Journalist Mackenzie Carpenter with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote an article "Preppy, Straight Up or With a Twist" published recently. I spoke with my best friend Mackenzie last week by phone and we had a great conversation on the topic! She was even kind enough to mention our Trixie blog. So today I am putting the question to you: Is preppy making a come back?
In my opinion the term "preppy" has traditionally referred to people of a certain socioeconomic status. In particular, preppies are people who attended elite college preparatory schools. "Preppy has always been part of a certain set .... the people who 'summer' in Nantucket," says Susan Rolontz, executive vice president of the Tobe Report, a fashion industry publication. "For a certain customer, preppy is always there."
Well I don't know about you girls ... but I love Prep! At my college sorority, I was always trying to be the preppiest girl ... and if anyone out-performed me on a particular day, I was sure to smear catsup all over those clothes secretly the next day in her dresser drawers while she was in class.
In the 1980s, the preppy fashion trend was born out of duplicating the uniform of WASPs and New Englanders—khakis, Oxford shirts, ribbon belts and topsiders. But I would argue that the true preppy establishment buy into classics rather than trends, and don't change their lifestyles with fads. That’s not to say anything against preppy clothes as a current trend. I would never call my style preppy nowdays, but I love the big pony polo on my top that I'm wearing in this pic.
So is preppy fashion making a comeback? Of course living in Broad Ripple I don’t see it as a fashion trend. I do however keep up with fashions across the country and I do travel to the East Coast. I was also in Texas just a few months ago and I can’t say that I noticed a huge preppy resurgence. So what do you other Trixies think?
In my opinion, I believe that if you are a true Trixie preppy-prep .... well, then preppy never left us. The fashion industry just re-markets "preppy" every couple of years at J. Crew, Banana Republic, the Gap and of course, Abercrombie ..... and of course everyone then writes about it making a comeback ... which is just silly!
For some people it's just they way they live! Large old houses in Meridian-Kessler, lots of vintage silver, classic volvo wagons, pure-bred Labradors .... very understated, Broad Ripple classic, well-cut and well-made clothes that never lose their style. Not fads, not Labradoodles .... not lexus SUVs ... just Broad Ripple classic. Just Trixie.
Be Well ...
Brooke
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