True Prep

As I was saying on Facebook, when Joe Garcia talked about all the patchwork madras he’s seen (as opposed to what I call “something that is confident in its own-ness, and doesn’t have to invite its other madras friends along”), I thought I had better seek a menswear expert who is a biological male.  

Enter Michael Williams, the blogger behind the brilliant A Continuous Lean.  I asked Michael if he concurred that patchwork was more plentiful than the plain bleeding madras of yesteryear.

Here is his reply:  ”It’s a little late in the summer to be worried about Madras. Tell your readers to worry about fall clothes!”

But because he cares (and he is made of good, solid, Midwestern Swing State stock), he did send me a coda: 

Authentic Bleeding India Madras Trouser (DRd2)

Note that most of this wonderful Indian Madras merch is already on sale.

I think we’ve learned a lot this evening.

Thank you Michael.  Thank you Joe.  And thank you readers for your devotion to the classics.

xo Lisa

Hi Pat,

Whether you are a Patrick or a Patricia, I’d say the answer is the same:  V-necked Ts are fine if they are not too low cut.  Round necked t-shirts are a bit preppier, but I’m going through a v-neck stage myself at the moment, and since mine are simple and all-cotton, (and also navy blue and white) I’m ruling in their favor.

—Lisa 

Here’s the story from my mummy.  ”It was Thursdays and every other Sunday off in the 40’s and 50’s and the 60’s.  It started to end in the 60’s-70’s.  It wasn’t a rule, it just was what was.  I remember dinner for you kids every Thursday night was a can of Spaghettio’s.  All I did was warm up a can of Spaghettios.”  Here she broke off to laugh heartily.

This schedule was customary (not the Spaghettios part) for live-in domestic workers.  It would have made more sense, it seems, for that schedule to be reversed to every Sunday (for churchgoing and family supper) and every other Thursday (when you could go to the bank, have doctor appointments, etc.) but this is how it was.  Most of the women who worked in our house were American and had homes and/or family relatively close by that they returned to on their days off.  I’ll try to research this further.  It is interesting.  

It is also interesting that my brothers and I grew to our full height being fed a diet of canned pasta and chemicals once or twice a week.

Dear Miss Em Renee,

I’m taking the liberty of cutting and pasting your question onto the True Prep page on Facebook, as I haven’t put in the time in West Palm Beach recently enough.  I expect we will get some up-to-the-minute advice there.

Best,

Lisa

Being vegetarian isn’t preppy, nor is it not preppy.  It is one of those things that doesn’t have any bearings on the matter.  However, most preppies live in profound disregard of what they eat.  Were it not for preppies, there would be no jello desserts nor swiss-cheese-on-triscuit-canapes.  

Lisa

Hi Classic,

Your list is not just prep; it is uber prep!  Trinity College is so very very preppy that I had to name it the preppiest college in New England.  That’s serious.  (B.U. is the least preppy, but it’s also the largest one in your group.)  

Good luck to you.

Best,

Lisa

Hi Cockney,

I’ve been giving some thought to the nouveau bald lately.  Bald is the new black, I guess, and also kind of a cooler way of living with less hair.  It’s trendy with the financial world and the Jersey Shore world.  

It is way way better than wearing a comb-over or toupee any day!

If you want to look very prep without hair, my only suggestion is to up your prepppiness a notch:  seersucker and madras in the summer, wide-wale corduroy and tweeds in the winter.

Best,

Lisa

Hi Ostuffnfluff,

I’m glad you found me too.  Aigner riding boots are a great gift.  You can wear them with jodhpurs (natch), jeans, leggings.  (Preppies do not wear jeggings.)  (I even hate to write the word.) I’m afraid you wrote this to me during the past brief winter.  I’m sorry I missed this.  Take good care of those boots — boot trees and polish — and bring them out again in the fall. 

Best,

Lisa

It’s after 5pm on the Friday of July 4th.  

If you are stuck in the city working — as I am — (not looking for pity; just stating the facts), it is absolutely appropriate that you pour yourself and your co-workers a drink.  Or perhaps go out for a round before you head off into your weekend.

A gaggle of grownups have asked me how my summer’s been.  Seriously?  I feel my summer’s just beginning.  I haven’t been hibernating or hospitalized, but between the End of High School, and packing Exhibit C for camp, and then her going away to camp, and birthdays, and the flood in our basement which assassinated my books and wardrobe, maybe I haven’t focused on Summer, the verb, the noun, the adjective, or the season.

I couldn’t pretend any longer once I sat at the shore of the Hudson River in the swelter of the crowds watching the splendid fireworks.  There was no denying.  Summer had been launched. (And annoyingly, the music curators of Independence Day still play that Neil Diamond America song.  For the life of me, I don’t know why I can’t stand it, but I can’t.)

I’m assuming you are all in the thick of your summers.  

And if you’re not, change course and go there.

—Lisa

I saw it on Facebook, posted by Bronwen Hruska, someone I don’t actually know, but whose educational pedigree is impeccable.  I was thus moved to write on her page/wall/air — and have a tiny bit more to say.

Bronwen posted this photograph and asked if anyone knew what it was.  Of course, lots of us knew it was something worn for gym a century ago.  Some referred to it as “bloomers,” others of us called it a “gym suit.”    I think we called them gym suits, but I don’t recall ever owning one.  I think the older girls had them, because I think I saw pictures of them playing volleyball in them in old yearbooks.

Then I remembered something else — (maybe this gym suit is my madeleine) — and that was a game we had to play at my girls’ school called Newcomb.  

Gym suits, newcomb…. have I entered a dream state?  Is this real or did I make it up?  Wikipedia says:

Invented in 1895 by Clara Gregory Baer, a physical education instructor at Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University in New Orleans, it rivaled volleyball in popularity and participation in the 1920s.^[1] The game is significant because it was invented by a woman and became the second team sport to be played by women in the United States, after basketball.^[2] In an article in the Journal of Sport in 1996, Joan Paul speculates that Newcomb ball may have been an influence in the development of volleyball.^[2]

Now back to Lisapedia:

Newcomb was volleyball without the hitting or spiking.  You threw and caught the ball.  I liked it so much better.  It was volleyball de-clawed.   For gym (and we never called it “P.E.”), we wore tunics and bloomers.  Even when I transferred to a coed high school, we wore tunics and bloomers.  Never shorts.

Some questions for you:

Did any of you play Newcomb as young athletes?  Did boys ever play it?  Why was every educator in the early days of girls’ schools called something like  Clara Gregory Baer?

It’s pouring on our last full day on Martha’s Vineyard, but indoor days are so restful.

Love to hear from you,

Lisa