The Neo-Preps

The Official Preppy Handbook, the 80s bible of prepdom.

Any movement that advances the eradication of poorly spoken, badly dressed, and ill mannered people gets my vote. Let's hear it for the pink and green - hip, hip, hurrah! The legitimate children and heirs of Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart are shiny, happy people. Unfortunately a little too shiny and too happy to be really authentic. They, unlike their predecessors, tend to be easily swayed by new trends. After all, change is anathema to a true prep.
The Neo-Preps are also not very hardy and all too full of 'I don't' s. 'I don't eat this', 'I don't like that', 'I don't ride', 'I don't drink', 'I don't smoke'...etc. This is just boorish and smacks of too much professed self awareness, and is quite frankly NOKD.
Now with regard to their taste - visually also just that bit too shiny and bright, and too concerned with the look rather than the quality (a hallmark of true prepdom). One thing still holds true though, being seen as too intellectual or too cultured is still suspect. It's nice to know that somethings never change.


Ralph Lauren Home the benchmark of neo-prepdom.

Urban Tribes

We all have an affiliation to one tribe or another be it by birth, choice, or chance. This affiliation determines the outward presentation of ourselves to the world. It also determines how we decorate our houses and conduct our inner lives. Author, and social commentator Nancy Mitford simply described it as U and non-U. No longer is it a simple, if it was ever indeed simple, question of social standing.
Today's tribes are driven by the concept of lifestyle and a sense of false nostalgia, not by familial tradition or any sense of connoisseurship.
These Neo-Tribes, as I call them, are:
the Neo-Nouvelles; the Neo-Barbarians; the Neo-Preps; the Neo-Emigres; and my least favourite of all, the Neo-Trendsetters.