Let Prepdom Reign

Although I consider my personal style a little more edgy, I've had a long-time fascination with the preppy fashion and lifestyle. It stems from a mix of amusement, admiration and curiosity. Having grown up in southern California, skate shoes and board shorts were far more prevalent than top-siders and seer sucker, but the longer I spend out here on the east coast, I find myself becoming more and more versed in the ways of L.L. Bean, Brooks Brothers, Jack Rogers and CK Bradley.

This mild fascination led me to an extreme obsession with the book "Take Ivy" a few years ago. The book is full of candid photographs of students around Ivy League universities in the 1960s shot by Japanese photographer T. Hayashida. Hayashida approaches the prepsters the same way that I do, which is why I think I adore the book so much. He studies them - observing but not judging, fascinated but not intruding.

The book had been out of print for decades & original copies are hard to find, but powerHouse just released a new English translation. My name has been on the waiting list for months so I couldn't have been more excited when it arrived in the mail today! The images do a beautiful job at capturing a style that eternally transcends time and trends.

xx J