a bunch of debs

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P is for Preppy (which is the incorrect way of spelling it--jean)

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Preppy, preppie, or prep (all abbreviations of the word preparatory) refers to a modern, widespread United States clique, often considered a subculture. Preppy is both an American adjective and an American noun, while prep is only an American noun, traditionally used in relation to Northeastern private university-preparatory schools and denotes a person seen as characteristic of an attendee of these schools.^[1] Although considered slang, the noun prep has become a colloquialism in the United States and has largely replaced the noun preppy. Characteristics of preps include a particular subcultural speech, vocabulary, accent, dress, mannerisms, and etiquette reflecting Northeastern, upper-class families in the United States.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Definition 2 Fashion 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Definition

The term preppy derives from the expensive pre-college preparatory or prep schools that upper-middle-class children on the United States's Northeastern states sometimes attend.^[3] Lisa Birnbach's 1980 book Official Preppy Handbook, which was written to poke fun at the rich lives of privileged East Coast college students but ended up glamorizing the culture, portrays the preppy social group as well-educated, well-connected, and although exclusive, courteous to other social groups without fostering serious relationships with them. Being well-educated and well-connected reflects their upper-class status, which encourages higher education and professional success.^[4]
The term preppy is particularly well-known amongst American teenagers, but high school preps differ from traditional, East Coast preps. The usage of preppy in American high schools is quite often used to refer to a fashion choice, rather than the preppy lifestyle associated with upper-class East Coast preps. Prep in American high schools, simply refers to those who dress preppy. Unlike traditional, East Coast preps who come from upper-class families, high school preps are often middle-class and may be upper-class. Hollywood films of the 1980s, such as John Hughes' Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club, characterized high school preps of the 1980s, who are depicted as a shallow and transparent group primarily concerned with extrinsic things. The three most explicit of these extrinsic desires are often popularity within their own high school, physical appearance, and material possessions.

[edit] Fashion

Preppy fashion started in the 1950s as the Ivy League style of dress.^[5] J. Press represents the quintessential preppy clothing brand, stemming from the collegiate traditions which shaped the preppy subculture. J. Press and Brooks Brothers, the latter also being highly associated with preppy fashion, had stores on Ivy League school campuses, such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, during the mid-twentieth century. Ralph Lauren, Vineyard Vines, and Elizabeth McKay are also frequently perceived as having preppy styles. New York City maintains itself as the headquarters for most preppy clothing lines, such as J. Press, Brooks Brothers, and Ralph Lauren, reflecting the impact of East Coast culture on preppy lifestyle. Examples of preppy attire include argyle sweaters, chinos, madras,^[2] Nantucket Reds,^[2] button down Oxford cloth shirts, and boat shoes.<sup>[2]



Wikipepedia did fairly well  with this, but left out Abercrombie and Fitch( it was of major import at Christmas time for buying presents for your Dad. I even knew the secret side elevator--Once I got caught in it with a famous newscaster --it was a tiny elevator made all of wood). Wikipedia also  made a big mistake by putting in Ralph Lauren, which is more "wannabe preppie". He is a big fake. I know his real last name. Preppie people are VERY anti-Semitic. It is disgusting.  I don't know anything about the more modern preppie stores like Vineyard Vines and Elisabeth McKey, but I will tell you that monogrammed everything in your own initials in script  on lime green, in pink trim, or on  navy with lime green, on your shoes and pocketbook was essential when I was growing up. So were printed frogs or turtles on your skirts or turtlenecks. So were flannel Lanz nightgowns. EVERYONE had this stuff.

 I was horrified to be born into this  group, and left the fold as soon as possible after being trapped in a boarding school/prison in Maryland  with other preppie girls for a number of years. It was the same school my sister and my mother had gone to. THEY HAD LOVED IT.I WANTED TO DIE the whole time I was there.  I WANTED TO BE A HIPPIE. I wanted to be, therefore I was..I had long long hair and long long bangs. I wore a purple shirt as a dress with purple tights and black boots and big earrings.Well when I wasn't wearing a uniform, which was required.  I wasn't even supposed to have pierced ears--that was improper.  But I broke away from my family's strict orders not to do it,  and had a friend pierce my ears using a needle in my dorm room with a bunch of girls sitting on a bed behind us squealing "GROSSSSSSSS!" as it was being done.  The next day the headmistress  got on the loudspeaker at lunch and announced to the whole school (all 131 of us)  that there was to be NO EAR PIERCING from then on.

I had to"come out" : that is, be presented to New York Society as a debutante at a number of balls, wearing a white dress and over the elbow white leather gloves. I used all my older sister's stuff . She really IS preppie.  That is OK with me; I don't judge her. I just didn't like it for myself.  I went to the JA's (the Junior Assemblies), and The Grosvenor Ball and maybe one other deb thing. You know, like somebody else's whole party in honor of herself. My sister had a whole party at our club as well as doing the stuff I went to.

We were raised to curtsy when we shook hands as children. We were raised to never call any man Sir. Girls didn't do that, only boys. It was improper. There were lots and lots of rules we were taught as children which I remember to this day. I remember the incredible horror of the early seventies when people began sending out reply cards with their wedding invitations. This was just like, so WRONG.  I cannot even express  how this rocked our world. THE HUMANITIES@! --as they say. There was a correct way to do everything and THAT was THAT. 

The major reason I didn't like it was the jerkiness of many of my early childhood friends, who all attended the same elementary school with me, Which my sister and my mother has also gone to. When my friends got to be around 13 or 14, they all started drinking (this is what the parents did)  and many of them also began smoking pot.  You would think that if I saw myself as a hippie I would have jumped on the pot bandwagon instantly, but the fact is, I noted that the dumbest people whom I grew up with thought they were the coolest people in the whole world after they began smoking pot.  Dumb did not equal cool to me, so I never smoked pot.  I didn't drink until I turned 18 either, which was the legal age at the time in NY.

It was not easy being me. Forces of society pushed me left and right  like waves pushing a piece of flotsam in the ocean. I didn't fit in anywhere, terribly well.
The good thing was I didn't care very much as long as I was true to myself. I was a very honest, very odd, very different person caught in a tiny world which celebrated SAMENESS.
As soon as I left boarding school I went out to an acting school in MO,  ultimately ending up at BU , which was a roiling  mass of insane riots and a Black Power hub. My sister was at one of the Seven Sisters colleges which is the female equivalent of the Ivy League, having a lot of fun and being a really good student.  I was just biding my time until whatever happened NEXT to me. I did manage to graduate Cum Laude, but that really wasn't all that good, considering it was BU.
I continue to be a non drugged up hippie and remain so until this day. 
I don't like people who are preppie but I can recognize them from a mile away because of the way I was raised. It isn't a charade. It  IS  a  way of life. And it continues still, very quietly, exclusively, and politely. Wikipedia got that part right.</sup>