There's a real crudity to the implied snobbery of Preppy. Something that Ivy lacks. Thank goodness.
Ivy is all about subtlety. It's never brash, even when it plays with more adventurous colours.
Amusingly, Preppy's shouting about social class actually has no class at all.
"The best don't need to advertise" as the old saying used to run.
Preppy is deeply linked to the irrelevance of youth. It's all about youthful pretension, vitality, refined in a still and bottled for consumption.
Easy to market: make it bright and get some beautiful kids to wear it and snap away.
I always thought of Prep dress as something safe, if you see the kids dressed in prep you know your in an ok area. As opposed to hoodies and jeans hanging off knees. I don't really see it being worn as a sign of wealth, conservatism yes, but wealth? Its too cheap to buy. I think it looks ok on a younger person, for sure better than other yoof styles. And isn't the brightness of it forgivable on the young?
Those older people in it look like mutton dressed as lamb. Not a good look for a bloke.
I think a great divide between the US and the UK (and probably also the rest of the world outside the US, apart from Japan where who knows what goes on in people's heads...) is THE PREPPY PROBLEM.
The US pretty much now sees Ivy through the prism of Preppy on the whole, with some wonderful exceptions.
Speaking for the UK, we howled with laughter at Preppy.
CLASSIC American STYLE was our game over here. Probably hence the old White crewneck T under the OCBD....
Our Ivy is Old School. Classic.
Big shoes. Short hair. High rise & no break. Collar rolls. Shoulders that aren't.
- MENSwear !
Best -
In Spain the so-called preppy look is strongly associated with the upper classes and those who try to emulate them. It's totally a snob thing. These people look like somebody straight out of a Ralph Lauren catalogue, including the hairdos. Whereas the traditional Ivy look is virtually unknown and therefore does not have these class associations. I have a feeling that this is generally true also elsewhere in Europe, but might be different in the US.
Psychopath? Hyperbole or true belief? I don't have the context.
So I choose chinos over jeans, and a pique knit polo over a graphic tee, and pennies instead of sneakers and I am the psychopath?
No, unless you've killed someone?
I have no idea what you just wrote, but if you want to refute khakis, a polo and loafers are not the uniform of middle America, knock yourself out.
Funny but I thought Prep was a pretty big look in Fashion in the UK. It is in Norway and really, compared to other young fashionable styles I find it quite acceptable. A 20 year old in a sack jacket and high rise pants would look a proper prick on the streets of Europe in 2013, and I dare say in the U.S as well. Not everyone wants to look like a 1960 BB newspaper advert.
Preppy family in front of me today in line for coffee. I was in a decidedly affluent part of town (simply passing through in route to destination) where most houses in the area are 1 million USD and up. Private schools, Mercedes, etc. Anyway, father and two teenage boys, all in pastel polos khakis and madras shorts. The father had on a braided belt and a huge watch and hideous diarrhea colored loafers. One of the boys had on deck shoes. I could just smell the money and they were all handsome and well-bred. But, nothing even remotely interesting in the clothes. I was wearing a Brooks SS Madras BD, my typical high rise tapered chinos, and some Florsheim derbys. Of course my hair was greased and I was wearing my glasses. My retro throwback costume Ivy was in full effect. I may as well have had a mohawk considering the amount of sizing up the preppy trio was giving me.