<p>I’ve learned a lot reading this thread. I especially found the explanation of old and new money (where preppy originated and now who is aspiring to look the part) very interesting. I think it actually explains to me a lot of the contradictions and disagreements.</p>
<p>Wish I could still wear loafers (and LOVED my Wallabies in high school) - but my feet just can’t handle loafers any more. Just plain old and need more support (me and the feet!!). :(</p>
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<p>This is more about being selfish and insecure than being “preppy”…
I have met northerners, southerners, westerners, cowboys,surfers, goths and grunge types etc with these characteristics as well</p>
<p>Don’t mind me…in my neck of the woods “preppy” only means that you are aware of the opening and closing hours of the Ralph Lauren on Rodeo Dr.</p>
<p>BUT…I flashed on this thread this AM after reading Larry Summers comment on the garb of the ultra preppy Winklevii.<br>
(Fortune magazine)</p>
<p>"What did Larry Summers really think of the Winklevoss twins?</p>
<p>“Rarely, have I encountered such swagger, and I tried to respond in kind,” the former president of Harvard said in an interview at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference.</p>
<p>Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were at Harvard at the same time that Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, and they had come to Summers for help in their fight for a piece of the action.</p>
<p>Summers dismissed them, a scene dramatized in the movie the “Social Network.”</p>
<p>Summers didn’t try to dispel the portrayal.</p>
<p>“One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole. This was the latter case.”</p>
<p>@ musicamusica</p>
<p>Very interesting piece of information! Thanks for posting it :)</p>
<p>Where I’m from, being preppy has a pretty negative connotation. Most of the people who identify with the word “preppy” seem to be highly bigoted and unaware of the average person. However, I cannot determine any specific political/religious/socio-economic affiliation. The “preppy” kids would appear to have lots of money but even that doesn’t always hold true around here. It would appear that being preppy means very different things to different regions in the US!</p>
<p>This is nonsensical. Preppy has a meaning, which JHS articulated and gave good examples of. Just because some high schoolers who don’t know any better now think that preppy = Abercrombie and Fitch or whatever is trendy at the local mall, doesn’t make it so. </p>
<p>Preppy can be, but isn’t always associated with academic excellence. A gentleman’s C was a very preppy concept, and places like MIT or Caltech aren’t in the prep pantheon.</p>
<p>jym626: #143</p>
<p>Wasn’t that the question asked?</p>
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<p>It is not wrong for some one ask this question and I think it won’t be wrong in your view to answer this as NO but it will be wrong to answer this question in the affirmative.</p>
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<p>For me anyone who fits the original description is a preppie. Anyone else is a “preppie” with quotation marks.</p>
<p>POIH-
The post cited contained an analogy of a horrific WWII symbol to a religious symbol. Please understand that that is offensive to many, and was apparently adjusted accordingly.</p>
<p>Ridiculous, I know, but I would guess the Malfoys were preppy (clothes always clean, perfectly fitting), Slughorn, Dumbledore, Sirius, Cedric Diggory, & McGonagall vs the Weasleys, Lupin, etc.</p>
<p>Musicalm–enjoyed your post!!!</p>
<p>A rep tie fished from the bottom of a book bag is preppy. I don’t know why you’re associating preppy with well groomed.</p>
<p>I was being silly and tired last night.</p>
<p>Even at my public school, preppy meant wearing modest clothing; ladybug shifts with initial gold pins or pearsl, Villager A-line skirts, matching high sox, Weejuns,Pappagallo slippers, initial pocketbooks (Coach. Nantucket, D & B…) Lots of A-line dresses, suits, sweater sets, often Cashmere. Riding horses a few times a week for me; others into other sports. I went to school before pants were allowed.</p>
<p>This thread is fun with lots of interpretations of “Prep”. For some its a dress style you can buy at the Ralph Lauren Outlet, for others it includes private college only education, others think the money has to be old. I was thinking about how for me the real prep is well groomed without trying, but then I remember the holes in true preps’ clothes…at the elbow in a shetland sweater, or a frayed collar. Its hard to describe, but when we see (I’ll put myself in this category) another one of us we recognise each other. We were dropping our daughter off at camp the other day and my husband noticed that a woman was watching me and mentionned it. I took a look and realised it was because she was like me. Shabby chic? The way she wears her hair? Who knows, hard to describe but we recognised each other. We’re not trying to be anything we’re not. We watched the way our sibs and parents dressed and liked it. The priciest thing they wore would be Br. Brothers or maybe a Ferragamo shoe, but they wore them for at least 20 years. Recreational shopping was unheard of, thrift was King yet Money was never discussed.</p>
<p>Dke- isn’t it interesting? It seems to be a regional thing. The description of “prep” in New England seems to be derived from its original meaning- coming out of a prep school- while “prep” in the south and midwest seems to have more to do with expensive clothing. I’m curious about what it means on the west coast these days? Anyone want to chime in?</p>
<p>Yes, baystate, plus in some places its considered pejorative and others a compliment! My daughter reims me for dressing that way but my sister compliments me. haha…may be generational! One thing about prep is to me its sort of unisex. I like that aspect of it. No tight tops with the ta-tas popping out! I’d raid my son’s closet if we were the same size. Not for everything, but for some sportswear. (blazers, crisp white shirts)</p>
<p>Oliver Barrett IV (Love Story), Vivian Kensington, Warner Huntington III (Legally Blond), Gloria Upson (Auntie Mame).</p>
<p>I"d add George Herbert Walker Bush to that list!</p>
<p>When I think of the preppiest person I have ever met, it was the actual prep school admissions director who met with my son in his office with a fireplace and models of ships on top of the bookcase. He wore a tweed jacket and had horn rimmed glasses. In my imagination, I’m sure that on the weekends he wears worn out topsiders and a stained teeshirt with “Stonington Yacht Club” on the front. His wife and daughters dress the same way at their summer house in Maine. They all have impeccable manners, and it seems effortless. (Tight tops with ta-tas popping out- the horror!)</p>
<p>My sister told me a story the other day that cracked me up on this topic. She was visiting friends in Uruguay at a coastal resort, and one of the houseguests was from NYC and Palm Beach. (He was in his late 60’s) Every day he would come out with these matching outfits in pastel colors…complete with complementing sweater around his shoulders and the velvet slippers with the fox on them. My niece (who lives in Latin America) told my sister that she wouldn’t go out with them into town anymore because people were pointing and laughing at his threads. He considers himself to be very preppy, and I guess in Palm Beach, he is!</p>
<p>baystate, haha…I don’t think “le Cleav-age” is preppy but that’s just my take on it! Sounds like that adcom was a super oldschool Prepster!</p>