Weekend Edition #26: Prep School
Prep is dead! Long live prep!
Hi!
When it comes to fashion, preppy is to fall as florals are to spring. Which is to say…groundbreaking. (Insert Miranda Priestly’s sarcastic tone and withering glare.) I can’t help it though. The autumn equinox is here, temperatures have dipped in the Northeast, and my legions of blazers and loafers stand in my closet, ready to deploy as ambassadors of prep, diplomatically welcoming the new season.
It’s hardly a stretch to see why these preppy icons, plus the cable-knit sweater, the sweater vest, Oxford shirts, chinos, and corduroy pants, are so compelling every fall. While many fashion trends started on the street, preppy style started on school campuses. Specifically college-preparatory school campuses. Prep school. So when it comes time to go back to school, preppy style comes back.
I went to prep school. The Lawrenceville School, to be exact. (The delightful
is also an alum and recorded an in-depth and very funny podcast about her time there.) After graduation, I attended Williams College for a year, which was listed among the top 20 preppiest colleges in Lisa Birnbach’s classic The Unofficial Preppy Handbook. (Birnbach also says Lawrenceville “looks like a junior Princeton and in fact acts like one, too.” Princeton, of course, is the preppiest of them all.) After Williams, I went to the University of Virginia, where people dressed up for football games. I worked at J.Crew during college summer breaks and followed that up by getting a job at Abercrombie & Fitch and then Tommy Hilfiger. All this is to say: I’ve been awash in some version of preppy style for decades.
Preppy style originated in the mid-twentieth century, the more casual little brother (this isn’t just a figure of speech - most schools didn’t admit girls yet) to Ivy Style, the traditional British-inspired attire seen on the campuses of Ivy League universities and New England colleges. Together, these student-led styles of dressing evolved as academia advanced. Buttoned-up students began balancing books with batting practice and studying with socializing. Their style became a hybrid of athletic gear (recall Russell’s sweatshirt) and artfully rumpled woven shirts and chinos. (By 1980, when Birnbach published her book, she described L.L. Bean as “nothing less than prep mecca.” In many ways, preppy style, with its active, functional twist on everyday outfitting, is the godparent of today’s current athleisure obsession.) Preppy style was created on campus, created by kids. It was born out of youthful exuberance and playful rebellion. This is the spirit that has given it its staying power. A distinctly American spirit.
As women started being admitted to many of these schools in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, they adopted preppy style for themselves. I imagine it was a way to blend in with their fellow students, the majority of whom were men, and also rightly co-opt the look - and place - for themselves. This is ours now, too. It is one of the earliest examples of what we now call gender-neutral fashion. Anyone can wear a blazer and loafers, or a polo shirt and madras shorts. (Boy, did I eagerly adopt that look at Lawrenceville. I recently found a photo of my husband, whom I met there, and me, both wearing almost the same outfit. Coincidentally). The defining elements of prep, like Ithaca-striped shirts, wool sweaters, embroidered critter pants, and thick striped rugby shirts, are found on both sides of the store. The rainbow of pastel colors that makes up the prep palette is for everyone. Prep is for everyone. Really.
Because preppy style, with its overt codes, can initially feel exclusive but is ultimately solvable. Once you crack the code, it becomes yours. When you know the rules, you can break them. Prep is playful. When I transferred to Lawrenceville as a third former (10th grader), I was coming from the other side of the river (the Delaware River, to be exact), and like a lot of high school kids, I wanted to fit in and stand out. I saved for my first pair of Birkenstocks (the Boston clog, obvi), asked for a North Face jacket for Hanukkah, and circled item after item in the J.Crew catalogue. But I also wore a black dress to prom, even though black is the antithesis of prep! I was trying to find the puzzle pieces that fit to make me feel complete. And I did.
Now, as a grown-up and a mom, I find comfort in feeling comfortable. In being prepared. I can run for the subway in the loafers, keep myself warm on the walk to work in the blazer, hide a bad hair day or root for the Phillies during the playoffs in my baseball cap. I can lug my L.L. Bean boat tote all over the Upper East Side, shoved full with snacks and books and baseball gloves and my old Virginia sweatshirt. I know I can wash my chinos when my boys get ketchup on them and wear my navy cashmere crewneck around the house or to lunch or to the office.
just wrote about how she’s entering her preppy era as she establishes her mom uniform. That’s prep: comforting, practical, functional, sustainable.Hey! That word! After I published my post last week about the state of sustainability in fashion, I realized I had one more tip: Don’t Wear Plastic. Synthetic fabrics, like polyester, are petrochemical products and make up 72% of the clothing we wear. Rayon is complicated. If we can’t go completely au natural, we can go au natural in our fabric choices. Organic cotton, linen, wool, cashmere, silk, denim, oxford broadcloth, poplin. Preppy style is grounded in these natural fabrics and a great place to find them are the few independent stores still dotted around college towns (shopping small was another tip!). Like this sweet Fair Isle merino wool sweater and 100% cotton oxford shirt made in the USA from O’Connell’s, a family-owned and operated store in Buffalo, NY.
O’Connell’s opened in 1959, which in human years makes it a boomer. There was a tweet that recently went viral: “am I just 36 or is jcrew absolutely killing it.” One of my favorite Substackers
asked her Gen Alpha daughter what she thinks is preppy, and the surprising answer was bright pink hearts, bows and Barbie! She also shared an article about prep that Mireille Silcoff wrote for the New York Times:“My daughter’s “preppy” is not my idea of preppy — the prep of actual New England prep schools, of frayed Oxford cloth and WASPy noblesse oblige. Nor is it the aspirational varsity style of Tommy Hilfiger and 1990s rappers in rugby shirts, or even J. Crew’s self-conscious 2010s update on old-money style. Those meanings haven’t vanished…but those iterations are now known, in the TikTok world, as “old preppy.” The new sort fills its Pinterest pages with something else: colorful Stanley mugs, tiered pink micro-minis, and bulbed makeup mirrors.”1
Tiered micro-minis? Stanley mugs? The shocking shade of pink from the Emily in Paris logo instead of a nice soft pastel pink?
Old preppy?? Once my back stopped hurting after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I considered this. Is this the new prep? It’s a hard pill for this elder millennial to swallow, but I can’t deny that the effects feel good. Bright, happy, optimistic. You can pretty easily trace a straight line from Barbie to Blair Waldorf to Emily in Paris. These are all iconic American girls.
Is prep so inherently American that anything so American becomes prep?
Personally, I think “old prep” has never looked better, and I’m confident that the youths will come around. Young designers at fresh American brands like Bode and Aime Leon Dore are shaking up prep’s secret sauce, injecting it with new cultural references, lifestyles, and touchpoints. I think Tommy is doing it, too. And maybe the brand to really make old prep new again will be the brand that’s done it for decades: Ralph Lauren. In a historic move, James M. Jeter was recently promoted to Creative Director, Design & Brand Direction for Men's Polo at Ralph Lauren.2 He is the first Black Creative Director in the 57 year history of Polo Ralph Lauren.
Prep is dead. Long live prep!
x Lindsay
You have a masters in prep given your upbringing! Growing up in Baltimore, I was indoctrinated in prep at a young age as well — and The Preppy Handbook solidified my love for the lifestyle (and will be featured in early chapters of my fashion essay collection, in development).
I think prep’s evolution over the decades has been remarkable and I love that it’s still a go-to classic for me. xx
LOVE this. I recently wrote a post on Seven Sisters style and that version of prep—I deeply love your essay and how you view prep (the same way I do.)