It’s very confusing, isn’t it? It seems there are two
versions of preppy:
There’s the traditional, North Eastern states, Ivy League
version which aims to both mask and declare its self-perceived superiority with
a show of idiomatic style. And then there’s the modern, general version which
is more… laid back?
How would I know? American culture is a mystery to
me in its more arcane dimensions. Rednecks I understand. Preppies? Not really.
2 comments:
Did you read this?
http://www.ivy-style.com/same-or-different-ivy-versus-preppy.html
I think your confusion may stem from the fact that you're English. So what we Americans would call "preppy" or "Ivy" you would simply call "clothes." Most preppies are Anglophiles.
Well now, that was an education. I know that fashion consciousness has existed since we stopped being hunter-gatherers, but I have no personal experience of people taking it THAT seriously.
I’m also not entirely enlightened since a lot of the terms are unfamiliar to me. I don’t, for example, know what button downs, khakis or penny loafers are.
It startled me to read ‘The English also worship American vintage.’ Do we? I’m aware that even a few of the British choose to belong to ‘clothing clubs,’ but my experience has always been that they’re generally young people who like to project an alternative culture image. I’m thinking teddy boys, mods, rockers, punks and goths. I’ve never met anyone who ‘worshipped’ American vintage, not even when I moved in more exalted circles than I do now. The only thing I’m aware we got from America in recent decades is the baseball cap, and I think that largely happened as a result of a commercial deal between the NY Yankees and Manchester United FC. This probably demonstrates how out of touch I am even with British culture, let alone American.
I was also a little taken aback by the undercurrent of elitism (dare I say snobbishness) on the part of the writer, especially when he refers to modern college kids being the ‘worst dressed’ people in the land. ‘One above the homeless and one below the visitors to amusement parks,’ or some such. Who, I wonder, does he imagine should be the arbiter of ‘best’ and ‘worst’ dressed, and does he really believe there is any such thing anyway? The latter is, of course, more down to cultural conditioning than the elitist sensibilities of one man.
And finally, it makes me a bit cagey about coming to America. I imagine I might get stopped and questioned by the fashion police. ‘What style do you call that?’ ‘Erm… jeans-and-jacket?’ ‘Not good enough. What’s it called? You have five seconds to answer or we arrest you.’ Gulp!
But thank you, Maddie. I now have another little angle on American-ness. You’re OK.
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