<p>I too associate true preppy primarily with the northeast, though with outposts elsewhere. The Southern pink and green, pearls and sundresses thing may be cute but it doesn’t channel true preppy to me.</p>
<p>I’ve never associated “preppy” with clothes until I started reading CC. Most of the true preps I know young and old have big dogs, old cars and equally old clothing, love to have a good time and are generally are well read and great conversationalists.</p>
<p>Preppy means that a young lady or man cares about how they look. I do love preppy looking college students…they become well dressed young professional looking adults.</p>
<p>Preppy is a lifestyle that goes far beyond how someone dresses. It certainly is not synonymous with always put together or the latest in fashion. It’s more understated and sometimes worn-out looking.</p>
<p>Just asked my son what “preppy” mean these days.
He said (after some thought) “classy casual”.</p>
<p>My high school yearbook has a superlative for Most [name of my town]. I just think of that as archetypal preppyness.</p>
<p>
Me too, though in fact, I suspect that my class was about half liberals and half conservatives. With more of the liberals coming from the day students, but not exclusively by any means. As best as I can recall we were nearly all against the war which ended my senior year. </p>
<p>When people say preppy now I think of clothing - khakis, polo shirts, sort of a neat casual look. I knew a handful of people with those silly nicknames, but not too many. I tend to identify with my frugal, shabby chic New England ancestry and a lot of my views are colored by that. </p>
<p>I don’t have a negative association with preppiness except perhaps a certain cluelessness that others aren’t as lucky as you. (Which may be why service/experiential education was a huge part of the education at our school.)</p>
<p>Preppy seems to be about superficial appearances- a certain upscale moneyed look/lifestyle. Definitely NOT associated with intellectualism or liberalism. Remember the question asked-what does …term…mean to you? This is not the same as what people who appear to be preppy are actually like. It’s what the stereotype is to you, not any realities.</p>
<p>^^Perhaps preppiness has become inspirational…like the Ivy League now is…whereas genuine preps in the original sense are or were not inspirational…they just are or were.</p>
<p>This cracks me up. I can tell who identifies with or has a kid they consider preppy and who does not by how positively or negatively ‘preppy’ is described.</p>
<p>Back in my day, it was anyone (though not exclusively) who was in a fraternity or sorority, and who liked wearing pastels. I imagine the pastel thing isn’t in anymore :)</p>
<p>The broad brush stereotype I have in my head (not of individuals but more ‘on average’ trends): more likely to be pre-professional (and be either pre-med, pre-law or in a business school), to really like the greek system and college team sports, wearing make up, following dominant commercial trends in fashion and music. Very tidy, attractive, conventional, fashionable, and well behaved. More likely to work later in a big corporation. </p>
<p>And less likely to: prefer anything with ‘alternative’ in front of it, walk to beat of own drummer, be quirky, be a nerd intellectual/STEM geek, do drugs other than alcohol, be a social activist, non-conformist, vegetarian or vegan, or communist :)</p>
<p>Please don’t beat me up. I’m sure if your child is or is not a preppy, they violate the description above. “My child is preppy but they are engaged in social causes!” It’s just a simplistic stereotype of course.</p>
<p>While the preppy- non-preppy distinction isn’t good for describing an individual, I find it is useful for very general ways to group colleges (when you take giant numbers of kids, you can find a campus can sometimes be distinguished from another on a preppy-non-preppy continuum).</p>
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<p>Really, JHS!? Squash is played by the poorest of the poor in Pakistan. The whole Khan dynasty that ruled squash from the 1950s to the 1990s came from lower SES families. Leave it to the USA to take a sport played by poor kids and make it preppy. LOL.</p>
<p>^Exactly. Having gone to prep school it’s hard for me to really see the stereotypes because I knew all the exceptions. My kids though are public school kids through and through, oldest one is clueless, but I think my youngest one was worried by schools that appeared to be something he couldn’t define, but I believe was “too preppy”.</p>
<p>Am guessing someone’s kids don’t play 3+ hrs of squash/day in order to make the national team :rolleyes:
<a href=“http://www.ussquash.com/audiences/content.aspx?id=408[/url]”>http://www.ussquash.com/audiences/content.aspx?id=408</a></p>
<p>Well I can’t decide if I should feel down right foolish or just chalk it up to being from the Midwest… not once did it enter my mind that the term “preppy” had anything to do with prep schools. </p>
<p>I see preppy as younger (18-35) folks who prefer classic clothing over trendy items and seem to lean “traditional” in their taste.</p>
<p>*You read a lot of comments on CC about certain colleges being very preppy. Or a certain student being really preppy. I’m gathering people are talking about more than popped collars and top-siders. </p>
<p>What does “preppy” mean to you? *</p>
<p>while lots of kids wear khaki shorts, polo shirts, and Sperry’s…I think Preppy dressing is a bit beyond that…like those pastel shirts and over-the-top fashions…</p>
<p>This is “over the top” preppy…</p>
<p>[Southern</a> Proper - Southern Ties and Bowties](<a href=“http://www.southernproper.com/]Southern”>http://www.southernproper.com/)</p>
<p>Mathmom, same with me. After prep school in the 70’s there are so many exceptions! My def of “prep” is in the Preppy Handbook, but my daughter’s (who wasn’t raised in the Northeast) is basically when a kid is basically clean cut…no surfer, goth, etc.</p>
<p>To regular Midwestern kids of lower socioeconomic status, “preps” are the popular kids in highschool who wear clothes like A&F, American Eagle, J Crew, Sperrys etc…“PREPS” are the jocks, boys and girls, the cheerleaders. </p>
<p>Perhaps preppy means different things to different people. Historically I think of rich east coast families. Went to school in Ohio and Sophomore year a rich girl from Boston moved here, built an amazing brick home, drove a brand new convertible car and ended up in law school. She introduced me to what was real prep- ribbons in her pony tail, natural makeup, J Crew, Ralph Lauren etc… And her mom had this completely different attitude unlike anything I had ever encountered. Nonchalant and a little entitled but very friendly at the same time.</p>
<p>Most of the kids in my D hs see preppy as popular, abercrombie and hollister kids so to them it means entitled and rich I guess…they have part of it right.</p>
<p>Politically…hmm…think it goes both ways but I see old style preppy as liberal whereas new preppy or new rich as being more conservative. Not always true though. My oldest describes herself as eclectic preppy…cheerleader, pony tails with grosgrain ribbon, loves j crew and tailored clothes but is outspoken, sometimes activist liberal who would vote for the socialist over the democrat. </p>
<p>Whatever…It’s all good. </p>
<p>Peace.</p>
<p>“J Crew channels preppy, but isn’t actual preppy. Same with Ralph Lauren. Preppy is grandmother’s cashmere cardigan that your older sister used before you.”</p>
<p>The real old money Northeastern families would not be caught dead in Lilly Pulitzer or other clothes that scream I Spent Money. However, they buy clothes that do cost serious money (at Brooks Brothers), and then they wear them till they fall apart. </p>
<p>They do not have anything to prove. People who deck themselves in Ralph Lauren (formerly Lipschitz) are trying to show their neighbors something. </p>
<p>They have names like Putnam, Hazard, Williams, Chaffee, Lowell, Riker, Blackwell, Wheeler, etc.</p>
<p>Preppy once meant “went to prep school” which these folks all did (they were enrolled at birth), but it also has come to mean clothing styles, so you have to be careful about the context. If used for clothing styles & membership in frats, it seems to me to be more about new-money people, not old family Northeasterners. </p>
<p>The Brown family gave the Nightingale-Brown house to Brown University in the 1980s. it had been built in 1792 and lived in by generations of Browns. Before the University could even think of using it (as the Center for Public Humanities), they had to spend 8 years doing structural repairs and renovations to bring it up to code. The Browns had never changed the wallpaper, because “it was good enough” — it must have been pretty good because it turned out it was holding the house together! One of the people who worked in it told me you couldn’t lean your hand against a wall for fear it would go through. </p>
<p>That is old money. They could have made the repairs (termite trouble) they obviously had missed the need for, many times over, they just liked the place the way it was. </p>
<p>New money changes not only the wallpaper but rips out the entire kitchen every ten years because a new fad in countertops arrives.</p>
<p>When I was in college, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the typical female garb was a leotard/danskin covered by a man-tailored shirt, stovepipe jeans (occasional courderoys) and either hiking boots, wallabees or earth shoes (lovely image, eh?). A friend would wear this, with her prep school blazer over the shirt and her HS gold pinky ring (the type that could be used to make a seal with sealing wax). We called her a “preppy reactionary”</p>
<p>"The real old money Northeastern families would not be caught dead in Lilly Pulitzer or other clothes that scream I Spent Money. However, they buy clothes that do cost serious money (at Brooks Brothers), and then they wear them till they fall apart. "</p>
<p>Lilly Pulitzer and Brooks Bros are the same general price point, and neither falls under “expensive clothing” at all, IMO.</p>