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Style and power
Unconventional elegance
Preppy Story: an IVy culture life style
fABRizio dE’ mARiniS
Style and power. The difference between an English
lord from an old family, an Italian aristocrat,
an old school dandy and an American president
like John F. Kennedy can be sigificant but they all
share certain fundamental codes. Unintentional
sophistication is entirely apparent. Lord Brummell
could wander into one of the eight temples of
the Ivy League College Tradition without anyone
IN THE AMERICA OF THE GREAT
PROTEST MOVEMENTS
ivy StylE BECAME AN EMBLEM
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST
THE SySTEM.
JUST LIKE THE ELITE
pREppy StylE OF THE GREAT
EAST COAST UNIVERSITIES
IT TRANSFORMED ITSELF INTO
A NEW LANGUAGE
- AND NOT JUST OF
POWER - WHICH WAS SUCH
A FEATURE OF THE UNITED
STATES IN THE MID TWENTIETH
CENTURy AND ENDED UP
CENTRE STAGE IN FASHION
TRENDS.
IT IS A LONG WAVE WHICH
PERSONIFIED AN ERA.
IT LEAD TO NEW STyLES,
A DIFFERENT VISION
OF ELEGANCE, OF BEING
FASHIONABLE, TAKING ON ELITE
SyMBOLS AND HABITS.
LEFT, THE AUSTERE ENTRANCE
OF hARvARd univERSity.
ON THIS PAGE A HISTORICAL
AND CLASSIC IMAGE
OF RAlph lAuREn STyLE.
NEXT PAGE: STUDENTS
PLAyING FOOTBALL NEAR
DUNSTER HOUSE AT hARvARd
(1966).
SOME OF THE IMAGES PRESENT
IN THIS ARTICLE WERE SELECTED
FROM THE FOLLOWING
PUBLICATIONS:
“THE IVy LEAGUE” (ASSOULINE),
“IVy STyLE” (FASHION INSTITUTE
OF TECNOLOGy NEW yORK),
“PREPPy: CULTIVATING IVy
STyLE” (RIzzOLI NEW yORK),
“NEW ENGLAND By TOMMy
HILFIGER” (RIzzOLI NEW yORK),
“ICONS OF MEN’S STyLE”
(MONDADORI ELECTA).
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