East Coast Prep vs. Southern Prep vs. West Coast Prep. What’s the difference?

[TheDroog]

I've seen these terms lazily thrown around here and there, but I have yet to fully understand what distinguishes one from the other. Are there true aesthetic differences between them? Is one more "authentic" than the others? And do certain brands gravitate towards one type more than the others? (eg. Is Vineyard Vines a Southern Prep company?)

If you know, please chime in.

 

[romafan]

i'll leave it to others to debate the authenticity abd aesthetic differences, but fwiw the brothers who started vv were from greenwich(ct)

 

[TheDroog]

FYI, what inspired this question is what I saw when I visited Charleston, SC last summer. On a Saturday night around the bars, I saw armies of guys (mostly frat dudes) wearing long sleeve OCBDs, khaki shorts, leather belts, flip flops, (and sometimes baseball caps). This is not what guys I know wore to bars in the summer in the northeast. The long sleeve shirt with shorts combination also threw me.

Southern prep girls also seemed to dress up way more than their NE counterparts ... higher heels, tighter dresses, more makeup.

 

[Ich_Dien]

As an Englishman, I'd also like to know.

 

[Marcus Brody]

There is an interesting discussion/debate about this immortalized in one of the stickies of Ask Andy's Trad forum. You might check that out. It's not exactly concise, but it is sociologically enlightening in a lot of ways.

 

[voxsartoria]

Originally Posted by TheDroog

If you know, please chime in.

East Coast Prep vs. Southern Prep vs. West Coast Prep form the three corners of a vast Bermuda triangle.

In ancient lore, the triangle is a shape that is used verious mystical guises, for example, on the back of the dollar bill:

More than this I cannot say.


- B

 

[romafan]

vaclav was doing some digging on this issue as well. the response from the trads indicated he was getting somewhere - perhaps too close for comfort....

 

[mikemas22]

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

East Coast Prep vs. Southern Prep vs. West Coast Prep form the three corners of a vast Bermuda triangle.

In ancient lore, the triangle is a shape that is used verious mystical guises, for example, on the back of the dollar bill:

More than this I cannot say.


- B

Now I'm gonna watch "National Treasure" and "National Treasure 2" again...

 

[voxsartoria]

Originally Posted by mikemas22

Now I'm gonna watch "National Treasure" and "National Treasure 2" again...

Those movies are blasphemy in preppy triangle circles.


- B

 

[mikemas22]

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Those movies are blasphemy in preppy triangle circles.


- B

Yeah, but there was 1 nice looking actress and 1 nice looking actor.

And the answer to the OP's question is easy anyway. They wear horsebit loafers in the east, chuck taylors in the west and boatshoes in the south.... Right?

 

[NakedYoga]

Originally Posted by mikemas22

They wear horsebit loafers in the east, chuck taylors in the west and boatshoes in the outh.... Right?
That's actually a pretty interesting observation. I am a native Southerner, and the typical prep look for me usually included boat shoes... generally Sperry Top-Siders. Of course, now, boat shoes in the South are a required part of the uniform for most fraternities, prep or otherwise. The Sperrys are also typically extremely beat up, which I always found interesting considering their purpose is to avoid scuffing up the deck of your boat. Also, boat shoes are not exclusive to men in the South. Women often wear them, too. Other important accessories in the South include Polo shirts (de rigeur, and it is important to wear ones with the pony logo clearly visible), baseball caps, North Face fleece jackets, Rainbow sandals, Clarks Wallabees, gray New Balance tennis shoes (the 900-series model, I think), and Croakies for your sunglasses (not sure what the current "cool" shade style is, I see a lot... I've always worn Wayfarers).

Edit: You are also permitted, if not encouraged, to wear your Croakies out at night when the sun is down.

 

[djs488]

i'm pretty sure croakies are an exclusively southern prep thing. don't see them much in the northeast. long-sleeve OCBDs and shorts are a staple for sure (no one where's short sleeve buttondowns). rugby tops are popular in the northeast.

 

[pejsek]

Maybe I'm just a purist. It seems to me there's really no such thing as prep outside of the NE US.

Southern Prep seems like a recent--if massively popular--phenomenon, but best explained as an expression of native social conservatism. And that's why you see the peculiar dogmatic insistence on a past that never was, composed completely of undarted jackets etc. with nothing made outside of or harkening from anyplace outside of the four corners of the continental US.

The West Coast has had solid bastions of traditional dressing such as San Francisco back in the day. But again I don't think you could really call this prep. We don't really have the boarding school/country club culture out here in the same way. The West Coast has also been much more fervent in its embrace of anglophilia. Cable Car Clothiers can't pass up an opportunity to throw a Union Jack on something; and immsmc they used to call their shirts by styles such as London and Midlands. Where would Carroll & Co. be without all the specially-made British goods? I'd also bet that the most lucrative revenue stream for Church's and Alan McAfee shoes ran straight down from Seattle to Los Angeles.

 

[shoreman1782]

NE--Brooks Bros.
South--Ben Silver
West--J Crew

Almost all of the people I know who went to real prep schools (not Catholic prep schools, like me) would never dress "prep" on purpose. Most of the fraternity-type preps look like all their clothes are new. Very un-prep.

 

[NakedYoga]

Originally Posted by djs488

i'm pretty sure croakies are an exclusively southern prep thing. don't see them much in the northeast. long-sleeve OCBDs and shorts are a staple for sure (no one where's short sleeve buttondowns). rugby tops are popular in the northeast.

Yeah, the last time I was up North was in November for a job interview in Philadelphia... when I went out to explore the city, I definitely didn't see anyone with Croakies. Then again, there didn't seem to be many college-age kids in the area where I was staying. I saw some Villanova kids, but it looked like they were coming back from a basketball game or something (all wearing school shirts/colors... they just have a lot of Wildcat pride).

I have a button-down short-sleeve seersucker shirt that I often wear to the beach.