Preppy
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This style of dressing first emerged in the financially prosperous 1950s, when students went for the Ivy League look. According to Yesterdayland.com, "Madras plaid dress shirts with button-down collars, v-neck sweaters and slimmed-legged chino pants marked the college boy, while slim sweater sets, pleated skirts and saddle shoes all but guaranteed a good girl entrance to the university."
Three decades later, the Ivy League look became the preppy look.
These characteristics include particular subcultural speech, vocabulary, accent, dress, mannerisms, etiquette, and general way of being. Lisa Birnbach's 1980 classic Official Preppy Handbook is a tongue-in-cheek, "guide" to the preppy subculture. The term is similar in formation to hippie or yuppie, and had great currency in the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent years, the term has often been applied to those who are merely clean-cut. Used in this manner, the word preppy usually pertains to a person's dress, behavior, and income class, rather than geographical origins, education or other traditionally "preppy" characteristics. In public high schools, for example, the teenage clothing brands Abercrombie and Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters are often considered the epitome of prep. Traditionally, the preppy label is instead applied to clothing manufacturers like Brooks Brothers, Lacoste, J. Press, the Andover Shop, Ben Silver, Ralph Lauren, L.L. Bean, and more recently, J. Crew and Vineyard Vines.
Preppy schools
These schools were ranked among the preppiest colleges by the Official Preppy Handbook in 1980.