There are so many blogs these days about preppy style that I thought I'd make my comment to them all in a post. It's the early 1960s. We were the best dressed in our school, I dare say, and everyone knew it. This is my friend Mark Hopkins and me at 16 on Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston. Mark is wearing black and white saddle shoes from the Andover Shop in Harvard Square while I'm head to foot in Brooks Brothers boys' department: rep stripe tie, blue and white stripe shirt, gray flannel trousers and Weejuns (unseen).
More Brooks Brothers at my prep school graduation: the blue blazer, the rep stripe tie, the white Oxford button-down collar shirt. The preppy look was something we thought about, but not too much. And what's more, it was a gentleman's agreement among us all that you never, ever talked about it. Once you talked about it it became false—if you had the style, it was there in spite of you.
Years later, the sixties were still doing their thing and we maturing preppies were part of it. The hair was longer but the style was entrenched. The Brooks blazer, frayed at the elbows, still has a life, the pink corduroy pants meant flare. This is me on my first trip to Mardid in 1970. I thought I'd show it because Gil and I are off to Madrid on Wednesday and I haven't been there since I met up with two girlfriends from Boston studying abroad all those years ago.
This was me a month or so before I left for Europe in 1970, a product of a time and place.
And in 1974 in Boston when I was a young Mad Man in the advertising business. All the attire is still Brooks.
In 2010, after nearly 30 years of living in Italy, the old boy has his DNA written across his face but the style he favors is European by now. The suit is bespoke, a must in Europe, the shoes are Cleverly of London, the tie is Missoni, the shirt has a spread cut-away collar and the cuffs are French—all Italian, and yet it's still me.
A billiard table green woolen jacket from Lucciano Gallacci, that too bespoke, as are the trousers, a custom made shirt from Franco Montanelli, Lucca, shoes by George Cleverly, London, a pocket square of natural indigo dyed silk, and yes, a rep striped tie (I must say I rarely wear them anymore as they have no significance to me and my world, pretty and dignified as they are. I suppose you could say, I've grown up.) There you have it, enough said!
17 comments:
You have aged extremely elegantly, and the Italian cut is much more suitable. I once favoured the bright colours of the preppy style - buttercup yellow trousers, large bold striped shirts, but at work I only ever wore dark (usually blue) suits, white shirts, (with cutaway collars) and blue and white silk ties, white silk pocket handkerchief. On the rare occasions when I wear a suit now, this remains the uniform. I had the suits made, and I don't need anymore in this lifetime, and I have shirts made here, with varying degrees of success. The shoes I wear on these occasions are Church's, and there is a surfeit of them too for this lifetime.
Handsome and appropriately dressed at every stage, burnished over time. That is how it should be done, but rarely is...
Questo blog é stupendo, lo sto leggendo cosí volentieri, mi piace tanto il buon gusto, cosa purtroppo al giorno d'oggi rarefatta
complimenti sinceri
Laura Tedeschi
Yes, "time and place" but also, as you say, DNA. The key is that the shift in sources hasn't wrought a change, but a new verse. Concept and tone remain completely consistent, effortless.
Hi Paul. I went to Nasson New Division with Gil. I must say you are looking quite dapper at any age.
" It was a gentleman's agreement among us all that you never, ever talked about it." Finally someone has said it, now lets stop all this self satisfied Im the bigger better preppy nonsense. Three cheers for Gervias!
Other than David Hicks "My Kind Of Garden" no one has ever shown so many beautiful gardens in one place with such an edited eye. Your Blog is my kind of heaven. Thank you!
To Anon: After I posted this last I worried for a moment that I might have offended those preppy bloggers out there by writing what you quoted back; it had not been my intention. That said, and in constructive response to your comment, I'd left out of my post more than a few observations about the matter. Firstly, "preppy" is for kids. It's definition in translation might be "the style of the upper class American youth." What I don't get is that there are all these preppies in their 50s out there taking pictures of their feet in Weejuns and posting them to all the world. How could any adult of sound mind waste his time on such an effort? If the word "preppy" is synonymous with dignified then the term is being misused yet again in this way. I love style and clothes as much as anyone but a gentleman never calls attention to himself by saying, "I'm classy because I choose to wear this particular shoe or pullover and anyone who doesn't isn't." Call it something else then, but not preppy, not dignified nor classy (a term I regret almost as much). How about the "I refuse to grow up look?" Thanks by the way for your remarks about my blog's true concern, the gardens. We'll be back strolling in them shortly.
My dear, you, like a good Bordeaux, have aged very well...you must be secretely following the Columnist's eating and exercise programme! and you are so right, "dignified" people of a certain "class" don't talk about such nonsense. They just are. If you look back at the generation before ours, people like the Babe Paley's of this world had class and style even without their clothes on.
Paul, voici bien une très belle définition de l'élégance et du chic!!!
Rare et parfait!
✿◕ ‿ ◕✿
You look great, then as now. I think the most important thing is knowing one's style and sticking with it!
Navy suit is know as the power suit and you pull it off amazingly.
How could any adult of sound mind waste his time on such an effort?
If we're thinking of the same blogger, he's pretty open about not being of sound mind.
But you're quite right: Forty, fifty years ago there was hardly any talk at all about clothes. A few friends were borderline obsessives about certain things -- and I certainly had too many shirts -- but to comment on what another boy was wearing was just not something that crossed our minds.
lindaraxa --
You know more about Babe Paley with her clothes off than I do.
Ancient, I had no particular blogger in mind, but I'm aware of several and they're not all men by any means. As for Babe P., even to Truman she was an "unfinished novel."
The preppy look was a major style theme during my high school years during the late 70's. It may have been in resurgence as a reaction to the more slovenly styles of the day, then again the prep look has always had a place in certain Southern circles. My school was fairly well divided between the preps and the freaks, as were my brother and me. He was the prep and I the freak. Today he has the corporate job and I get to play in the dirt.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting on my blog recently.
all very stylish and really funny the adoring looks all the ladies in the pictures are giving you!
I passed on a Stylish blogger award to you Paul...looks even more appropriate after this post!
http://www.concretejungleblogspot.com/2011/01/with-many-thanks-to-fantasy-decorator.html
Oh Paul, the words 'sartorial elegance' came to mind as soon as I saw these images! I love Boston with all my heart, so I couldn't be more delighted to know that's where you hail from originally. Of course if you came to visit us Down Under, you'd need to swap the George Cleverly's for a pair of flip-flops, but everything else would be fine!
Millie x
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