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80s Home > 80s Fashion > The Preppie Look
The Preppie Look
Clothes in the 80’s fell in to as many
categories as did the people that wore them. There were new wave/punk
rockers, Madonna wannabes, hair band devotees and one of the most infamous
groups: the preppies. The preppie term brings out many connotations:
popular, smart, and rich. Whatever your impression, Preppies had several
main characteristics.
Preppies were part of a crowd of college bound kids, deriving the name
from the “Prep” schools they attend prior to college. Typically, they were
on the straight and narrow and not in with crowds who got into trouble or
who didn’t care about life. They wanted to succeed and be on top of their
game. There is a close tie between the preppie (or “Richie” as depicted in
Pretty in Pink by Blane and Steff) and
the recently post-college Yuppie which came of age in the 80s as well.
One such aspect of their life and succeeding meant looking good. Alex P.
Keaton on the show Family Ties is a great example. He was smart, he was
college bound, he cared about the world in general and he cared about his
appearance. Appearances were important and kept neat.
Clothes
worn in the 80’s Preppie period included blazers, button down shirts, polo
shirts, a sweater casually drapes around the shoulders, dress pants,
skirts for women and dress shoes (penny loafers). Traditionally, they were
nice clothes. Preppies didn’t follow the trends of ripped clothing, punk
rockers, neon and exercise gurus. They looked to
the future and wanted to be taken seriously, and the first step was
looking good.
Many of the great movies of the 80’s illustrate what people wore in the
80’s. Pretty in Pink, Top Gun,
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fast
Times at Ridgemont High, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and the
Breakfast Club. They all usually had
at least one character with a colored polo shirt – with the collar flipped
up, of course - penny loafer shoes and nice pants.
For some interesting and very funny reading to get you up to speed and
ready to be a true preppy you may want to read The Official Preppy
Handbook.
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