It’s how you wear it
This is a guest post by Matthew Barrison. His blog is really interesting and can be found at WorkingDefinition.com
A casual visitor to this site may find it a bit pedantic or brand obsessed. Fair enough. However, since brand = lifestyle aspiration, we must ponder things a bit more deeply. The main theme behind this aspiration is fitting in and bettering oneself, a task which I find to be truly American. And on that note, I bet that you have been thinking about what aspirational appeal the American brand holds these days. Part of me doesn’t get it, i.e. the long supply chain and its remote consequences, but another part of me understands it perfectly and sees the potential for re-calibration of the system. Thus we return to the theme of fitting in to better one’s self and progeny. The American brand has long been about just that; Ralph Lauren came from a family of immigrant Eastern Jews. For many people around the world, America still holds that promise; to many of our contemporaries, however, our recent actions have led them to volubly question our long held presupposition of preeminence. Nonetheless, we strive to re-articulate that brand by getting back to what is good, aspiration, a value of timeless fashion. Sure, we get swayed by trends a little, but at heart we are there to do good and look sexy all the while.
Wimbledon
Well, besides perhaps polo and sailing, tennis is probably one of the preppiest sports out there, so with the Wimbledon Championships going on until July 6th, I thought I would talk about it. A classic tournament, part of the Grand Slam, it is particularly preppy due to the grass courts. I have never played on grass, but I hear, its a very interesting experience. Before I talk about Wimbledon, I should say that I have only played tennis for a few years, but it is a sport I am very passionate about.
One qualm I have though, is the amount of time and money that must be invested. With other sports, like basketball example, it is easy to just get a hoop, and practice freethrows or shoot around with your friends. However tennis requires expensive clothes, rackets being restrung, and nearly always a membership at a club, in addition to court fees. And that’s just to have fun with friends, or practice. First you must take dozens of $75 an hour lessons, to either fix your backhand or unlearn some bad habit with your stroke or serve. It is a sport that requires appointments and commitment just to practice and play.
Once one gets around this though, and begins to improve, it can be very rewarding. When the ball goes over just perfectly, or you ace a serve, it is quite gratifying. On the other hand it is an enormously frustrating sport when you make mistakes, as every shot’s fate is decided by you. In team sports you feel like you can blame others as well as yourself for loses or mistakes, but with singles tennis its all on you. That’s what I love about tennis; every shot can be decided by you, and comebacks from being down, are particularly exciting.
But I digress. This year, the Wimbledon Championships are as exciting as ever, and as preppy as ever. Since 2006 Ralph Lauren has provided the uniforms for the officials and ball boys, and I think they did a terrific job. For an event with such tradition as Wimbledon, to invite an American Fashion house to freshen up and change the uniforms was a big move, but it certainly paid off ($10 million dollars to be exact…).
Although they are about two years old, these uniforms are a real breath of fresh air from the old green ones that they used to have. Ralph Lauren did an excellent job of keeping a very prestigious English feel to the uniforms, especially with the thick white lines, and sharp collars. I can’t quite remember how the old green uniforms used to be since its been a few years, but I imagine it must get very hot in those blazers at times. Luckily its only about 70 degrees and breezy today.
While the line judges and officials are busy being preppy in their Ralph Lauren Blazers, the players themselves are in a way preppy as well. Whether its Nadal always in his signature capris, or Federer and others who are always in Men’s Vogue and GQ, tennis is a sport that is also in some way about fashion.
Like all sports with high entry prices, although one can play in normal clothes, few choose to do so. Take snowboarding for example. Who would have thought that kids and adults who were thought of as punks and slackers would have cared so much about how they look when they ride, but they do. Yes, most choose not to match their clothes, but many snowboarders spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on new 59fifty hats, oakley goggles, or new cargo board pants. With tennis it is all about not only playing well, but having a good collared tennis shirt to play in as well as other expensive clothes and equipment. While wearing capris like Nadal isn’t exactly preppy, the fact that men and women alike often care about what they wear while playing is interesting. Wearing nice clothes won’t make you a better tennis player, but you’ll feel better than you would in regular gym clothes.
The third preppy part of Wimbledon and tennis in general is the preppiness of the crowd. Although tickets are just as expensive as any sporting event, Wimbledon always attracts people to dress up. Similar to events like The America’s Cup, and The Triple Crown races, most people dress up in their finest summer attire to watch the matches.
As you can see from this shot, the crowd is a sea of pastel colors and expensive polos and button-down shirts. You can also see the old green uniform on the guy behind Federer. Although I have never been to Wimbledon myself, living in a preppy town with many tennis enthusiats I know a few people who got the chance to go, and of course they dressed up for the matches. Although I have not gone to Wimbledon I have been to both England and Ireland multiple times, and it seems like dressing up for events like this is somewhat common. In America sure, people will dress up to go to a basketball game maybe or something like that, but over there events have a different feel. Horse races are not just for the very rich, as many of my working class cousins often dressed up and went to races. I think this should be more prevalent in the US. Wearing your favorite player’s shirt is great for going to a game; when there’s a sea of red in the stadium for a Red Sox game, or a sea of green or white for the Celtics (Sorry I live in MA…) its uplifting for a team or fan to see. But all too often people spend copious amounts of money on tickets and look like they are just dressed to do errands or something. If you’re going to spend $100+ for tickets for a few hours, and you’re not going to wear a jersey or shirt to support the team, for goodness sake, throw on a collared shirt or something.
So while I have no chance whatsoever of being good enough at tennis to play at Wimbledon, at least someday I hope to dress the part and experience the tradition that is the Championships. Here’s to good tennis…
Summer’s comin’ Time to get preppy
Which means its shorts season. Okay, so people have been wearing shorts for a while now, but I haven’t worn pants for over a week, and since I only have three good pairs of shorts. I thought I would write about them, since I am in dire need.
First of all, when it comes to shorts there are five main different preppy styles.
First there is the classic Madras. Madras was popular in the sixties, because it had non-colorfast dyes so it bled every time it was washed, making the plaids look different each time. This is just what I’ve read though, does Madras shorts today still do that? I had never seen Madras before last year, but I kind of like it now. I guess its grown on me, because I used to think it looked a little wacky with all the different plaid patches. I like these ones from J crew, but I don’t know what they would look good with since the colors are so random. Probably a white shirt of some sort, but I’d definitely try them on in the store first with something else, just so that you know you don’t look like a preppy hobo.
The second style is the Khaki Dock Short. This is a very simple refined look that looks great with a nice belt. Leather can be good, but vineyard vines whale belts like the one shown 
are really the only way to go in my opinion. One thing to watch out for is to make sure that the shorts are long enough. Sure models can wear shorter shorts but normal people really shouldn’t. I would say that the length of the ones in the picture is acceptable if they are shimmied down the waste a little bit. Dock Shorts don’t have to be like board shorts, but all to often there are guys wearing expensive shorts that are far too short. Maybe it is society’s fault for making us dislike guys wearing shorter shorts even if it looks acceptable, but for goodness sake, please just get shorts that fall around the knee. No one wants to see your strange tan lines, or upper thighs… Anyways I think everyone should have a good pair of khaki dock shorts, or another color, to replace that pair of cargo shorts that nearly everyone has. Okay, so cargo shorts can be not that bad. after all J Crew is advertising a pair on their main page, but for the most part cargo shorts convey a sense of college douchebaggery. Get a pair of Dock Shorts (God knows I need a pair) and you’ll look a lot more refined. Who needs those 5 extra pockets anyways?
The third style is the Seersucker. Seersucker is a really great unique cotton, that looks very preppy in the summer. People make suits out of this stuff they like it so much. Like the dock shorts since it is just striped and unpatterned, it is a good idea to get a nice canvas belt from Vineyard Vines or somewhere. I think one of the best things about seersucker, is not only the feel and the look, but since it is cotton, they are very light shorts without being see through or anything. Therefore they are perfect for really hot summer days. These ones are from Ralph Lauren, and are pretty well priced at $50. I realize I tend to just show clothes from the same few brands; Ralph Lauren, J crew, Vineyard Vines, but I promise I’ll try to branch out to more Brooks Brothers and other lesser known preppy brands. (I chose these because they all looked good, and were moderately priced for shorts.) .
The fourth style is the patterned bermuda shorts. In the last few years, the patterned shorts became very popular with nearly every company associated with preppiness embroidering some sort of symbol, whether it be a martini, a swordfish, or a map of nantucket. The trend for this year seems to be moving towards bigger logos, and less embroidering. I’m not sure I like this, it reminds me of gangster clothing, like Billionaire Boys Club. Either that or boxers… Maybe it just hasn’t been done well yet. Regardless, I really like these Ralph Lauren patterned shorts on the right the right. They took a similar logo to the one on their match crest polos and patterned it on the shorts. I really like this idea, and I think its a really good way of taking something that’s been done, a lot, and instead of just smacking a normal pony on it, being creative and putting their match crest polo scene.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
One thing that ’s nice (or also kind of not so nice, depending on your income) is the price of all these shorts. Apart from a few exceptions, nearly every pair of shorts I’ve seen in a preppy variety is between $49-$69. This is a little steep at first if you don’t have a very good income (like me) but its nice that nearly every pair of shorts is in this price range, when other things like shirts and pants can vary greatly. Hey, most Vineyard Vines belts cost around $40 - $50 so shorts being that much could almost be a steal. Moral of the story: if you’re preppy, make sure you have a fair number of different shorts. There are a lot of sale going on, and with everything in the same price range, its the perfect time to pick up one of each kind to expand your wardrobe. As for the new theme of large logos on shorts, its up to you. Maybe wait until they’re a little more refined looking, but if you like them, don’t let me stop you. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to make sure that the shorts you buy are at least upper knee length : )