I'd love to hear what others thought on this -

I don't think preppy or Ivy League has died, it just continues to be redefined.  Certain elements of IL remain classics today, like my camel hair coat purchased by my dad in 1956 and in my closet today, or boxers, penny loafers, madras shirts, shetland sweaters, tweed sports coats, plaid bow ties, and so on. 

Still, some things have changed, and look either contrived or just downright silly.  Imagine showing up in a skinny black 3-button suit with highwater pants, worn of course with a 1" black tie and a white shirt toa job interview, or coming to a backyard party wearing your Levis rolled up 4" to show white socks.  C'mon, everyone would ask you where the costume party was!

In the mid to late '70s, I was in prep school.  We had a dress code (grey flannels, white shirt, school tie, and blue blazer with the school logo), that was adhered to for classes and most social events.  Outside of class, we wore khakis or Levis 501s, polos or OCBD shirts, and Topsiders or camp mocs.  The coat of choice was either a blue duffel or a long camel hair topcoat.  Sweaters were shetlands (saddle shoulders preferred), and that was about it.  We called it prep among ourselves, and there was an unspoken recognition when out and about of belonging -- certainly to one of the two boy's prep schools, the girl's prep school, and even more so of summers sailing or lying on your dock.  Our dads dressed that way, many of our grandparents dressed that way, and we dressed that way.

When I pledged as an undergrad, my frat big brother said "The pledge pin goes just above the alligator", and no one needed to ask questions.   By this time, the OPH had satired what for us was just normal, everyday wear, and we continued to dress as always.  We continued to call it prep (preppy only when we were being sarcastic), and as we ran into people from other regions, the term "Ivy Leaguer" entered our lexicon.  We didn't need to be told what it meant, we just knew.

In my late 20s, I remember someone seeing me out of scrubs for the first time and remarking "Oh, you are so collegiate."  Again, it just made sense.  Flash forward another 15 years -- did Harris actually coin the term trad?  I'm just too lazy to wander over to AAAC and research it, but regardless -- it's a term that just makes sense.

The preppy look was satired by the OPH, but it's ok.  IL as a term may have reached the end of its useful life, and no one under the age of 75 would dare say any of us look collegiate.  Trad is still thrown around quite a bit, and as a term we generally know what it means.  But to try and pigeonhole us into any one of those categories isn't nearly as useful as, say, "cowboy" or "emo".  Yeh, we've had various incarnations of the prep/trad/IL look, and trying to figure out where certain things belong ("Are GTH pants preppy or trad?", for instance) have grown a bit tiresome.

But you know the look when you see it.

Last edited by Russell_Street (2008-03-07 06:00:32)

Everything has to first exist before it can be anything.
"Trad" looked like something which could be exploited but first it had to have a certain mass - That has now been achieved. Now we need to make it better.

ABC stuff: Bring people in. Cause a buzz. Then refine it. Make it poular/popularist then up the quality and you have something worth having.

Last edited by Russell_Street (2008-03-07 07:12:07)