It was interesting to see the effect the OPH had when it was published. Almost overnight it seemed, everyone got cleaned up, discarded their polyester and started to look respectable. At the time, I was quite happy to discover that what I had always worn was now attractive to girls !
Looking back, the book came along at the right time and seemed to capture the cultural zeitgeist. In 1980, we elected Ronald Regan, and turned away from Liberalism at the national level, popular music was changeing from Disco to New Wave, and the "Me Generation" was maturing into responcible homeowners and parents. In a lot of ways there was a sense of nostalgia for the past. If the book had been published in 1975 or 1985, I wonder if it would have had the same level of impact ?
12
Oh, dear. Here we have another teaching moment on the dangers of labeling---in this case, both the generalizing 'labeling' of someone, which places them, accurately or not, willingly or not, into a subset of humanity not entirely complimentary on the part of the labeler. There are also labels, those tags and other adornments which identify an article of clothing. Both figure prominently in the 'preppy' milieu. Both the real one and the near-ersatz one prompted by the Official Preppy Handbook.
To me, what it all boils down to is this: Before the word 'preppy' came along (some say a line from Ali McGraw's character in Love Story was the first mainstream reference to the term, who knows), Americans of a certain socio-economic strata, whether they actually attended preparatory school or not, all came with the same collective appointment and---always---the same basic demeanor. That's where manners come in. "A gentleman never insults someone unintentionally" is a favorite line of mine from 'A Summer Place', a technicolor example of late 1950's prepdom/upper-middle-class-dom America. But that's another story.
What it boils down to is, every man worth his salt had button-down shirts and cuffs on his trousers; every woman had the right dress for the right occasion. And everyone---everyone---knew the correct fork. It was a time in America before 'labels' (both varieties). Men and women worked hard, and no one condescended to call the 'yuppies.'
Preppy is a state of mind.
19
The preppy look was how everyone dressed when I started Newcomb College at Tulane in 1970. Izod shirts, Villager dresses with penny loafers (no socks), Sperry Topsiders, the works. By 1974 when I graduated, the girls had swapped the Villager dresses for denim cutoffs and tshirts with no bra. Their unshaved legs ended with feet wearing Birkenstocks, and the boys had stopped cutting their hair. The Preppy Handbook was a fun and accurate lookback at my college years, and my copy is still in the house somewhere (gotta go look...)
18
I have a feeling Ralph Lauren was inspired by that book.
28
Oh dear! Alex P. Keaton was by no means preppie. He was FAR too uptight, and concerned -- openly -- about money.
29
In my Boston area high school in the late fifties and early sixties we called it dressing "colleege". Chinos, Weejuns, dirty bucks, shetland sweaters, Oxford cloth shirts. It was our uniform.
25
Hard for "the kids today" to understand a pre-internet age where this level of decoding required patience and attention. One couldn't just go out and find a Lilly dress (much less afford it). One had to notice it, comment on it, figure out which brand it was, find out where to buy it, etc. Oh....and woe to you who wore it all spiffed-up!
26
I don't understand where aprons fit into the preppy oeuvre, but I still have my promotional apron from the book tour way back when. I always kind of wondered why it wasn't a promotional sweater that one could tie around one's neck.
9
I recognized the cover of this book from an event here last month. Have enjoyed the NYT article and the comments.
Last month the Anglican Church in my James Bay neighbourhood of Victoria, Canada, had its annual jumble sale. My family helped sort books for sale. There had to be at least twelve copies of The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (British) and one or two of The Official Preppy Handbook (American). All paperbacks were priced at fifty cents (Canadian) each and believe all the Sloane/Preppy books sold.
In many pockets of Canada this 'preppy' look and way of life have never gone away and predates both books. Pockets of Victoria in Oak Bay, James Bay, other parts of British Columbia, up island in Mill Bay village, Shawnigan Lake village, Cobble Hill village, one will see this. To tell you the truth we do not notice it. It just is.
We Canadians for the most part are practical and Scottish-Canadian frugal. The look never goes out of style so why would one change it? Our clothing is made out of actual fabric and not plastic.
Throughout Canada one will find this. In Ontario they are sometimes referred to as FOOF's (Fine Old Ontario Families).
Not sure why in Canada so many pockets of the Preps exist. Perhaps our colonisation by Brits and especially the Scots are a factor.
I am now sorry I did not purchase one of the American Prep books to see what it is about as I do so enjoy satire. And, like many, many Canadians, my drink of choice is a hail and hearty G&T.
29
As an acquaintance of a compiler of the "Preppy Handbook" I'd like to add that long before it became trendy, "we" bought our clothes from the L.L.Bean catalog and the new comer "Lands End."
Why? Not to make a fashion statement.
But because they delivered.
Before the proliferation of credit cards, on line retailing, even 800 numbers.
Fill out the order form, include a personal check, (or believe it or not cash) put it in the mail and your order would be delivered right to your door. Whether you lived on a farm, an island, a school dorm or in the middle of nowhere. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed.
A decent selection of tough, durable good quality merchandise unavailable at the small town local stores.
Wool sweaters. Cotton button down collar shirts, web belts, duck boots. My first down jacket. The entire "uniform."
Returns? Repack, affix the return label and send it back for a refund. No questions asked.
A decent selection of tough, durable good quality merchandise unavailable at the small town local stores.
Wool sweaters. Cotton button down collar shirts, web belts, duck boots. My first down jacket. The entire "uniform."
p.s. if you consider yourself to have been a "preppy" then you probably still have your Navy Blue L.L. Bean Norwegian Fishermens Sweater in a drawer somewhere. I still do.
67
A friend of mine who grew up in Fall River but now lives in Metro West outside Boston once told me that you can tell the old WASP families - they're the ones who live in the old houses and don't put up Christmas lights or much yard lighting at all. I thought it was an amusing observation.
40
In your writer's rust-belt hometown, a.k.a. Monroe, Michigan, the preppiest item I remember is a Monroe High School public schooler and doctor's son readying for the Ivy League by scrubbing his Gant button-down shirts over rocks to frazzle the collars so they would look as if he had been wearing button-downs all his elite life. Then there was a lot of stuff about white bucks, but we just played basketball on garage hoops in the driveways on St. Mary's Avenue and never heard of Lacoste and did our Latin homework.
16
In my day it was the "Frats" and the "Greasers" that gave way to the "Hippies". Every generation has its "drag". Like most I still have remnants of mine.
12
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Sloan Ranger Handbook. A little further down the line but just as funny - and aspirational. Of course Sloanies were British, but there were lots of followers here.
Btw - BCBG is bon chic, bon genre.
25
@Nancy, Princess Diana (née Diana Spencer) was a “Sloan Ranger”. As I recall, it meant you were an upper-class 20ish Brit who shopped on Sloan St(?), where the UK equivalent of preppy clothes shops were. The first time I heard that expression was during the flood of articles written about Diana leading up to the wedding. My kids probably have never heard it.
11
As a first generation Jewish American, prep style, or as we called it Ivy, was a way of identifying as an American. As the mantra goes....thing Yiddish, dress British.
21
There is a photo of me in Maine in 1959 or 60 with a ponytail, an Izod shirt, blue jeans, and a beaded belt. I could pull the same outfit out of my closet today except that my wear polo shirts are from LLBean or Landsend today. I went to high school way before the book was written and in a very diverse high school but those of us going on to college bought our clothes from one of a few preppy shops in town where what they sold looks very much like the day to day clothes a lot of us still wear. Yikes, I'm even wearing madras shorts and a pink polo shirt as I type this. And when I dress up, it's embroidered boho chic not so far from 1968. I was even complimented on my look by a 30 something guy at a wedding recently. LOL: what goes around comes around.
35
I still have the handbook I bought when it came out, in my book case waiting to be referred to. If you don’t know what a preppy looks like, look at all the Presidents since Ike and in particular look at that conservative wannabe, William F Buckley.
11
I knew Mason Wiley at Columbia U. He was the real deal southern style
9
Oh wow, well THAT brings me back! We didn't know what a prep school was, but there were 'preppies' at my high school, only they were called 'socials'. So it was Socials vs Scums. I doubt that many of the socials lived the life that was described in that book, but I bet they wanted to. So for us in Texas the book was part lampooning rich kids/socials, and part just a hilarious description of an East Coast Old Rich that may as well have been from another planet. When the book referred to "The Vineyard" (Martha's Vineyard) I had no idea what or where that was. My favorite t-shirts at the time were my "Texas DisArmadillos" shirt - an anti-nuclear statement - and the one with a Lacoste alligator with a red slash through it. Thanks for the memories, and I look forward to your further writing about us 80's kids and our funny culture of that time.
13
I attended the University of Virginia during this time. I recall with great joy the irreverence of wearing critter cords, a popped collar Lacoste under my starched white button down, a blue blazer and, of course, no socks with my boat shoes. It was a time of studying hard - but making sure we enjoyed our free time. Tom Shadyac (who would go on to fame in Hollywood) was also a student at UVa at this time and produced the “Are You A Preppie?” poster in 1979. Like the “Preppy Handbook,” the poster was hailed by some as “anti prep” and celebrated by others as documenting the joy of wearing “go to Hell” attire.
https://uvamagazine.org/articles/1980_preppie_profiler
Thanks for reminding me of a more carefree era.
19
The irony being that those of us in the heart of prepdom were trying very hard to disassociate from it and be accepted as one of any group that WASN'T preppy.
11
Also, at its core, a pivotal part of the history of American materialism. A snarky little book stoked by envy, becomes every social climbers and clothing manufacturers dream. A gift to Brooks Brothers, Calvin Klein, and lately, Tommy Hilfiger. Enabled them to cash in on Harvard's etc. Brand. That in turn enabled Harvards etc. marketing departments to cash in on their clothing. A marketing bonanza.
Waiting for them to write the Techies handbook and to see the "fast fashion" Walmart hoodies to increase in price..
17
@scientella I bought (and still own) a couple of shirt dresses from L L Bean, thanks to that Handbook.
6
What's really sad is that at age 76 I am still wearing most of that stuff: LL Bean, Brooks Brothers etc. Never saw any reason to change. I do miss Peter's Pub in Baltimore. S.O.T.
31
I suppose this book was great fun to read in 1980, because by that point it looked like the sun was setting on prep school graduates and their dominance of American life. From 1948 to 1984, every person elected U.S. president except Kennedy was a public high school graduate. But since 1988, every person elected president except Bill Clinton has been a private high school graduate.
A book like this doesn’t sound so funny in a country that’s turned into an oligarchical dump. Making sure your kid can attend a public school in a “super zip code” town (yes, that’s a real thing; look it up) or afford the outrageous fees to attend Salisbury, Hotchkiss, or Thayer Academy shouldn’t be a matter of life and death.
41
In the summer of 1980, I hitched around the US with worn copies of On The Road and The Dharma Bums in my backpack, wearing cut offs, carrying a harmonica, smoking weed, and listening to as much Grateful Dead as I could. By the time I got back home to New England later in the summer, the winds of cultural change were already blowing, with Reagan's election, and then the murder of John Lennon. The hippy-beatnik dream was being replaced, and it was only a year later that preppy Lacoste shirts and button down oxfords began to replace the t shirts and flannel shirts of my high school and college years. And then came the whole, awful 1980's. The Preppy Handbook was definitely a harbinger of everything that's gone wrong in America, leading to our current state of economic disparity, dog eat dog greed, and a right wing demagogue in the White House.
47
Growing up in a working class, yet college town in central CT, it was part satire....part a painful reality.
I was front seat to see why some folks struggled with everything...from ambition, education to personal finance....to how other...many who this book satirized and upheld, seemed to breeze through life...blithey unaware of just how good they had it.
They never questioned 'if' they would go to college.
They just wanted to go to the one that they most desired.
These kids had weekends in NYC and Boston with their parents....theaters, museums and brunch. They vacationed in the Caribbean in winter, and came home from 'a few weeks in Paris...then London...and I stayed with my uncle who moved there to work for...(insert name of old-line firm)
I and most of my friends....we (had to) work after school jobs ...just to have even some small comforts....and prayed to escape to anyplace that didnt work to squash your dreams, mostly around townies that you later understood didnt exactly embrace ambition or change.
The hard part when I read that book....was comparing myself...with all the pain that happens when you realize....everything you do in life...has to be measured by it's inherent risk/reward....while those satirized in this book....did not only exist, but whatever trouble they got into/ caused/ befell them....they had the resources...money and otherwise..to almost firewall them from the consequences.
45
@J Paris Yes, and now one of these kids just got confirmed to sit on the Supreme Court!
40
Thoughtful reflections on how cultural norms have shifted since the Reagan years set US on its neo-liberal course...
7
Never underestimate the power of a uniform.
48
Another humorous book from that era is "Real men don't each quiche."
10
@Vote with your pocketbook: And although it was never published, a good friend from undergraduate years drew the cartoons & wrote a book inspired by his black lab, Zeke: "Real Dogs Don't Play Dead."
5
They like cocktails at five, sailing, the right clubs, clothes that are casual chic alluding to an active lifestyle, and dogs - oh, and they are really really cheap. What else is there to know? (This astute observation coming from another "insider outsider" - a kid from an Italian family with no pedigree who went to prep schools with rich kids.)
32
It was an "in" joke, not a guide.
52
In 1983 the book seemed to refashion my college hometown of Columbia, MO, into this madras-plaid mad place seemingly overnight. It lingered forever--long past Flash Dance--because it dovetailed with this worship of wealth that came acceptable with Reagan's reign. I moved to New England, and returned home for years to find intractable prep--embraced by people who lived furthest from the prep schools.
15
Of course the Preppy Handbook is satire that pokes fun of earnest and mindless materialism of America's upper class and aspiring upper-classes. Preppies are the cross-Atlantic cousins of the French BCBG whom they resemble in many ways. Theirs is a self-satisfied assurance that they innately are not like the others. The authors' perspective is not unlike that of Nick in the Great Gatsby, who in turn admires, wishes to be accepted, is enchanted, is repelled, and longs for the unattainable self-confident nonchalance.
32
I was a junior in college and a young Democrat who was getting ready to vote for Reagan when this book came out. I laughed when I read it then, and I laughed even more as I read this very well written piece. While I still embrace the preppy dress code (polo shirts, khakis, Brooks Brothers Oxford shirts on those days I give presentations), I'm now back in the Democratic fold.
36
"The Handbook" reads today as well as it did in 1980. Prep fashion still exists, because it is timeless, AND pretty cheap to own at it's core.
Khaki pants, some Lacostes and weegans. Throw in a blue blazer, go anywhere any time. Socks not required.
Amazingly, the descriptions of the high schools and colleges are STILL true after almost 40 years.
Nasty jeans are the only thing to have invaded prep since 1980. Thank God most clubs still forbid them.
24
Brings back such conflicted feelings. Secretly liking but also reviling the preppy aesthetic. I hear from my teenage daughter that the brand vineyard vines is what the wealthy (preppy) kids are dressed in by their moms until they get a clue. I also have been bemused by the glowing white vans obsession. It seems very retro preppy.
14
The worst decision of my life — choosing to attend Hampden-Sydney College — was largely influenced by The Preppy Handbook. Somehow, for some reason, TPH's endorsement of that all-male anachronism made me think it was the kind of rarefied college experience that I was meant for. What TPH left out is that attending Hampden-Sydney is literally like being trapped in Lord of the Flies for four years. It's a decision that I've regretted for over 25 years, and although I have only myself to blame for making it, I hate the Preppy Handbook and all that it stands for with a passion that frightens me.
54
@KingGeorge If it was so awful, why didn't you transfer?
13
@HJK
Transferring was not very common back then. Usually meant something bad had happened.
23
@HJK
1) I refused to admit that I made a bad decision.
2) My parents were very proud of me for going there and I didn't want to disappoint them.
3) I kept thinking it would get better.
4) The alternative was West Virginia University.
5) Stockholm Syndrome.
6) The education was great; the culture was the problem.
7) The OPH didn't say anything about transferring.
8) I believed I should finish what I started.
71
I grew up in a working class Philadelphia family. The Official Preppy Handbook helped me navigate my time at Penn, a white shoe law firm with its requisite golf and tennis outings and club luncheons, an excursion to Martha’s Vineyard with a preppy boyfriend (Andover/Yale) boyfriend to meet his parents and numerous unfamiliar venues and situations. Although intended as humor, it was a true handbook for me and I am forever indebted to Ms. Birnbach.
92
@Babette Danadio, you’re right. It may have been humorous, but it was also true, and definitely laid out the “rules” very accurately. I’m glad it was able to make your life a little easier as it guided you through foreign territory, haha.
33
You youngsters don't seem to know that the word "preppy" came out of the novel Love Story and described the book's protagonist, Oliver something something Barrett the fourth or fifth.
26
In 1978 I was a blue-collar student studying abroad at a university in Germany, where there was a large contingent from Davidson College in NC, almost all preppies. One day one of them, a Texan, was frantic because someone stole all his IZOD shirts from the laundry room. He spent the rest of his stay trying to spot Germans wearing IZOD shirts.
50
Thanks for remembering one of the most forgotten but hugely influential fads of my lifetime.
When I moved to suburban Texas as a tween in the very early '80s, I took a mild beating on my first day of class thanks to the J.C. Penney fox on my shirt (my frugal mom still bought my clothes). I quickly learned the one acceptable animal to bear on your chest.
From 1981-83 or so the preppy look dominated in my middle and high school -- this in an environment where maybe the second-most popular look for a guy was "kicker" (full-on Western wear: cowboy hat and boots, pearl-snap shirt, tight blue jeans and a big belt buckle).
Of course in that world "preppy" was purely a fashion trend -- even my richest classmates likely had little conception of actual East Coast old-money lifestyles. We played football, not lacrosse; went fishing, not sailing; were Baptists, not Episcopalians.
But kicking off the '80s, the preppy look helped shape the rest of the decade. Prep style made it acceptable for guys to wear pastel colors (even pink!) and express an interest in designer labels -- behaviors that in the hippie '70s or grunge '90s would have seemed, frankly, pretty gay.
So "The Preppy Handbook" maybe paved the way for one of the best things about the '80s: the loosening of gender rules about things like fashion, hairstyles, makeup, etc. Of course those changes also bubbled up independently from the underground scene. But the prep look, however unintentionally, helped prepare the mainstream.
15
Though slightly older than you, I too was in Texas in late 1970s and 1980s. The “Urban Cowboy” look was very popular around this time, if you wanted to go that route. I graduated a public high school in the town where Gilleys was in 1981, and headed off to Texas A&M. Pledging a fraternity that Fall, there was a large contingent of preps, cowboys, and everything in between. This was my first exposure to Texas preps from St. Thomas and Jesuit HS in Houston, and St. Mark’s and Jesuit in Dallas. Having “escaped” Pasadena, I was certain which side I was on, and TPH was a welcome resource. I haven’t strayed since.
5
Maybe because I was just that much older than the author, it was obvious to me that the book was satire. But then, I guess the mark of great satire is that too many people take it seriously.
82
I grew up in a preppy old-money New England environment. Shirts with alligators and monogrammed clothing were worn by new money, and the 'Handbook' was plainly written by outsiders looking at New Cannan poseurs.
Living in the West I don't miss noting the subtle distinctions, but I do regret that so much of America just wears pyjamas all day, it's depressing.
105
@mkb
Ha!
I'm a foreign interloper in New England and I have met my share of the old and new money elites
The old money don't look like old money, more like normal money
..and the new money, well, new money always looks like its trying too hard
56
@mkb
I knew Mason Wiley at Columbia U he was the real deal
6
Oh well, what's so bad about preppie clothing? Beats pajamas and the here's-a-look-at my-underwear thing that passes for style.
My girl cousin wore Lady Bug, Villager, and John Meyer of Norwich outfits. (From what depths of memory did I dig that from?) We all wore madras. So what?
Wearing a jacket to a restaurant isn't the worst thing in the world. The bare-chested look is a bit déclassé, no? It really doesn't do for the metropolis, not even for Flatbush.
Saw a tourist with his family ogling apartment houses on Ocean Avenue today. Shirt wide open, no undershirt. From Europe? Not Brooklynites. What the hey?
Preppie clothing at least is tidy.
38
Great nostalgia trip, James! I always liked the book's arch humor, and I defy anyone to invent a more comfortable fabric than madras. When Gloria Vanderbilt died, I had to laugh again at the line: " ... that funny hairdo would still pass muster at Miss Porter's. Nice try, Gloria." She died with the same "do" in her mid-90s, so classics endure. My wife pointed out something that I had missed: the characters' faces were all the same: another sly take on preppy homogeneity. And as obnoxious as preppy conformity might have become by 1984 or so, it was better by miles than the "disco" look that immediately preceded it. Is anyone really nostalgic for the look of "Saturday Night Fever"? The comfort of "business casual" at the office might not have been possible without this book.
29
@John, nope-- business casual happened because Levi Strauss invented Dockers. (reference: Articles of Interest podcast, Avery Truffleman / Roman Mars )
11
I grew up in NY and CT in the 50's and 60's, raised by Ivy League parents. As such, we were dressed in a certain way, expected to behave just so, as were most of the kids I knew. No one thought of it as preppy or Ivy or anything else, it was just what was expected and done (until the late 1960's).
Imagine my surprise when, now in my 60's, I find there are whole online fora dedicated to "prep,"or "trad" as it is called. This devotion is what might accurately be called "cosplay."
The Handbook was satire; I'd never seen nor heard of it until a few years back.
18
The key characteristic to preppies is their resistance to change. Really preppies still exist, and always will.
28
While I not aware of the Preppy Handbook (I was 9 when it came out) I am full aware of the consequences it had. Growing up in wealthy east coast town (but not being wealthy), the 1980s zeitgeist of materialism & style had a negative impact on my childhood. While my friends had all the "right clothes", my parents bought our clothes at Sears Surplus and Marshalls (where the brand tags on factory seconds would be cut out). Even though I am well aware of the impact of feeling "poor" as a child had on me, it still drives me to be a workaholic to accumulate more money. I am sure our GDP appreciates it, but still hate the feeling that I am driven by some stupid style / culture when I was 10 years old.
39
We read it as a family and thought it was a kind of satire -- we would laugh hysterically and realize we might even know people we spoke or dressed like this, but not really. I remember my mom laughing at the part in the book where the kids called mom "Mummy" -- that was funny, until I went to college and actually heard people do that.
32
The Preppy Handbook was passe in 1980. It followed fashion, didn't lead it.
I, to my mild shame and regret, also played preppy, but in 1962-64, not in 1980. By the time the preppy "craze" hit, the real preppies had moved along to other pretense. I was "moved" along against my will and my new fashion was jungle fatigues and combat boots.
Most "cool" fashions, even today, are imitations of the early to mid-60's, when we wore our jeans until they were faded and torn. Now Abercombie tears and bleaches them. Even as early as 1964, LaCoste alligators were for the pretenders.
19
@Barking Doggerel
I don't know. I grew up with a lot of people who were very preppy because that was their social environment. They are still very preppy today. They aren't following fashion. They live and dress the way their parents and grandparents did.
18
@Barking Doggerel Your experience corresponds with mine. The rich kids in my (mid 60's) high school were all about Bass weejums and boat shoes, LaCoste, matching Villager sweaters and skirts for the girls, etc. I couldn't afford any of it. In College we moved on to Pop, Mod, hippy and so on and on. By the 80's preppy was, been there, done that.
14
The shadow side of the Preppy Handbook was that outsiders at college in the early 80s who wanted to be insiders very badly used the satire handbook as a social etiquette guide to put other people down, creating a very real “us” vs. “them” class system amongst the students. This was a source of real pain for many people who didn’t or couldn’t muster the requisite clothing, money, and credentials. However, what some socially ambitious people did with this book was a reflection of their reptilian character, not the intent of the authors.
The prep characters lampooned in the guide still exist today, but their culture is an anachronism in today’s world, a bubble of WASP inbreeding propped up by inherited wealth, alcohol, and a level of self-involvement that reminds me of a pure bred dog show. Perhaps the American Kennel Club can take over publication of the SR?
26
@Skip Bonbright
Unfortunately, I have to admit that I know some wasps who do not know that the book is satire.
15
Sure missed that one.
The original was: THE WHOLE EARTH CATALOGUE
f3
14
When my friends and I read thin our college day we took it as a joke and, yes, satire. I didn't realize anyone took it seriously.
43
We're all tribal, but it's the preppy and well-off whom most folks skewer. My daughter went to prep school and private college. Her Milwaukee cousins diss all things private and pastel. But who's driving John Deere tractors, wearing Carhartt gear and buying top-of-the-line fishing and hunting equipment? Her Asheville, NC cousins diss all things materialistic, but who's wearing Birkenstock shoes and buying expensive organic clothing for themselves and their children? All tribes have their brand choices even though some tribes have to diss other tribes.
90
Right on point! The book was ironic, irreverent, and a bible until it was OBE [overtaken by events] by punk/Flashdance, etc. I also grew up in Lake Erie Land, but went to a suburban public school where most dressed like this. And went on to Yale, where actually fewer dressed like this than expected. And where I eventually sang at Birnbach's birthday party, at the height of her book craze. Wearing very few alligators these days, though....
21
Terrific take on why TOPH became such a huge phenomenon. As one of the 4 authors (calling myself Carol McD. Wallace in those days, which btw was really hard to fit into a monogram), I can tell you that the book was even more fun to write than it was to read. All four of us had serious preppy credentials but outsider points of view and we spent a solid summer shrieking with laughter. Nice to think that the charm hasn't faded in all those years, even though the social structure that made preppies is long since defunct.
213
@Carol Wallace Did you purposely misspell "preppie"? I presumed it was a signal, as with "Birnbach", you really weren't preppies. We Choaties did love the book when it came out, as we, like everyone, love reading about ourselves. Most of us didn't have monograms, although it would have been helpful to the school laundry to sort our clothes. As for natural fibers, they were the only kind of clothes to stand up to the school laundry. We would send out a huge laundry bag, and get back a brown paper wrapped package three inches tall of well pressed clothes.
19
@Carol Wallace the social structure may well have collapsed, but the preps' affinity for riparian real estate endures. I hope they can hang onto it.
13
@Carol Wallace The social structure that made preppies is alive and well. We just call it "the one percent" now.
29
I grew up in Asia at the time. I distinctly recalled that someone told me at one point that I dressed like a prep school kid. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t even know what “prep school” was back then. I wasn’t into Lascote tees, but I do like pastel color shirts. At a time when very few people dressed like that, that “look” felt like a differentiator for me to express some teen individuality. Had I known better, I probably wouldn’t have opted for that preppy look, if I had known all the loaded meaning of it.
5
Reading in 9th grade and looking for my "tribe", I knew it was a humor book poking fun at this group, but boy did I aspire to belong. In the early part of the decade, in my town, rebelling meant having short hair and wearing khakis instead of jeans and a collared shirt instead of a t-shirt. The prep world was escape from middle class mediocrity. Of course, it lampooned a different sort of mediocrity, but they fell up and was unclear to me at that age how restricting it all might be.
It took me a few years to see that fitting in would be work; effort to look effortless. And I'd still never be "in". I now mish-mash a look with some of the elements today, but never had the careless reserve of someone living life with a net below them.
40
@Tom Triumph -I'm a rust-belt slob like the writer, but I was a 1st gen college student at an Ivy in the mid-eighties. Boy, did I envy the "casualness" of my WASPy prep-school friends.
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The funny thing about the Preppy Handbook is that it reflected what "outsiders" thought prep school was like. As one of the first boarding girls at Exeter, I certainly qualified; but despite wearing some of the clothes described, very few of us fit the satire. We worked really hard in high school, and were more interested in getting into good colleges than in fitting the stereotypes.
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@jfdenver - I went to a prestigious prep school as well and while everyone cared deeply about what college they'd go to, my school absolutely fit the stereotype. Monogrammed sweaters? Check. Bermuda purses? Check. Pearls? Check. It was all about 80s capitalism.
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I once met a young woman who had been a Kappa Kappa Gamma and played field hockey at UNC. I very rudely cracked up, as she checked every major box in “The Preppie Handbook”.
The chapter on “Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa” (she wore white shoes after Labor Day) is an enduring classic.
This book.was a much-needed hilarious antidote to the lingering melancholy that the Vietnam War had cast over college campuses. It was a brief return to June Cleaver’s pearls and Hugh Beaumont’s coat and tie at the dinner table. And just underneath the superficial order lay the harmless anarchy of Wally and the Beav.
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