Why do people hate on the preppy look?

[stevent]



Depends on what place's frat boys. If you're talking about your average low tier fraternity at Penn State or Iowa, then yes. Preppy has no similarity with flatbill hats and baggy basketball shorts. If you're talking about Washington and lee, Hampdon Sydney, UVA, and the SEC's fraternities, they are very similar to New England with a few differences--notably the love of New Balance 993s, Pocket t's, and hate of popped collars.

In terms of "frat prep" I think you're going off a slightly idealized view. SEC is not that nice. It depends more on the house itself and where the majority of brothers are from. (and to some extent, money) I think it comes to valuing brands as well, I haven't bought a Ralph Lauren blue label polo in ages because the quality is actually a joke. But to most people, blue label is considered sacred and the best money can buy. I think preppy is best done when the logos are only visible when the clothes are not tucked (shirt tails etc) or not visible at all. Running around in matching polo cap, shirt, shorts and sperrys just looks funny. When I wore a much nicer boat shoe than Sperrys people called my shoes "knock offs" and said Sperrys are 10x better. That's the kind of prep that pisses me off. And also boat shoes are NOT business casual or formal shoes, it's embarrassing to see people wearing them to formal chapter.

 

[poly800rock]

i could dress head to toe in polo or lacoste, and don't think i'd ever be preppy. asian people aren't really preppy, more nerdy. no old money to go around. and these were the kids I lived with when I lived in new england for 7 years. house on the cape with a boat type kids.

 

[KitAkira]

Request thread title be changed to

 

[bl@ster]



I wonder if you clicked through that whole slideshow. Some of them are mixed with streetwear. Some of them aren't, and are, in fact, very clean cut. I think both work, and both look like prep to me. Perhaps I'm uninformed about the taxonomy of prep.

I also have no problem understanding context. Actually, my point was that prep was only being considered in a white, northeastern, JFK sort of context—the stereotypical view of it—when in fact it's much more widespread than that now. If you just want to talk about that WASP (well, WASC in JFK's case) context that's fine, but then you're having a discussion about what prep was 60 years ago and not what it means today, which seems to be what we're talking about. For that matter, if you'd clicked all the way through the slideshow, you would have seen the vintage pics of black preps, which shows that prep hasn't been exclusively white for a long time now. When people talk about it as a white thing, they're just plain wrong.

Thank you for bringing sanity to this otherwise insane thread.

 

[dwyhajlo]



WASP (well, WASC in JFK's case)

Well, if we're going to be that way, then it's really more of WIC thing, isn't it?

 

[Amelorn]

In abbreviated nutshell:

Class/background: A bias (justified or not) against the stereotypical upper-middle/upper boating & regatta class.
Regional: A bias against New England + NY/NJ. (Yes, Southern Prep exists, but New England drives the trend)
Frat boys: They've co-opted the style and moderately bastardized it (flip flops, popped collars, etc). As a group, notoriously awful behavior doesn't help.

That said,

Khakis, boat shoes, polos, and oxford button downs were a staple of the men I grew up around. In high school, I was surrounded by golfers, the odd boater, and many, many, MANY, future (now current) frat boys. Picking up the style has been inevitable.

 

[Bam!ChairDance]

I want to be an odd boater.

 

[LawrenceMD]



When I wore a much nicer boat shoe than Sperrys people called my shoes "knock offs" and said Sperrys are 10x better. That's the kind of prep that pisses me off. And also boat shoes are NOT business casual or formal shoes, it's embarrassing to see people wearing them to formal chapter.

it works the other way too: I've read about how much better quoddy boat moccasins are, but in reality the $300 pair of quoddys aren't going to last any longer than my $65 sperry's if used on a sailboat being soaked with salt water and baked in the sun. Sure the quoddy's may be custom made by hand and fit better, but still the price isn't justified when used as regular boat shoes.

 

[dinogj]

I dress like a douchebag prep when i sail my ************* splintering 10ft bluejay around the long island sound. Captains hat, nantucket red pants, sebago's, usually no shirt.
you know what? its awesome. haters gonna hate.

 

[slack tide]

 

[tween_spirit]

I spent a summer on a Hinckley 59 (I can't believe I just said that) and that crowd with serious boats like that didn't let any street shoes anywhere near their ****, hence my skepticism.

Although the fishing argument made a good case for shoes on a boat, as did the splintering bluejay

Either way a lot of the other stuff I wanted to say seems to have been addressed - "preppy style", whatever that may mean, isn't exclusive to old money WASPs, and sure as hell isn't indicative of it, nor has it been in any of our lifetimes. It's like anything else on here, a ******* style. It has people that do it well, people that don't, people that "get it" and people that don't.

Some of SF's treasured brands are just updated prep: BoO is blatantly, Ervell too, etc.

I'm not close to being either rich or a WASP, but it doesn't mean preppy style can't be appropriated just like anything else.

 

[London]

subverted more like it

 

[1969]

Hate is because it requires no thought it's just a uniform. In fact that's one of it's main points-accessibility.

 

[slack tide]



Hate is because it requires no thought it's just a uniform. In fact that's one of it's main points-accessibility.

Simply put and right imo^ (edit; with respect to its modern day iterations)

topic has been moved to bodybuilding dotcom S&P thread

 

[Wess]



Simply put and right imo^ (edit; with respect to its modern day iterations)

topic been moved to bodybuilding dotcom S&P thread

Why did you make me find this post?